Friday, April 09, 2010

Cooler heads and temperatures





Thanks to everyone who read and commented even though I was having a minor meltdown. My friend Rian was right. I just needed a cookie, or something like that, a treat of some sort. The something like that was Sushi. I visited my local sushi maker and had a spring roll and a spicy crab roll. That, and the fact that the temperature has returned to something like spring is making me a much happier Dee. My photographer got a couple of shots of early spring in the harbor. Not too many boats right now but in a week or so there will be a lot more. One of those shots shows a boat pulling the free- floating docks into place. After a long winter people can begin to use them for small boat tie ups or to fish off the docks from. Is it flounder season yet? I think it may be.

Yesterday I finally got off the stick and finished the baby quilt. Not sure if I mentioned it but I decided to try my hand at quilting it with the walking foot. I did some echo quilting around the blocks(straight line-easy) and finished it up yesterday. I also bound it with the walking foot which is not something I normally like to do but I always forget that a baby quilt is going to get the crap kicked out of it and doesn't need to pass muster from judges in a quilt show. It looks perfectly fine and I can check off that thing from my list.

The little nine patch that I made a while back from civil war type fabrics is almost finished. When I'm done here I will finish putting the binding on and that will be another finish. Wow! Two thing in one week. Can you stand it?

Well, I'm off to figure out what's for dinner and then head to my sewing room. My sewing room...doesn't that sound lovely. It sure does to me. I'm finally growing comfortable and happy in my new space. It need some work but for now I'm a happy camper.


Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Loves & Hates

I should probably tell you to proceed at your own risk.

Kinda losing my patience with Blogger. I can't seem to make the pictures appear the way I used to. They won't move to another spot either so just bear with me. It may just be that I'm a little cranky since we are having July in April. Not a happy thing for me. My very favorite time of year is spring and anything over 65 really annoys the crap out of me. Humidity is not my friend. The stores are all still being heated and I need to go shopping. Last week I went and finally gave up it was so hot and airless. What are they thinking. Open a frickin" door.
And now, for something completely different... The "Amish Abstractions is so beautiful you just want to make everything in it. Most especially this 16-patch you see here. I could probably tackle this one since it isn't black and I might not go blind doing it. It's a beauty. Wonderful book. Those people who own these quilts are very fortunate. I can't imagine letting go of this particular quilt though. Maybe establish a collection somewhere and let this one stay home.

Other wonderful things I have read lately are, "Fear the Worst", by Linwood Barclay. This guy can really get you to ignore every other thing going on because you can't put down the book. I recommend it but don't start at night. It's like that potato chip commercial where you can't eat just one. You'll never get to sleep. I am going to go to the Library and get another of his books tomorrow. He has several out and one new one on the way. I love "discovering a writer" and then finding he's already written a bunch of books. Woohoo!

I am enjoying "Committed" by Elizabeth Gilbert of "Eat, Pray, Love" fame. Very interesting and touching story about putting your money where your mouth is in a relationship. Fun read.

The one book I don't have a picture of here is "Cleaving", by Julie Powell, whose book was made into the movie Julie/Julia. Not sure what possessed little Julie to go off the deep end but her book is HORRIBLE. I can count on one hand the number of books I'm tempted to throw in the trash(as witnessed by our overflowing library) this is one of those. Only the fact that it was a Library book kept me from flinging it into the wind off the dock. It's gruesome but I can get past that since I get the whole thing about a chef wanting to be a professional butcher and know how to properly carve apart an animal for the public consumption. What I don't get is her "voice" in this book. She's nasty, cheating on her husband(who must be a complete dork to put up with her crap) and writes a book about it. She uses her husband as a poor put-upon sad sack character in the book but refers to the lover by an initial -nice touch...not. I rarely hate the written word but I really hated this book. It's snarky, nasty, condescending, and hateful. I'm not a prude, I know people have affairs(I worked in retailing for 14 years...the stories!!!) and do things undercover but she seems to gloat about how she is fooling her husband who comes off seeming like a real moron. Not a pretty picture and I wonder if she will regret how she comes off in this sad piece of writing.

Anyway, for some reason or another I seem to be Miss Crankypants today. So I'll leave you and go do something productive. I need to clean the filter in the air cond. upstairs just in case! Couldn't sleep well last two nights since the room as very hot and the love of my life still gets really cold with too much air on him. The meds he takes do that to a guy. Funny thing is he used to be the one that got hotter than me. Now we have dueling thermostats.