What happens when you give up wine...

I was walking down the street when I was accosted by a particularly dirty and shabby-looking homeless woman who asked me for a couple of dollars for dinner. I took out my wallet, got out ten dollars and asked, "If I give you this money, will you buy wine with it instead of dinner?"

"No, I had to stop drinking years ago," the homeless woman told me.

"Will you use it to go shopping instead of buying food?" I asked.

"No, I don't waste time shopping," the homeless woman said. "I need to spend all my time trying to stay alive."

"Will you spend this on a beauty salon instead of food?" I asked.

"Are you NUTS ?!" replied the homeless woman. "I haven't had my hair done in 20 years!"

"Well," I said, "I'm not going to give you the money. Instead, I'm going to take you out for dinner with my husband and me tonight."

The homeless woman was shocked. "Won't your husband be furious with you for doing that? I know I'm dirty, and I probably smell pretty disgusting."

"That's okay," I said. "It's important for him to see what a woman looks like after she has given up wine, shopping, and hair appointments!"

Latte Quilt

I bought the book for the Latte Quilt, a beautiful embroidered pattern by Kerrie Hay, about 3 or 4 years ago, but it was way too complex for my basic skills. Then last year, I scheduled a class at the Atlanta Sewing Center, but the instructor had to reschedule due to a death in her family, and my travel schedule got crazy, so I wasn't able to attend. How happy was I to see it on the class schedule this year! I rescheduled my trip to Arlington last week and took the first class, which was excellent! I learned so much! So this is the first block, and I can't get it to line up correctly. See how the bottom two pieces in the middle don't meet? The second one I did was off even more...I'm sure this has to do with how I'm placing the template.

Almost there! It's definitely an "Oh, wow!" piece, don't you think? I'm home for the next two weeks, so I should be able to get the top half sewn together. Right now it's just laid out on my design wall. Then I REALLY have to work on my Carrie Steele Pitts quilt! No, really!

Oh my! How pretty is this? I am loving this piece. Altho it does look like a giant Pac-Man. If I could be home for two seconds, I could finish it! I worked on this over the weekend, but work, the Post Office, and life interrupted any concerted effort. The missing four pieces are because I wasn't paying attention, and cut those wedges upside down. So I have to sew another set of strips. But, tomorrow night I have the "Latte Quilt" class, and I have to get my stuff assembled for it tonight, and I leave for DC on Wednesday, back on Friday. Hopefully I can get this finished this weekend, because I need to work on my Carrie Steele Pitts quilt. But I am very happy with the way this is coming along!

Oooooh, pretty! I just l-o-v-e love
bargello quilts.
I love the movement, the colors, and the fact that they are so dang easy but look so hard. "All those little pieces." When I was in Denver in July to see the Sisters of the Cloth exhibit at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, Jessica took me to a quilt store where this quilt was hanging as a sample for a class. I bought the ruler and the book on the spot. Turns out, the book has been around since 2001! I don't know how I missed that one. The color is off in this photo, but the top is yellows, oranges, and deep reds, and looks like a sunrise...or a sunset. Maybe 12 of the 18 fabrics were in my stash, and I had to go in search for the others to fill in the gaps. (Awwww---poor baby!) If I weren't going to L.A this weekend to visit my friend Pam, I could easily finish piecing this. I won't be back until THURSDAY, so my little fingers will be itching to get to this when I return.