My unfinished ripple and "Mama Mia"

An unlikely combination but "oh well!" First, my work in progress. The current theme at the crochet along is WIP's which I have plenty of. This is my post for today over there. I love this afghan. My problem is , I start too many things. Guess I just can't have just one thing to work on. I need variety so I switch from one thing to another. Loving both crochet and quilting doesn't help either. I'll get back to work on this one, though, probably this fall. When the cooler days and evenings come, I can work on it and warm my lap with it at the same time.

My mom and I went to see "Mama Mia" on Saturday and it was great.The theater was pretty full and everyone was really enjoying it. I Had never seen most of the stars sing but they did pretty good. I think that was part of the charm of the movies. Everyone was perfect in their role and it was just an all around fun movie. I'll be at the store to buy it the day it comes out and get home to watch it.

Really Good Books

I was visiting Junie Moon's blog yesterday and found that her book club was reading Ann Lindbergh's "Gift From the Sea" which is a wonderful book. It's a very gentle book and uses ocean life in comparisons to our own lives. It's written beautifully and is very thought provoking. I first read it back in the late 60's/early 70's along with books by Kahlil Gibran and many others.I worked part time in a book store along with many college kids. I had always been a reader but I was introduced to books I had not known about. Beside these there were many others some of which I will talk about another time. Oh well, back to these. If anyone hasn't read these I highly recommend them. When you need to step away from your regular reading and just take a time out, these are what you want. I have gone back and read bits and pieces over the years, but I thing I will actually read them completely through again. I definitely will be following Junie Moons blog to get her feelings on each chapter. Maybe my perspective will be broadened.

Another "Laps From Fats" Quilt

Here's another of my "Laps From Fats". I cheated on this one ,though. I didn't exactly follow the directions and make the blocks required. There should have been more stars in the middle blocks instead of the stripes. I had been sick with flu, cold, crud--whatever you want to call it-- for about 2 weeks in February when this was the quilt we were working on. Being sick really got me behind and I wanted to hurry up and get done and over with this one. There were rectangles, squares and triangles in it. I had already cut lots of strips to make the rectangles and squares, but not the triangles. So I just started putting strips together and trimmed the blocks the same size as the star blocks. In the middle block I used more rectangles and 4 of the squares that would have been star centers. It was a square lap quilt and I wanted it to be a rectangle I added and extra row of pieced rectangles and another row of black boarder at the top and bottom. Then I liked it fine and I liked it better because it was done.

"IT IS NEITHER WEALTH NOR SPLENDOR
BUT TRANQUILITY
THAT GIVES US HAPPINESS."
---Thomas Jefferson

"TWO BUCKS A BLOCK"

Pictures of my first 6 blocks-Jan/June- from Miss Millie's monthly sampler quilt. We pay 2 bucks and get the pattern and all fabric for the block. Pretty good deal. I think Pam is choosing some nice fabrics-all from the Thimleberries line-and the quilt is going to be nice. We will provide our own sashing, border, etc. and that will make each quilt more personal and different.

ANNIVERSARY WALTZ SAMPLER

Same day, much lighter post. It's a block of the month I just started doing at Appletree Quilting Center, my other favorite shop besides Miss Millie's. This is my first months block and I think it turned out quite nice. We're all using Batiks but everyone has made some different color choices. This is going to be really interesting and creative.

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Boy, I'm just veering away from my main thought for having a blog to talk about all of my handcrafts but I am really passionate about this. I don't use the word lightly so I really don't use it much at all. I guess there would be levels of passion and this is at the top. I'm not a fanatic "Tree Hugger" but I do care deeply about how humans take care of this earth. There are lots of things that could have been done years ago but I don't think any one ever realized what things could come to now. I'm old enough to remember the Mideast oil embargo of the 70's and you would have thought we had learned our lesson but nooooo the gasoline kept flowing. Oh well, maybe we've still got a chance with somebody like T. Boone Pikens speaking up. At least if we recycle, drive our vehicles smarter, use our home appliances wisely, use flouescents but remember to turn them out when leaving a room(I'd been guilty of that in past years but cleaned up my act a while back) we are trying. I feel good doing the things that I am but still want to do more. I've wanted solar panels on our home for years, so maybe the time will finally come, and maybe a small wind turban, too. We just started getting Planet Green on cable and it's full of shows with great ideas-from the big things people with lots of money can do to the little things we all can do. Oh my, I've got to get down off of this soapbox and relax with some quilting or crochet.
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A Picture of Food?

"You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces-just good food from fresh ingredients" - JULIA CHILD

I never thought I would take a photo of food, let alone be posting it on my blog, let alone be blogging. So there. Here's one of my dinner from the other evening. We were just having salad, but when I got done fixing my plate, it seemed to look so pretty. I decided to take a picture of it. My husband thought it quite funny, me photographing food, but I've become more daring with my new camera. I find it easier to take pictures of just about anything since I have the Kodak camera and printer system, and my first digital experience. Since I can avoid printing on paper, and just put it on my computer, no waste. Now I take pictures of things I never thought I would. Some I print, some I don't. I am really not an artistic photographer but that simple salad said something to me. I thank Jane at Yarnstorm for much inspiration. She is really good at what she does and all her photographs are just gorgeous. Right now I'm waiting for her new book "The Gentle Art of Domesticity" to come out here in America. I've got it on order and am looking forward to seeing many more photos and lots of ideas.