HIGH HUNGRY DAY

Have been keeping close tabs on my eating and did a Flexercise class this morning with Noriko to burn a few hundred calories. Bummer. Have been hungry as a hound ever since and eating everything loose. To compensate I finally made some air-popped popcorn [tasteless I know], to fill my stomach. Now I am thirsty. Bummer again.

Crisis for the day: lost the gas cap on the station wagon. Just realized that the last time bought gas I forgot to replace the gas cap. My excuse is viable; it was a week ago Sunday when the temperature outside with about twenty degrees and very windy. Standing at the pump at Sheetz waiting for the receipt, I grabbed the print-out and jumped in the car. A week later [you can tell how much I drive], I realized the gas cap was missing. Just spent the better part of the afternoon hunting through the yellow pages, Googling to my wit's end and finally got the better sense to call the local garage. Will have a new one by tomorrow afternoon. Whew! Wanted to get it replace before DH finds out I have been driving without the cap.

DH is currently off to band practice (T+Th 3 - 5 pm), meaning I have the house to myself. Several items on the agenda. First making "Hot" packs and then researching "Watersorb."

The first are rice-filled packs for which I have found varying directions on the web. Stitching fabric envelopes, filling with rice and herbs makes a soothing heat pad. My plan is to use a tightly-woven cotton bag to fill and then make a cover-case in a softer fabric. Heating in the microwave for 1-2 minutes gives you a heat pad that lasts for about an half-hour. I have several in assorted sizes and shapes and could not get through the winter without them. Best use: heat one and toss into bed several minutes before retiring. Getting into a warm bed and getting my feet warm is a blessing that husbands will never understand.

Watersorb (registered trademark), is a granular polymer product that absorbs water and releases it slowly over time. This is the product that soldier's fighting in the desert wear around their neck, call "cool ties." The product is also a gardening fill designed to keep planters + pots moist for longer periods (believe it!). Why wasn't I told about this before (as in post-menopause?). Need to buy a 20lb. bag and will use it for both purposes: keeping cool in the summer and keeping my porch pots hydrated. Is it not amazing how much you can learn surfing the web?

Last night the cartons at the DOQ meeting were being fingered and bids were adding up. I did not stay for the final execution (pun intended) of the goods. Giving away fabric is painful, or at least it is for me. My conviction is that someone will want the goods, will make something beautiful and do a better job than I would have. That's what I keep telling myself.

With all the cartons gone, the items for sister Jan's make-over out and gone, we can see the dining table top at last. Then Jan asks "is this new?"

Where did I go wrong?

My surprise was that she (& husband), were our guests for Thanksgiving dinner this year and I made the table runner and place mats just for the occasion.

Apparently the table was covered with so many dishes she never noticed the table dressing (my 'creative contribution' for the year), was anything different(?).

I love this 'scrappy' approach to a table runner and it is indicative of three more sets currently in the works. The kaleidoscopic color effect is dazzling, a few white strips add contrast and the whole effort was accomplished with nothing but 'crumbs' (scraps that are fall-off of the sewing done over the past few years). Being so varied and multi-colored the linens blend with dishes of all sorts and looks lovely with my collected cobalt-blue and forest green glass wares.

The process is a cross between scrappy patchwork and abstract painting. Rather than thinking 'image,' think 'shape and color' and just keep going. Beginning with strips, or pieces, stitch little ones together, then add more strips, then add more color for sizzle and finally cut them apart on diagonals or diamond shape. Taking the cut complex cloth, then piece it back together forming rectangles until the desired length is reached. After that a backing fabric and top-stitching complete the quilting. Yes, it is complex and at the same time deceptively simple.

Jan's reaction aside, I am convinced that the table is smashingly beautiful and now that my sorting has ended for the foreseeable future I will enjoy it everyday.
Later, bb