I began this page on my birthday, because with a new year stretching out before me, full of possibilities, I once again vowed to grab onto as many of those possibilities as I could. My life is rich with friends and hobbies, but there is always attrition and change and I feel I must be open to new directions, new paths I might like to follow.
I had a wonderful birthday, with the office holding a wonderful birthday breakfast for me, and some of my closest friends joining me for dinner at Bennigans after work. We had a lot of laughs and it was so nice to see them after more than a month! I now have a new wine rack/table in my living room, with my new case of NC wine in it and space for 13 more bottles to boot! Guess I'll be looking out for wine-tastings, eh? :)
Over the Christmas holiday I visited family in NC, and got a lot of work done on my first hand-quilting piece. I received several books on both hand-quilting and machine quilting, and was very inspired by them. One book I have to say has inspired me a lot is "Quilting with Carol Armstrong" - filled with both hand-quilting patterns and applique patterns. The other very inspirational find for me this month was Linda M. Poole's website and listserv, the "Fairie Goddess Mothers" which I highly recommend you check out. This group recommended starting a blog on this site, so here I am!
In addition to my quilting, I'm trying to get ready for the big medieval convention we usually go to every March in Mississippi during spring break. Not that the weather resembles anything like spring usually, being cold and very rainy most of the time. We will be purchasing a 10' x 20' white enclosed party-type tent to camp in for the week. My job will be to affix velcro around the entire bottom edge, and the corresponding half of the velcro to the edge of a tarp which will then mate to become the 'bathtub' floor for the tent. Then I'll throw down rugs, hang drapes, and we can set up our 15th century four-poster wooden bed. This year I'm making it a canopy bed, which should hold in more of the heat while we're sleeping. That's the plan, anyway!
Projects currently working on: this weekend I hope to finish the Valentine wall-hanging for my office,
and work a little more on a present for a friend, and my Fairy quilt and story.
Until next time - remember this:
the best thing you can do is the right thing,
the next best thing is the wrong thing,
and the worst thing you can do is nothing.
(Theodore Roosevelt)
