quarter inch seam

Lovely

2007-11-22T23:19:00.001-08:00

I've been going to Annie's for Thanksgiving off and on for at least ten years now. She has a set menu and it's always delicious and very different from what I grew up on.
(Candied yams, green bean casserole with canned french fried onion rings, you know.)

Here's her menu:

Turkey, cooked on the Webber grill (so moist and delicious it's sinful.)

Bourbon Street Sweet Potatoes (it's more like yam mousse, plus, the recipe calls for Jack Daniel's. What's not to like?)

Brussell's Sprouts (never had those growing up either)

Mashed Potatoes, gravy and stuffing and assorted cranberry relishes and a new cranberry chutney. And the stuffing has chestnuts (NHTGU).

It was a lovely night, the moon was rising. And there was great conversation and champagne. Mmmmm.

Almost there

2007-11-20T23:20:00.001-08:00

Remember these? We had multiple sets, I think we had the Indians, too. It was my job to set the table with the good cloth napkins and the Thanksgiving candles. They'd burn for a little while, the pilgrim man had a hole in his hat that got bigger each year.

We rarely ate together as a family, except for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Dad was at sea every two years and Mom didn't eat with us so it was my brothers and I in the kitchen trying to find ways to get the dog to eat our canned peas. Remarkably, we all came out of it with pretty good table manners just getting through those few family dinners. "Leah, Leah, strong and able, get your elbows off the table." In fact, we were so well trained that I remember a trip from Virginia to Cleveland to visit grandparents when we stopped at this really great diner that we loved to eat at. It was at an ideal spot right between the Pennsylvania and Ohio Turnpikes. They had foot-long roasted hot dogs and milkshakes made with real ice cream, and they gave you those metal containers that held another good half glassful. Anyway, all five of us were finishing up with our dinner and my Little Brother got up and started to take his plate to the kitchen. (Clear your place was one of those lessons.) He was only about 5 or 6 and was very confused when Mom called him back.

I do enjoy dining with people with good manners, or even decent manners, or at least someone who doesn't huddle over his plate and shovel in the food.

Thursday I'll be over at my friend's who hosts her family and assorted orphans (all with good manners). I've spent the majority of my recent San Francisco Thanksgivings there, frequently as sous chef (slicing and blanching parsnips, turnips and rutabags for root vegetable casserole - smells like old tennis shoes, but just add enough cream and cheese and you've got something delicious). And since I can't drive home this time, maybe I'll drink a little more champagne than usual. I have to let her know I need car service to and fro.

My eyes are tiring more easily since my diagnosis. I think part of it is that I'm working at home with my laptop, in my lap, which doesn't allow me the mobility that I have at work, where I can get up and move the monitor around and all that. I also think that since I have an actual diagnosis, the denial has a harder time staying in play. If that makes sense.

Denial, and how it works for me. Or not.

2007-11-16T17:21:00.000-08:00

I've been having problems with my vision becoming unstable. I've worn contacts since I was 16, 40+ years now, and the very best thing about them is they slowed down the decline in my vision. I think I've been wearing the same prescription for decades. But I haven't gone to an eye doctor regularly, like I should.

Sometime back in the 1980s, the big thing was radial keratotomy, which was the percursor to today's LASIK. It's best for people with moderate nearsightedness, but my vision was already at the "Chart, what chart?" stage. But the correction was good enough for me to use that eye for close vision and my right eye, still corrected with a contact lens, for distance. This is called monovision. It causes headaches in some folks, but it worked fine for me for many years.

This past August, when I went to a movie with a friend we sat in the last row (stadium seating, my choice) and I realized everything was slightly blurry. I also drove her back to her hotel, downtown, across the street from where I work, and realized that I was having difficulty seeing clearly. So I ratcheted up the denial and decided it was my "night vision" and I mostly stayed off the roads after dark. Couple that denial with the really stupid stoicism I inherited from my dad and you--well, I--have a problem.

So, now we're back on Standard Time and I'm driving home in the dark and having to finally admit to myself that my vision has gotten significantly worse. Especially since I was having problems recognizing people at work (in my defense, we have a lot of contractors who come and go), seeing detail on TV, etc. So I figured I needed a new prescription, right? I mean, it's been decades. My other motivation is that my favorite cousin, who has been living in Australia for over 25 years now, is coming for a month in early December, and bringing her youngest daughter, Lisa, with her. In two days I'd looked up providers and made an appointment a block away from my office.

On Thursday at 1:35 pm I met Dr. Michele Bloomer who is my newest hero. She gave me the most thorough eye exam I've ever had, spent about 90 minutes with me and in addition to telling me she thought I was her age (43!) informed me I had cataracts in both eyes and should have surgery. There was not an option for stronger contacts and she informed me I would never be able to wear glasses, because there was too much difference in acuity between my eyes. I'd last seen an opthamologist about 4 years ago who'd sighed with frustration because he couldn't get good readings and advised me I had a small cataract growing. He didn't tell me (or I don't remember) in which eye. Dr. Bloomer was surprised that I had them at my age (young for cataracts) and also told me about the different approach she'd have to use to correct my left eye, because of the incisions in my cornea from my previous RK surgery. I'll be scheduled for surgery Dec. 4. Right eye first.

Let's try a video

2007-11-10T20:24:00.000-08:00

Yep, that's Dean, Rockstar, aka, Disco Dean. You rock, dude! Turn up the volume to hear Gloria Gaynor.

Rain and dangerous dudes

2007-11-10T16:58:00.000-08:00

At last! We are having some seasonal rain today, just lovely and cozy. Here's what my friend Marta said about it:

I love this, I just love this. A good, moderate soaker, a celebration of life returning to our overly-parched California hills. Makes me feel good all over. And yeah, I know I’m strange.

Me too!

I went out earlier today to pick up some cat food from the vet. It was just sprinkling a bit and I parked the car across the street. I was crossing 24th Avenue, which has a stop sign, and was in the middle of the cross walk when I realized the man in the car approaching the intersection wasn't going to stop for me, or the stop sign. I was RIGHT THERE! So I yelled at him and smacked the backseat window behind him and he didn't even slow down till he was already across the intersection. Jerk. I could tell someone was behind me and my hand was damp and hurt a little bit from the slap, but I kept walking up the block to the vet's office. It was busy, with about three people ahead of me at the counter. By the time I was paid up and ready to go, a man had come in and told me he saw what had happened with the car. It was surreal. I told them what my Aunt Mary told me about 25 years ago: Reader's Digest did a study on bad drivers and they found that the worst by far were old men wearing hats. Yep, the guy who almost ran me down was an old guy with a baseball cap. You were right, Aunt Mary.

Also on my to-do list today was looking in on my neighbot's cats, the orange boys, Ti and Bu.

Okay, so this posting/formatting pictures thing, not so easy.

Like riding a bicycle

2007-11-09T19:18:00.000-08:00

Woot! This is so easy now, love not having to battle html to get things the way I want them. It'll be a work in progress for a bit.

Now I'm trying to get my pictures from Yahoo. Apparently I was too late to have the photos there migrated to Flickr and I had to use another service, even though Flickr is Yahoo's new photo storage whatchamacallit. I'm going to have to do some detective work on my laptop to see if I transfered the other pictures from the ancient Dell. I thought I got them all, but we'll see.

Boy, is it dusty in here.

2007-11-08T23:23:00.000-08:00

Just let me open up a window and get some cross-ventilation going.

It's been quite a year and a half. Outsourced but still employed, Dad died, I'm an absentee landlady now (well, along with my brothers) and trying to stay on an even keel managing the property and a drunk brother.

I've taken time off from quilting, got temporarily obsessed with artist trading cards and have gotten back to knitting. So the creative urge is still alive and well and serving as good therapy, supplemented with actual therapy.

It's going to take a bit to get my blogging chops back (the few I had), so bear with me.

Dean, Rockstar

2005-11-26T11:46:00.000-08:00

Dean

2005-11-26T11:45:00.000-08:00

Summer

2005-11-26T11:44:00.000-08:00

Fun!

2005-11-15T23:16:00.000-08:00

Oooh, pretty

2005-11-15T23:15:00.000-08:00

Okay, well...

2005-11-14T23:07:00.000-08:00

I didn't drop off the face of the earth after all. Back injury and business travel have kept me away from here, but in August I started back quilt making with a vengance. Annie's duvet cover is about 2/3 done, a surprise quilt for an online friend is finished and ready to be mailed, and a baby quilt for a new mom (also an online friend) is done. The latter two are in the Gallery.

I also got a commission from a colleague at work and while waiting for him at Black Cat Quilts, I got another commission for two baby quilts. Those will be my first projects for someone I don't already know, so that's exciting.

away from the sewing machine

2005-06-23T13:05:00.000-07:00

I've been in the hot and humid south, Morehead City, North Carolina and came back missing having my hands on fabric. I used the quilt shop's classroom cutting table, which they've raised up 6 inches, and cut all the strips for a king-sized version of Pagodas. This will turn into a duvet cover for my good friend, Annie. The good news is that all that cutting didn't affect my back at all. Yay!

The bad news is I'm going back to NC July 4 for two weeks. But the other good news is that I found a quilt shop there, Sew it Seams, and I'll have some time to visit some others in towns nearby.

My mom was very happy with her quilt as was Cora and her daughter. The binding is done on India's quilt and her mom is coming back to work on July 5th. I just have to remove the ubiquitous cat hair and wrap it up and I'll leave it with someone here at work to give to her.

needless to say...

2005-06-10T17:33:00.000-07:00

...I didn't get any of my pre-travel chores done (except refill some prescriptions) so now I have to do it all tonight. Welcome to the world of procrastination. I also stopped after a quarter of the way on finishing binding the last quilt because my fingers hurt so bad. What do you get when you have a procrastinator with a slight case of OCD?

Cora got her package on Thursday and was tickled pink (get it, Cora?) with the quilt and I got to speak with her daughter when they called to thank me. It was such fun to brighten their day and speak with these two southern belles.

Mom's quilt went in the mail on Wednesday. I hope it got there today and that she's as thrilled as Cora.

I also updated my links over there, adding the Architect Knits! and Following in Mother's Footsteps. These are two of my invisible Readerville friends who are interested in knitting, quilting and books!

Another new link is to PostSecret, a fascinating site that gets updated every Sunday with postcards sent anonymously. Scroll down to the first one posted on March 5.

getting there

2005-05-31T11:12:00.000-07:00

Two out of three bindings sewn on, Mom's is done and Cora's grandbabygirl's. That one's a surprise, so don't mention it to her. I'm traveling for work next weekend, to Morehead City, NC, so I also have housecleaning to do for the cat sitter. I'll do dishes in bit and then work on the final quilt. Then I can get started maybe this week on Annie's duvet cover. That'll be a fun one to work on. It's the Maple Island Pagoda pattern.

holiday weekend

2005-05-27T13:06:00.000-07:00

The weekend is starting and I'm looking forward to getting some bindings made and some quilts finished. One is for my mom, which could have been done for Mother's Day, but will be a birthday present instead. The other two are quilts for two babies. I took the pattern Yellow Brick Road and got fabric for the crib-sized quilt. I've made this before and it's actually quite large for crib-sized. So this time I made the blocks and then divided them up to make two smaller quilts that are the perfect size for little babies. The original pattern makes 20 blocks, so there are a couple left over to play with. I'm going to do it again with this Jennifer Sampou fabric, Robomatic. I've been dying for an excuse to work with this print.

slacking

2005-05-24T13:20:00.000-07:00

Almost 2 weeks without updating. I need to be more engaged here. I've not done much recently except for trimming up three quilts I got from Sally last month. I find if I make the binding when I finish the top, then it's easier to finish the quilt. In March I got a back injury and endured 3 weeks with a doofus physical therapist ("Why are you limping?") ("Why don't you just walk normally?") after waiting 6 days for an appointment. I ditched him for a great chiropractor referred to me by another quilter, and I'm making good progress. Which I don't want to mess up by bending over my (too low) cutting table.

Dr. Bonnefin has a huge Rottweiler named Pfritz who is my new doggie boyfriend. Isn't he adorable?

My first comment

2005-05-12T12:27:00.000-07:00

I've been away from the blog for a bit and was thrilled to see I got a comment on my last post, which wasn't much (my post) except for a portion of a quilt I made for my cousin in Australia. Thank you, salt water, for your kind words. Now I'm inspired to get more of my quilt pix up in my Gallery page. Stay tuned.

Dancer

2005-05-06T23:17:00.000-07:00

Well, I slammed this picture up here without much of a how-de-do, but it's another Maple Island pattern called Dancers. This is a portion to show the quilting and that diagonal line is a shadow from a telephone wire, not part of the design.

I made this quilt for my cousin's oldest son, John. Her family lives north of Sydney, Australia, and I hand-delivered this to him for his 16th birthday in 2002. I called it Surf Dancers and he was well pleased.

what I do when I'm supposed to be working

2005-05-06T16:55:00.000-07:00

learn about blogging

2005-05-04T21:56:00.000-07:00

Here's a block from a pattern by Debbie Bowles of Maple Island Quilts. This was the first quilt I sold, last year. It started out as a gift for a cousin who thought he'd use it on the beach (!) instead of a ratty old blanket. I'm making him something a bit simpler, another Maple Island pattern.

A little bit of Rock & Roll

I like this picture because the quilting shows up so well. If you look closely, you'll see that the quilting is different in the center of the block, on the dark fabric, than it is in the yellow. I took my first quilt to Sally Bertlesman up in San Anselmo and haven't looked back. I really feel she lets the fabric speak to her as she's quilting.

Let's get this thing started

2005-05-03T21:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I've futzed around long enough and it's time to get this blog going. I want to share my quilts and get encouragement to branch out into more creative projects. I'm working on getting the pictures ready to post, and there's a bit of a learning curve there, but I have a good online coach. Here's her blog, lendmesomesugar.

I'll also be putting up various and sundry other pictures eventually.