Today I am thankful for my friend Marion. She and I have been learning to quilt star quilts together. We've been exchanging emails fast and furious. Her star quilt didn't work out as planned. She was going to drop it. Not on my beat she wasn't! I phoned her and invited her to come "shopping" at my place. She came over, found some fabric to go with what she already had for another star quilt, cut the pieces and had the strips sewn together by the time she left today...great success!

She is going to take the other pieces for the first quilt home "to think about". I encouraged her to do something different with them...and not to rip them all apart. The pieces are too small individually (2" diamonds) to be messing with.

For my part I sandwiched Megan's flannel quilt all ready to machine quilt. I also cut more pieces for the kimono quilt for Lisa. And I tea dyed a piece of cotton for the background on my star quilt. Instead of buying fabric, I decided to get creative about making something work. Paul doesn't want me spending any more than necessary on my hobbies between now and vacation...so I shall try to accommodate him.

Tea dyeing wasn't too strenuous. The hardest part is getting the equipment down from on top of the cupboards - normally a job for Paul. I'm too short to reach up there unless I stand on the counter (we have high ceilings). Even then it's a stretch. But Marion is tall. She lifted all that stuff down for me! What a friend!

I tossed about 12 black tea bags that were about 12 years old (or more) into a 5 qt. enamel pot half full of boiling water and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. I soaked the fabric during that time in tepid water. Then moved it to the pot and just plopped it in - tea bags and all. Stirred it a few times. Brought it to a simmer. Let it simmer 30 minutes. Then added 1/2 c. of vinegar and let it simmer another 30 minutes. Right now the cloth is cooling in the dyebath. We'll see what colour I get at the end of this. It's not as mottled as I'd like. I may overdye with an onion skin spot dye. We'll see...

Marion was a great encouragement in this endeavour. Gotta love friends like that! I, for my part, kept her working on her star quilt by preparing a nutritious lunch. Next to my handwork I love cooking! Any way I can use my creativity is fine by me! Today I concocted a tuna waldorf sandwich filling for pita bread sandwiches. I just had mine on a bed of lettuce.

Tuna Waldorf Sandwich Filling

2 cans tuna, flaked
1/2 large apple, chopped
1/4 c. green onions, chopped
1 rib celery chopped (or about 3/4 c. of chopped celery leaves)
1/3 c. chopped walnuts
1/2 c. fat-free mayonnaise

Serves 3 hungry people or 4 not so hungry.

Hope everyone had a fun and fulfilling day today! I'm not finished yet... So much to do...so little time....!