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....!

Today I'm thankful for a friend I'll call Peggy. Peggy lives nearby and shares a lot of my interests. Peggy lives on her own and also struggles with mental health issues. I think she is a very brave and courageous woman. And she has class.

Peggy can take care of herself. She sells the things she makes. She works as an aide with the school division during the school year. She rents her basement out. She impresses me because she is a mental health patient who can make money work. Those of us with mental health problems know what I mean. Often we are too frugal or too spendy. Rarely do you find one of us who not only can earn their keep, but also does it with style. Peggy is one of those ladies. She is a good role model for me.

Today Peggy and I spent the afternoon quilting together. It was nice to have the company. We listened to the radio and talked while we stitched away. I am mostly finished my scrap quilt "Calliope" as a result. We both admitted to a poor night's sleep last night and agreed it was good we met to quilt...because otherwise we'd be sleeping away the day!

Peggy is generous and, when I mentioned my situation with my cotton sweater (I'm short yarn), she disappeared into a back room and came out holding a ball of the exact yarn for me! It's not enough to finish the sweater, but it's the thought that counts. I'll be checking with other friends and local stores to see if I can find more.

Friends like Peggy are hard to find, and are gems to be cherished. I hope we can spend many more hours quilting and crafting together.

Today I am thankful for my health.  It's not as bad as it could be.  I've been hauling stuff up and down stairs all day.  Plus I've been packing things and sorting things with Meghan via the phone. And I've been moving around smaller pieces of furniture.  I've accomplished a lot.  I've worked up a sweat a few times.  I am just amazed and thankful to God that I have the strength and health to do this.

I did decide in the end to call Lisa and ask if Carl would help move big pieces of furniture this coming weekend.  He's agreed to.  I want to get everything all set up for him to move things easily from one floor to the next.

My diet today hasn't been too bad...

Breakfast: egg white omelet (tomato, celery, yellow pepper) in a tortilla, 1/2 c. fruit cocktail in juice concentrate.

Snack: 1/4 c. tamari nuts (almonds in tamari sauce)

Lunch: peanut butter and jam sandwich!  It's been years since I had one.  It was homemade whole wheat bread toasted, with butter, real natural peanut butter and all fruit berry jam.  Yummm!  The only thing missing was the sandwich press to make it in.  Oh my!  Those ones Mom used to make were soooo good!

Supper: Tonight's supper will be Curried Pumpkin Soup and homemade garlic toast.  I may make a spinach salad too.

My weight is currently at 181 lbs.  I'm down six pounds since starting my weight loss program 3 weeks ago.  I'm doing really well, considering my goal is to lose one pound a week.

I spent a lot of time looking at sewing rooms on-line today.  I've found some really good organizational ideas I'd like to try.  Depends how much room I have in my studio by the time I get it set up. 

Well I'm gone tonight, so I guess I better go put supper on. 

Have you heard this woman?!  She's incredible!  I found out about her yesterday and couldn't stop listening to her singing.  Check out this on You Tube.  I searched the Internet for more information and came up with a San Francisco Chronicle blog site post.  And then there's the Susan Boyle Fan Site!  And check out her debut on "The Early Show" by CBS.

I have never heard such a lovely voice.  It sent shivers down my spine and brought me to tears every time I listened...even though I vowed it wouldn't after the second time through.  I thank God for the raising her up in the church to be what she is today.  And I pray that angels encamp around her and protect her.  That God guides her and gives her wisdom and knowledge to negotiate the the many changes ahead of her in her life. 

Thank-you, Susan Boyle, for sharing your incredible gift with the world.

Update: Check this out.  Susan Boyle singing "Cry Me a River" from a 1999 charity CD.  And this from the Daily Record clears up some of her background.

I'm thankful it's finally warming up here. I plan to spend time outside more. I plan to buy lawn furniture so we can spend more time outside in the sun. But right now I'm settling for nice short walks and sitting in sunlight as much as possible. There are times when all the big windows in this house are welcome!

Other spring things to think about? The container gardens are in need of repair. I need to pull out the soil and remix it. I want to save egg shells for my tomato plants. We've had problems with blossom end rot and I hear (via Martha Stewart) that 4 egg shells under each tomato plant ought to do the trick. Apparently blossom end rot is caused by a lack of calcium in the soil.

This year I'm buying plants from the nursery. In the past I've tried growing from seed but they've always died from damping off before I could get them to a decent size to plant. So this year I'm biting the bullet and buying seedlings.

I sorted through my house and garden file earlier this week. It was funny to see all the landscaping plans I'd drawn up for the yard. Most everything we planted died. Too much shade. It has been so frustrating. Now we have mostly weeds in the yard. Time to nuke it and start over. We're contemplating calling in a garden designer to look over the situation and tell us what's feasible. Needless to say, that will cost money. But we live in a neighborhood where it is expected you will have a nice looking yard. Weeds are not tolerated.

Other spring chores? Well, there's house cleaning. I am avoiding that and going tangentially into redecoration of the house. Which means a lot of painting of furniture. I'm off to look for my paint cans to see what I need to buy and what just needs a good shaking...

Hope everyone else is having fun gearing up for spring!

Today I'm thankful for my friend, Amy.  Amy joined the knitting group the church started last fall.  She's been a regular.  In fact, she often picks me up and gives me rides.  When the knitting group stopped meeting officially in spring, she and I decided to keep meeting at my house once a week.  We've been having great fun learning to knit socks together.  We work off old patterns that used to belong to our grandmothers and mothers.  And, in true fashion for today's knitter, we supplement with on-line You-tube videos. 

This afternoon Amy told me she used to quilt too.  She started to tell about some of the projects she had underway.  Well that got us going.  I showed her my quilting, and some of the results of various workshops I've taken.  We decided to get together every so often just to do our handwork.  We won't limit ourselves to knitting anymore. 

And then she saw all the new DVDs I have, still in their plastic - ones on quilting, sewing, knitting, etc. - she was quite excited.  We decided to have a hunker down with popcorn day or two to watch some DVDs together.  That will be fun this winter.

Amy lost her mom recently.  She was the main caregiver.  Her mom's death will leave a big hole in her life.  Hopefully I can help Amy through some of it, having been in the same situation myself just over a year ago.  I thank God for friends like Amy.  They bring me companionship and counsel.  And they give me an opportunity to serve, as well as an opportunity to learn.  And an opportunity to finish all those UFOs (UnFinished Objects)!!!

Hmmm...Bob, the piano tuner???  He was here today.  He did a great job (I tried it out after).  It sounds wonderful.  He showed me how to rig up a homemade humidifier.  I was all set to buy one.  I will eventually, but we'll see how this one works in the meantime.

Bob also laughed at the estimate of the piano's value that I had from another piano tuner/estimator last fall.  Bob told me it would cost $15,000 to replace our piano with one of equal quality.  Not bad for a 92 year old piano!   The guy we had in last fall said it was worth $700.  I found out today that he is actually a dealer who buys old pianos and resells them for money to people.  Interesting...  I think we'll just hang onto this piano.

Bob gave us some estimated repairs on the piano as well, and they were well below the $700 the guy last fall suggested it would cost to fix it.  And Bob had logical reasons for why his opinion differed from the guy I had in last fall.  So today I am thankful for Bob, my piano tuner...who seems to know his stuff...