Grease Is The Word

Wow – I have so many things to show you today! I guess that’s partly because I’ve been absent for awhile. Well, as you can see things are blooming here. Remember that snow we had a couple of weeks ago – well, now it’s been in the 80s everyday. Crazy Texas weather! These white blossom trees showed up about this time last year, and I don’t know that I’d ever noticed them before. I missed getting a photo of them last year, but today I decided to try to capture some. These were taken on my way over to the post office at lunch today. You can see it’s a little overcast because we are supposed to be getting rain this evening.

Last week I finished piecing the last of the quilt squares. This weekend I went over to my mom’s and we practiced using the embroidery function on my machine. I was able to get my center square embroidered and my quilt label. We also pieced the center part of the quilt (the squares that go around the center block). Not as much as I had wanted to get done, but it was good progress. I’ll show you the embroidered blocks as soon as I clean up the stray threads that go between letters. That way they’ll be pretty. This next weekend I hope to get the whole top pieced together. Keep your fingers crossed!

Also last week I was able to participate in the Mermaid SAL with Anna. I stitched a little more on my Mermaids of the Deep Blue. I finished the dark brown in her hair and started on the lighter. I am enjoying stitching on this – which is good since it’s my first Mirabilia!

Near the end of the week I finished my block on Katrina’s Neighborhood RR. I basically recreated the block I had originally stitched for her, to the best of my abilities. I think it turned out well (again!).

Here’s the whole piece. Katrina will be stitching again in the upper left corner when it comes back to her.

And finally, I was able to do a little more on Barnabee’s Quest for my Just Nan Sundays. I only completed two rows, but I feel like it’s two more than I had done! The next row has an over one bunny, so let’s hope my momentum can carry me past the over one issues I’ve had in the past – namely abandoning the piece rather than stitch the over one parts. I like stitching over one, so I have no idea what my deal is. I just know that I got stuck on Baby Garden and on Barnabee both at the over one parts. Silly. So, next week you’ll get to see that over one bunny – I promise!

I need to get back to stitching my Red Thread block for March too. It shouldn’t take long, but the month’s half over! I’ve been trying to get my book read for my book club too. We’re reading The Accidental Masterpiece, and so far I am stuck on the foreward. Ugh. I hope it gets better. And speaking of it getting better, we’ve managed to get back to our Academy Award movie watching. We watched Ben-Hur last weekend and yesterday we watched The Apartment. I really enjoyed The Apartment. Ben-Hur was good too, but it took me a little by surprise. I’m not sure what I expected, but I didn’t realize the movie was weaving so much in about Jesus and his life. I was just expecting chariot races and the like (which I got). In fact, surprisingly enough, there is a scene in the big chariot race that is reminiscent of the car race scene in Grease – if you can believe that. I, of course, felt the need to point this out to Eric – “hey, it’s just like in Grease!” Anna, I am sure will tell me that really I should be watching Grease saying “hey, it’s just like Ben-Hur!”, right?! Who would have thought I could connect the two. But, Ben-Hur really was good and I enjoyed all three hours and twenty minutes of it. Next up is West Side Story. But, we’re in the sixties now beginning with The Apartment!!

Until next time – have a great week!

I am grateful for getting up the courage.