A Finish and a Check In with Friends

Here's what I've been up to most of this week, stitching my Fair & Square blocks for my partner, Kathy in Australia. She loves Victorian things, so I decided to create a mock-crazy quilt for her. Don't know what got into me! These are the two squares just set side-by-side so you can see them. It was fun. Because it's near Halloween, I couldn't resist a little web all over my name and the spider just poised for the pickin' by a blue bird! Where on earth was my mind this week!!??


I've completed the lace row now of the "Marie Antoinette Sampler," and am starting to add the glimmery part of the lace fill-in. I read on the Plimoth Plantation background that though much hand embroidery was done to the rich and aristocratic garments, they were really nearly invisable at night...only the shimmery and "cheap" sequins and such would show up at night by candlelight. This prompted me to decide to stitch the lacey insets with balger and to add some sequins....so I'll soon have an update for you on that.


On a scary note: I was walking the beach last week on Wednesday afternoon and noticed that the medium sized fish were starting to jump out of the water very close to the shoreline. It startled me and I started looking out to sea a bit. Out there, I noticed dark fins on the close horizon. There were several dark fins. They were just sort of standing still in the water...one set of three were just slowly there in the near distance...pretty close in, as a matter of fact. Then, to the left and right of these fins, there were more...just there, pretty much hovering there. The fish were really panicing. Needless to say, I got out of the shoreline and went up to the boardwalk and asked a guy standing there who was looking out to sea. "Do you think they're sharks?" He said he did. He was thinking they were pretty close in and moving very slow and not going down and up for air like dolphins do. I said I thought so, too. It was really eerie! Then, today, I see this picture online......hmmm..... This is not that far from our shore given that it was only 3 days later.

An 11 ft., 844 lb. shark found in Destin, FL, in the Gulf of Mexico. Just up the coast a few days from Naples where I live.

What a very odd blog entry this is. I apologize! Want to know what I'm reading? Maybe it's influencing me....

1) How to Say No and Live to Tell About It...a Woman's Guide to Guilt-Free Decisions by Mary M. Byers "In a world of stressed-out women, Mary points the way to sanity and serenity in practical ways." Author-- Men are like Waffles - Women are like Spaghetti

2) The Meaning of Night, A Confession by Michael Cox "As beguiling as it is intelligent, full of great country houses, epic loves, fierce anger and vicious habits." -- NY Times Book Review

3) The Schopenhauer Cure by Irvin D. Yalom "Yalom's melding of philosphy...psychiatry, and literature results in an engaging novel of ideas." --San Francisco Chronicle

That's all, folks!! Hugs, and thank you for taking the time to give me a pat on the back about Plimoth you all!! I'm so happy!!! :))

Your best stitching friend, Deb