Ms Grundy again

I cut carefully just what this pattern said. Now it says this should be 11" square. It's 11 3/4. If I trim it, I'll lose the points. If I don't I may have to enlarge the background lattice pieces- haven't cut any yet

When I was teaching college, I had lost three students in two years. One went out with two friends, drinking, at night, on a boat, and all three drowned. I hadn't liked him much. Yet it was a loss. I kept wondering what I could have done differently, so that I might have liked him more. The second I barely knew, even though he sat in my class day after day, and never shared, never showed me part of himself. He drove his car into a bridge coming home from work. Alcohol was not involved. I kept wondering what I could have done differently, so that I would have known him better. The third - now this was a kid I knew well. He had been home schooled, super-intelligent, the oldest of a brood of likable, shy kids. I saw him grow over two years, in different classes. He really shined when he earned participation in a special program that sent a group to study at Cambridge. He blossomed. He became a leader. He had a great sense of humor, and a taste for the unusual. He studied fencing....

I was trying to quilt on my grandson's quilt yesterday, and it was so tiring - my shoulders were aching. Then I realized: Yes, I had put on the free-motion foot. Yes, I had changed the stitch length to zero. BUT, I hadn't put the little plastic piece over the feed dogs. Could that be why it was so hard, even if the feet were set to zero??? Will try again today...

Ever have that horrible sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you realize that what you MEANT was not what was HEARD, and IT'S TOO LATE!! Now, as far as relationships go, I firmly believe that it's rarely too late, and a lot of problems can be solved by just talking, but this particular feeling occurred in the haircut chair. Oh yeah... I said I thought we might take it all off, and she asked how much, and I said one inch, and not til much later did I realize that she was leaving only one inch of hair on my head. It was too late. She cut off all  my gentle curls. It has taken me quite a while to get used to this boy-cut. But I have new appreciation for how little time it takes a man to get ready. Because no matter how I try to curl or mousse or fluff, this hair looks the same as when I do nothing to it at all. I don't blame her. I did say take it all off. And it takes me no time to get ready to go somewhere. But I am definitely letting it grow. I learned one ...

Well, since my BC treatment, I get a lot of bloodwork done every checkup. It seems that my liver enzymes have been up for a while, so they referred me for even more tests. I do not have hepatitis A, B, or C, nor do I have a number of other diseases or conditions, or syndromes, and they couldn't see anything in the ultrasound - which is good. So the doc says the remaining diagnosis is non-alcoholic fatty liver. Guess how they treat it? They don't. BUT - here's the bad part - it may indicate that I m developing diabetes. He said that, in order to change that, I need to lose 20% of my body weight. Now, I am at my highest weight ever, even though I rarely have dessert, eat lots of vegetables, etc. And I walk a mile at least 3 times a week (I know - that needs to be more). But I haven't lost anything - in fact, I have gained. He recommended the South Beach Diet, and I looked it up online and got the book from the library. For the first two weeks you eat no bread,...

woke up dreaming of quilts - or cross stitch - not sure which - bright colors, all in squares. I opened my eyes, and closed them again, and the squares turned into purple batiks. I don't even like purple - but these were beautiful.

seems like I always sewed - I made clothes for my not-a-barbie doll  by hand - including a blouse with set-in sleeves while I was still in elementary school. (We were not allowed to have ridiculously over-developed Barbies.) My mom had a sewing machine, but never learned how to use it. I had a eureka moment when a neighbor of mine (my age) brought home fabric one night and wore the new blouse and matching jumper the next day. I demanded to be put into Home Ec class in 9th grade even though I hadn't had 7th n 8th grade Home Ec, and they did it because my sister and I were in a single-mom household, which was very rare then. Our first project was an apron with miles of bias tape that had to be sewn down by hand (for an apron!??!)  And our second project was a dress - had to have a waist, zipper, collar, and set-in sleeves - (but we could pick any pattern we wanted ha ha) The teacher made 5 dresses while we made ours, and had them pinned up to bulletin...