So - how is it going?

Food . . .
We have been on our vegetarian experience for one month now and we are really enjoying it. We both feel much better and have actually lost a few pounds. As you remember, we started out being vegan - no animal fat of any kind including dairy and eggs. We then added in some dairy and eggs when we felt we needed to, but we are more and more moving toward being vegan. At first, I really missed my cheese, but I have found other products that fill that need. Tonight, however, we had "5 Cheese Tortelloni" with pesto and a huge salad. So, that will be my cheese for a few days. We got this idea from one of the tasting stations at Costco. The tortelloni is packaged there and they had just tossed it with the Kirkland pesto - it is really a wonderful combination and a little goes a long ways. Our salads have come more chopped up veggies of all kinds with a little lettuce. This one here is the dark lettuce also from Costco - "artisan" - little heads of great tasting lettuce. Tonight I chopped up sugar peas, carrots, celery, and red pepper to go along with the lettuce. We have also taken to dipping our bit of bread in a little olive oil with some seasoning. It has been a wonderful month of trying new things and we are enjoying our vegetarian life style.

Fiber . . .
Today I got out an old project that I started on several years ago and had to put away. It belongs to the daughter of one of our good friends. She wanted it finished as a gift for her sister, but then she asked me to not work on it for a while and she would get back to me as some things had changed in her life and her sister was moving around alot and she might not want it finished. So, I put it away and nearly forgot about it.

It is now time to get it finished. It is handpieced and the top was shaped like the first drawing. I knew I had to make it look like the second drawing in order to "square it up". She also wanted a border added. Today I moved one of the stars and started on adding the edge pieces. The first pictures below show how the edge looked and the second one shows the one side that is done. It has been difficult for me to "get with it" after letting something go for so long, but I am glad she waited to want it finished. I am a better piecer now than I was 3 years ago and it would have really been much more of a challenge for me than it is now - now it is pretty easy. It is just not my favorite thing, but I will get it done for her. After the sides are complete, I will square off the ends and add the border she wanted. I am hoping to get it loaded on Miss Daisy by Thursday. I plan to use Hoke for most of the quilting, but I might change my mind on that - who knows. I just know it is amazing to me that I actually could locate the project and now it is going to be finished. Whoopee!!!

Friends . . .
Tomorrow I am taking one of my quilts to a local quilt show in a neighboring small town. One of my friends has a quilt shop there and she asked if I would bring "Tumbling Through Time" to hang in the show. I was honored that she would ask so I am going to deliver it there and then meet up with another good friend from Helena for lunch. We are going to meet once a month for a show and share session. She is a stamper and does some sewing, but no quilting. We have decided that each month we will bring projects completed, in progress and in our dreams to share and enjoy. And then we will challenge each other to finish projects in progress and get started on the ones we want to get done. They can be stamping, sewing, crochet, knitting - whatever. We have been good friends for a long time so I am thinking this is really going to be fun and I should get lots done. I am taking this place mat that is in progress. It is one of the ones I have done from the Saturday Breakfast Club projects and I have so much trouble getting them finish. Hopefully when I see her next month I will have this and all of the others done and quilted. We are aiming at the second Tuesday of each month, but this month we changed as I had a dentist appointment today.