I Just Flew in From the Coast ...

...and boy are my arms tired!

Quilting is WORK. Anyone who says otherwise has hired a longarmer to do the work for her. But it’s coming along – I’m doing diagonal lines, very wobbly and wonky but that’s what I get for being too simple to find chalk that isn’t meant for the driveway. There will be LOADS of thread-trimming to address here – I’m only doing short spans. And after 40 minutes or so my shoulders want to leave the premises – of my body. I sort of wish my cute little Janome had less in common with my Great Aunt Mildred and more with Linda Lovelace.

This past weekend (what – it’s Thursday already?!?) we went to a celebration for one of the girlchild’s best friends who had her Bat Mitzvah celebration. It was terrific – I’d never been to the Temple for a celebratory event and it was a genuine treat. Long, but so casual and joyous! Afterwards there was a marathon party at her house. My husband set up a Stonehenge replica made of pavers in the yard, and though nobody danced around it we had fun with it anyhow. There was a face-painter, a DJ, snowcones galore, and loads of fabulous food.

As a gift, I strung a necklace for the Bat Mitzvah – it’s a Chamsa, or Hand of Miriam, or Hand of Fatima, an ancient symbol used to ward off the Evil Eye. Shared by both Jews and Arabs as a talisman, it’s becoming a symbol of peace between the tribes, which gives it a little extra “oomph.” I got the pendant from Shymali and added garnets, darkish tigereye beads and sterling spacers.


I like it - the combination of garnet with tigereye is very subtle, in artifical light you can hardly tell the difference and in sunlight the tigereye gleams beautifully against the garnet's deeper glow.