BRRRR...

We've had a cold snap, a three day weekend and a major slow down at my work [not to mention a world financial disaster] so I have kind of denned-up and quilted. I did the entire top of the spur-of-the-moment quilt in the previous post and then turned to the Red Ribbon quilt here which I had partly quilted. As of now it's done, finished, lying on the bed waiting for a better photo and to be initiated by being slept under. I've cleaned all the bits of thread from the floor and wonder where so many came from. I understand if there's a lot of ripping but I didn't do so much. I think these bits of thread hit the floor, mate frantically and multiply like rabbits. In fact, that's an apt metaphor because if they aren't swept up they make their way to other colonies behind the sofa and become giant dust bunnies.

With this weather the heat is on and the air is very dry and as all quilters know, handling fabric is also drying so the finger tips need care or they'll crack and be highly irritating I've been using a wonderful little tin of stuff called WORKING HANDS BALM,from Village Farms, Cape Cod, MA. Daughter Rachel who lives in Hyannis
likes to support local business people. She sent me this a year or so ago. The phone # on the tin is 508-398-4808. This works great and smells great; the ingredients are : calendula oil, flaxseed oil, grapeseed oil, Shea butter, lanolin, Vit. E, Oil of Clove Bud and Lemon. That's it, no chemicals unless Vit. E is a chemical. The scent of clove is wonderful; the results of rubbing just a little into finger tips and cuticules is soft skin.

Rachel has also introduced me to an excellent Cape Cod silver polish, and, of course dried cranberries and -- alas! Cape Cod Potato Chips, which, alas! are now distributed in NYC and which I try hard, hard to avoid.

In my turn I've tried to convince her of a couple of bad weather habits that people who drive most places don't bother with but which we New Yorkers know are important when out in whatever is coming down from the sky. One thing is an umbrella which I think she's finally purchased and keeps in the car. Another is ear muffs which make a huge different on cold days, and the third is warm scarves -- if the neck is kept cozy the rest of the body feels much, much better. Well, end of the motherly advice. ...Oh, did I mentioned that the way to get those stubborn pieces of thread ofƒ the rug or off your black pants or sweater is masking tape? But everyone knows that, don't they?