WIP Wednesday, and a meme

I'm putting a border on the Quilt of Valor that I posted on two weeks ago, and will post a picture when it's done.

In the meantime, Nellie of Nellie's Needles tagged me to blog about five things I've never mentioned on my blog, so here goes. It's hard, because although I don't blog about everything in my life, there doesn't seem much I haven't mentioned that is interesting.

1. I have a cat. Not a big deal, except that it surprises me I haven't mentioned it, because so many people post pictures of their cat(s) all the time. I don't take second place to anyone in my love of cats, having had one all my life. I could easily become one of those crazy cat ladies like the one on the Simpsons.

2. Like Nellie, I grew up on a farm. I never milked cows, but I did have a 4-H Baby Beef steer that I fed daily and groomed regularly. When he went to his fate, it was sad, but the money went in a savings account for college. I still won't look at the livestock projects when I go to the fair because they bring tears to my eyes. I also know how to pluck and dress a chicken although my mother always did the actual beheading!



I'm the tall one with the droopy drawers. This was a new tractor, so we are excited to be riding it!

3. Learning to sew was also a 4-H project, starting at age 9. Having work judged by 4-H judges in the county fair where I grew up in Missouri has caused me to be much more of a perfectionist in sewing that I am in anything else, and to have no nervousness about quilt judging. Over the years, I've made everything you can think of except a man's jacket or pants. Oddly enough, sewing never seemed that enjoyable to me (reading was much more my thing), and the clothes I made for myself never seemed right to me. It's only now that I really love sewing--quilting is somehow more liberating and creative.

4. I did mention our stay in Paris last summer, but I'll expand on that a little. For the last two years my husband has been able to spend a month in Paris doing a little research and writing with a French chemist there. We'll be going for our third and almost certainly last stay this May. We stay in a tiny Spartan flat near the Blvd. St. Germaine as poor relations in the heart of wealth, art, and culture. I never thought when I was growing up that I'd have such a marvelous opportunity. I love feeling some small sense of what life is like in this beautiful fascinating city. Hemingway described Paris as "gray, but always beautiful" and to me that is perfect. It's a city of lines, not color. The repetition and variation of the building shapes is the defining characteristic of Paris to me. In preparation for the trip, I'm continuing to take a very low key French class. I wish I could say that I'm fluent in French, but the best I can do is say a few phrases in a horrible midwest American accent and understand even fewer. I can read quite well, however. Without that skill we'd never survive! And--I don't find Parisians rude. A polite "Bon jour, madame" has always worked for me. It's when you forget, and act like an American, that trouble starts!



At home in Paris--



5. I've never posted about dyeing fabric, because I don't do it! I have one set of fabric I made in a workshop, and that will be it. Way too labor intensive, and I'm so sloppy that I would turn our house into a Super Fund site very quickly. (When you're married to a chemist and have a chemist son, you hear more than you ever wanted to know about the danger of toxic stuff.) I have done a bit of painting and stamping, which seems much more fun to me, but still-- I think I'll just buy it!

Part of this meme is to tag five more people, but I'm really shy about doing that. But please, I'd love to read about you!