How To Fill Up A Weekend

No divorce proceedings yet! The OC is a kind and generous person but does not suffer fools gladly. All he wanted was to be done with airports, get home, put his feet up, do his crossword and sleep on his own pillow. Not so much to ask. But then a fool intervened, checked the wrong flight, and Voila! He got a bonus hour to enjoy airport ambiance. But, one's own bed, in one's own house, a weekend game of golf, albeit in gloomy, gray rain, a walk in the nature preserve, and not having to shave for a few days, have wonderful restorative powers. He is rested and refreshed. And gone on another trip. And, most importantly, the number of his return flight is chiseled on the inside of my forehead.

It was a good weekend. In spite of miserable weather, to which we are not accustomed in these parts, this time of year. [Is that my daughter I hear, playing a mournful tune on her tiny violin?] How can it possibly be Wednesday already? I think the gray weather, carrying over into the early part of the week, made it seem like the weekend had been extended.

Anne Tyler held me hostage with her latest book, "Noah's Compass." She drew me into the lives of her perfectly ordinary characters, to such an extent that I had to finish the book before anything else got done. And then I had to go to the library and rummage through the shelves to find another Tyler fix....




......which I am trying to hold at arm's length until I finish "Pomegranates" which, while interesting, does not carry me along so effortlessly from page to page as Tyler does.


I found a new recipe for Irish soda bread.......We polished it off in record time. Definitely a keeper!





And a project to sew on while listening to the rain spilling down outside......





I've had this cream floral fabric for more than a year. My sister-in-law bought it, but since she mainly buys fabric, then fondles it now and again, but rarely makes anything from it, I volunteered to make something for her. That something is a table runner. Which I started at the weekend. And could, with luck, finish by Friday! [Another manifestation of the New Me, the one who finishes things!]

But.

I'm not too sure I like it. That mauve-y-lilac-y-purple-y colour seemed perfect when I bought it. And the purple with the sparkle in it serenaded me from the sale shelf at the quilt shop. I seem to have an affinity for purple. Maybe from the purple cloth that covered all the statues in church, during Lent, when I was growing up? Or maybe white hair and shades of purple just go together? But purple has a bad reputation. My Bulgarian friend, Julia, told me once, that, in Bulgaria, purple is the colour for practitioners of the world's oldest profession, for which I do not have an affinity. After she told me that, I dressed very conservatively for our weekly voyages of exploration into Brussels! And then there's another dubious connection. Purple prose. Of which none of us would want to be accused.

Now I'm wondering if these two fabrics take the table runner out of the "demure lady" category, which is certainly descriptive of my s-i-l, and move it into "tart" territory, which would not suit her at all. I no longer trust my own judgement. That lilac/lavender/mauve has been luridly leering at me since I started. But, I am not ripping it out now! If she doesn't like it she can give it away, donate it to charity, or use it to wash her car. I started it, so I will finish it!

It has progressed to this stage:





Layered and pinned. After that there's only one more dilemma---to bind it in the sparkly purple? Or the more demure green? Or.....maybe two dilemmas......Which brothel to donate it to if the finished product is indeed too "tarty?"

If you'd like to weigh in on the matter, I'm all ears! But hurry. I want to get it finished before my next run to the airport!