Hello August, four days in

Enough catching up, don't you think? Oh, there's more, always more, but it's a new month so time to move on.

Here are a few things I am loving these days ...

Monday long rides with Coty
We've been taking longer bike rides, usually on Monday mornings, though we had two nice long rides on a little getaway a couple of weeks back - Tuesday and Wednesday rides, 42 and 22 miles. I am loving these long rides. In the countryside we ride through, the ripening corn is tall now. As we pass, the honey fragrance of the cornfield envelops us. Roosters crow and cows stand in a line under the cedar trees along a pasture fence line or wade up to their bellies in a muddy pond. We see red-tailed hawks on power-lines or atop tall snags. We catch the whiff of a skunk that has crossed the road in the early morning or see the remains of an unfortunate black snack, hit by a car as it warmed itself on hot pavement. The cotton plants are flowering now. Yesterday, we rode 33.4 miles. I was dragging at the end. The last few hills felt higher and longer than the last time I'd ridden them, my quads and knees weary, the bandana I tie around my head totally soaked. I checked the temperature on my bike computer as we pulled into the country church parking lot where we'd left the car and it said 95 degrees. No wonder I felt wrung out. Next week, we'll start earlier!

Garden tomatoes
It's that time of year. The German Johnsons I planted in the top terrace are ripening. There are not nearly enough of them, however, to satisfy the desire for vine ripened tomatoes, so I go to our little local farmer's market on Monday afternoons to replenish our supply. My sister, who has a larger tomato patch than me, has also shared some of her bounty. Really, there is nothing quite like a garden tomato, just picked and warm from the sun, sliced up and eaten with just a twist of freshly ground salt and pepper.


Recorded books by Ivan Doig
I listened This House of Sky, back in May. Masterfully narrated by Tom Stechschulte, Doig's memoir recounts his growing up years among sheepherders and ranchers in Montana. His widowed father grudgingly resorts to asking his mother-in-law to live with him and help raise his son. The lives of father, son, and grandmother become interwoven in unforeseen intimacy as they share the hardships of ranch life, growing up, and growing old. I've also listened to three of Doig's novels: Whistling Season, Work Song, and Sweet Thunder. Of his writing "creed", Doig wrote:

“If I have any creed that I wish you as readers, necessary accomplices in this flirtatious ceremony of writing and reading, will take with you from my pages, it’d be this belief of mine that writers of caliber can ground their work in specific land and lingo and yet be writing of that larger country: life."

Doig died in April of this year. Here is the NY Times tribute to him.

Designing a quilt around some of my wax fabrics from Chad
Back in February, Coty went to Chad. He came home with three gorgeous pieces of wax fabric for me. I've been looking and looking at them and been loath to cut into them, but I finally took rotary cutter to two of them and began designing a sort of medallion quilt. I started with one of my favorite quilt patterns, Flying Geese. Then I drew from the free form cutting ideas in quilts of Nancy Crow and patterns in Cultural Fusion Quilts and starting cutting and sewing curved sections of fabric together. Finally, I did something inspired by a pile of quilt blocks I picked up at an estate sale a few months ago and did some improvisational cutting and piecing. I don't know how this quilt is going to end up, what it's going to look like, whether or not I'm going to like the finished product, but it's a learning process that I'm enjoying.

 Please excuse the fuzzy quality of this picture. It was taken in less than optimal light!

Almost daily Snapchats from New York City
Back in early July, Andrew moved to New York. I am missing him so much, but he's great to send me snapchats several times a week. Street scenes, skyline vistas, Central Park-scapes, office views. I love seeing what he's seeing and I can't wait to visit and see the sites with him.

What are you loving these days?

needle and thREAD #33

I'm doing a little happy dance because needle and thREAD is back!  I've missed it while Elizabeth's been otherwise occupied this summer. But for me, it hasn't just been the summer.  I just looked back to see when my last needle and thREAD post was and I'm shocked!  It was waaaaay back in January.  Really??? Where, oh where has 2014 gone???  Well, I know where it's gone ... new baby Levi, Make Welcome, wedding, travel, and many other good things that in the looking-back-upon at this moment seem to be a joy-filled, busy blur.

Anyway ...with all the comings and goings in the last couple of months, my studio has been fairly quiet. A quilt got finished back in May and a bit of pre and post-wedding stitching.  But, with all the travels, the machine has mostly sat quiet.  Now that I'm home, though (well, except for one more little jaunt to the beach next week), I've got lots of "to be finished" projects in piles, and plans for new projects lined up.  I'm itching to sew.

But let's back up, first.  Here's the pre-wedding stitching ...

-Kailie's wedding hairpiece

I felt honored when she asked me to make something and I wanted it to be extra-special.  I read a bunch of tutorials on organza flowers, tried several different type of organza, burned my finger on melted organza once or twice, and finally ended up with a flower I really liked.

The large flower on the left is layers of organza with candle curled edges.  The center of the flower is burlap from one of our rice bags, stamens (found in the Wilton section of the craft store.  Who knew?), and three antique buttons from my grandmother's button collection.

The flower on the top right is made from lace and seam trimmings from Kailie's mother's wedding dress.  There is a small beaded heart that was attached to the lace bag her mom carried and Karen gave us permission to cut it off and use it in Kailie's hairpiece.

The bottom right flower is made from scraps of lace and muslin that my mom used to make my wedding dress.  There is a bit of burlap ribbon and a scrap of lace edging (bottom right) from the corner of an antique hankie.

I so enjoyed making this for sweet Kailie and was delighted to see how lovely it looked on her that day.

-Clara's hairpiece and sash

Clara got an organza bow, too, with a bit of orange/coral ribbon and an antique button in the center to match her sash (which was the closest we could come in color to matching the lovely coral bridesmaid's dresses)

I also stitched that bit of lace to her sash, picking up a little lace design element in the bridesmaid's dresses.

Then it was home and a bit of "thank-you" sewing.  Three of Kailie's bridesmaids had been major helps to me in preparing the rehearsal dinner and I used some of the scraps from M and K's quilt to make wristlet zipper pouches for them.  

Since making the pouches, the machine's been idle.  But not for long ...

While traveling is not conducive to much machine sewing, it's great for reading.  Long, international flight, airport layovers, etc.  My kindle has been put to good use this summer.

I'm continuing to make my way through all of Dorothy Sayers' mysteries.  I'm currently in Strong Poison which is #6 in the Lord Peter Wimsey series.  I don't think I will ever tire of these books.

A Loving Life: In a World of Broken Relationships by Paul Miller was recommended by a friend, so it's another book that made its way onto my kindle.  Miller uses the story of Ruth to delve into what it means to live a life of love and he does a good job of capturing the essence of what it means to persevere in authentic, covenant love.  Here are a couple of passages to give you a flavor of the book:

"Hesed [steadfast love] is one-way love.  Love without an exit strategy.  When you bind yourself with hesed love, you bind yourself to the object of your love, no matter what the response is."

"Love doesn't go though the day with a measuring stick, testy over the unevenness of life.  Our undying, never-stopping love, reflects the Father's undying love for us in Christ Jesus." 

"Instinctively, we like neat categories of saint or sinner.  But like many of us Naomi is ambiguous. Accepting ambiguity is immensely helpful in the work of love, because when we encounter the strange mixture of good and bad in another person, we tend to lock onto the evil and miss the good.  We don't like ambiguity.  We prefer the clarity of judging."

"A lament put us in the openly dependent position, where our brokenness reflects the brokenness of the world ... holding it in, not giving voice to the lament, can be a way of putting a good face on it.  But to not lament puts God at arm's length and has the potential of splitting us.  We appear okay, but we are really brokenhearted." 

Notes from a Blue Bike and The Hundred Foot Journey were quick airplane reads.

Finally, I finished Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit.  I must say that I found this book quite interesting in the beginning, but the last few chapters were a plod. Like a walk that's left you feeling fatigued, I was just ready to get to the end and be done.  Glad I read it, but glad to be done.

Lots of books in the queue as I work my way toward this year's goodreads goal of 50 books.  I'm almost at halfway.  Next week at the beach will put me over, I'm sure!

Needle and ThREAD #32

The needles in my hands most often recently have been the Rainbow wood circulars and the yarns, Cascade Eco Duo Burleywood (baby alpaca/merino blend) and Eco Alpaca Latte Twist (100% baby alpaca).  Both are undyed, and soft as soft can be.  Lovely yarns for my first ever Baby Surprise Jacket, a classic and well-loved pattern by Elizabeth Zimmerman.  Thanks, yet again, to Amber, for suggesting the pattern and giving me the very helpful row by row pattern instructions by Dawn Adcock.  If any of you have ever used EZ's patterns, you know that they are guidelines, not row by row instructions. Some of us need a little more hand holding, so the Adcock instructions are very helpful.

After a day of cooking and cleaning, playing with Clara, bringing in wood, helping Erin with whatever needs to be done, and holding sweet baby Levi, the house is quiet.  Everyone else has gone to bed and I pour myself a glass of red wine and sit in the rocking chair by the woodstove to read.

I've just finished The Irrational Season by Madeleine L'Engle. Her fourth book in the Crosswicks series, Two Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage just arrived in the mail today, along with Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, and Women's Work by Kathleen Norris.  They are both re-reads which I will happily work my way through again for our next Savoury Book Club gathering. But first, I have to finish Thrones, Dominations: A Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane Mystery by Dorothy Sayers and Jill Paton Walsh.  (This novel was unfinished by Sayers, and Walsh has masterfully picked up where she left off). I haven't read a Sayers mystery in oh, goodness, about ten years.  It's about time. I may have to go back and read them all over again ...

Needle and ThREAD #31

Monday was my sewing day this week.  I spent about half the day playing with a rice bag and sari fabric, coming up with ideas for our Make Welcome women to sew.  

Did you follow that link?  How about that?!  We have a website.  We're so small right now, but we have high hopes for these dear, dear women that show up to learn to sew on Tuesdays.  They've been bringing their rice bags and we're thinking of wonderful things to do with them so stay tuned!

Anyway, that Monday sewing has been the extent of it this week.  I'm hoping for some time with my machine tonight, since book club got postponed.  We'll see ...

On another note, I have packaged and shipped all but four of the quilts in the Sari Bari auction and raffle.  I am now an expert at Paypal Multiple Order Shipping, but no, I have no desire to exercise my expertise again any time soon.  The little Matrix was filled to the brim with quilts this afternoon and the nice lady at the Post Office wheeled a cart right out to my car and we loaded 'em in and wheeled 'em into the back room at the PO.  They are on their way!  I'll probably be peeking at the shipment tracking and imagining happy people finding those packages on their doorsteps in the next few days.

As I said yesterday, I was sad to see them go, but I am also very glad to have that task behind me.  I may actually go out in my garden one day soon and see what's still out there among the weeds!

Surprisingly, I finished several books I've been slowly working my way through AND started and finished a couple of others in the last week or so:

The Summer of the Great Grandmother by Madeleine L'Engle - a re-read for book club.  This is a wonderful book about aging and death and family.  This is the second in L'Engle's Crosswicks trilogy.

and ...

My Bright Abyss by Christian Wiman

and ...

Little Daughter by Zoya Phan

and ...

The Little Way of Ruthie Leming by Rod Dreher

I just started Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping this morning.  Another re-read.  I'm going more slowly the second time around, savoring her sentences.  

Needle and ThREAD #31

What to do when you're making something that you don't want to reveal yet?

How about a very close up peak at some of the fabric?   I've spent a lot of time the last couple of weeks with these fabrics.  They almost completely cover my design wall at the moment, but if I show you more, that would give it away.

So, let's move on ...

My husband returned from three and a half weeks in India earlier this week and he brought back ... fabric, of course.  I requested two cotton sarees (saris), one turquoise and one a different blue.  One of his hosts took him to Chirala, a town that is known for it's handloomed fabric.  Coty and our friend, Johnson, agonized over the piles of saris in the dark back room of the shop.  I'm glad to say they did very well!  I am delighted with what they chose!

 I don't know what I will do with them, but each sari is 7-8 yards of fabric so there are plenty of possibilities!

And here's something a little more mundane, but something I truly enjoy.  A bit of handsewing for a friend.

Katie found a lovely off-white wool coat at the thrift store.  It was perfect, except for the sleeves, which were too long.  Not any more.  Today's sewing included shortening the sleeves on this lovely coat.  This tutorial helped.  Now the sleeves need a good pressing and Katie will have a nicely fitting, new-to-her coat for the winter ahead!

What am I reading ...

One of these days I will finish Little Daughter and My Bright Abyss.  But I must say that, in spite of my best intentions, reading took a back seat to sewing last week.   I did finish one book, though,  Pen Wilcock's The Breath of Peace - highly reccommended!

One last thing ...

The Sari Bari Quilt Auction and Raffle begins tomorrow.  I am grateful to a number of folks for helping to publicize this year's auction.  Sew Mama Sew and dear Elizabeth Foss have posted on their blogs about the auction.  A couple more blog posts are on the way.  I'll link to them when they go up.  My good friend, Teresa Farson has publicized the auction at her gift shop, The Beehive, in uptown Charlotte, and Jennifer Roycroft at We're Sew Creative and Jennifer Thurston at the Quilted Thimble Cottage have graciously kept Sari Bari auction info cards in their beautiful quilt shops for the last month.  I'm so grateful to all of these people for their help.

Needle and ThREAD #30

I have spent hours and hours in my sewing room in this week.  One major project was started and a small project completed.  I can't show you the big project, but I can show you the small one.  It was for the "Swap for Someone You Love" for my quilt guild this month.

Here's the description of the person for whom I was sewing:

"Just diagnosed with breast cancer.  She's a massage therapist and works in Florida ... a beautiful, good spirit.  Loves: blues - sky, water, the day, things that hang on the wall and sparkle."

So this is what I made, using ... what else ... sari fabrics and some other Indian fabrics in my stash from our trip there in 2009.

I didn't know when I was ever going to use those sparkles in the fabric, but if you hold on to something long enough, eventually you use it, right?  That's what most of us with growing fabric stashes think, anyway!

We made fabric flowers in our sewing class this week.  Easy and lots of fun.  We'll be doing more of them.

Something else that made me really happy is that this precious woman brought in a large piece of fabric that her daughter in Thailand sent to her.  It is a traditional Burmese wrap that is worn in dress-up type situations. SA brought it to class to finish it by sewing on the top border strip and then sewing it into a long tube.  SA has probably had the hardest time of any of our students with using the machine, but on Tuesday, she was full of confidence as she sewed her wrap.

Of course, we made her model it when she was finished.  I find her t-shirt poignant.  On one level, it cracks me up.  Most women her age would not choose a t-shirt with that wording, but she speaks very little English, so she probably has no idea what it says.  It was free, though - probably from a clothes closet somewhere -and she chose it because it fit and she liked the color.  Every time I'm with them, these women make me want to laugh and cry.  

The Sari Bari 2013 Quilt Auction preview is up now.  I'll be back later with a link!

Reading, reading ...

Finishing Little Daughter

Started Pen Wilcock's latest, The Breath of Peace and Christian Wiman's My Bright Abyss

and perusing David Tanis's A Platter of Figs

Needle and ThREAD #29 in which many, many fabric related happenings ... happen

Happening #1:  Our Sari quilt gets bound

Some people think I am crazy.  Others totally understand this love of hand sewing the binding on a quilt.  I dearly love doing this final task by hand, putting in the tiny stitches to secure the binding to the back of the quilt, moving slowly around it until I finally meet up with my starting place and the quilt is done!  I am very happy with the green sari fabric we used to bind this one.  Just perfect!

Happening #2:  Our refugee sewing class continued this week with a new student.

 She had never sewn before and went from learning how to thread the machine and control the speed with the foot pedal to sewing and then wearing her first headband!  (Thank you, Elizabeth!)

After three weeks of work, M finished this little quilt.  It is backed with a waterproof fabric and can be used as a changing pad.  More of these to come!

Happening #3: The Sari Bari 2013 Quilt Auction photoshoot 

in which ...

Kay goes to great heights to get just the right shot ...

and I apparently need someone to hand me some scissors (they did).

Wow!  I have never done anything quite like that photoshoot before.  It look us 9 nine hours the first day and 5 hours the second day, not counting all the time after the shooting was done to take everything down, load up the car with 40 quilts, unload the 40 quilts at home, and then go to load up all the props and deliver them to the gracious people who loaned them to us.  When I finally got home this afternoon, I did not want to move.  I'm quite sure I will sleep really, really well tonight.

I'm so very thankful for my hard-working, creative, generous friends and daughter-in-love, Kay, who graciously gave of their time, talents, and energy to pull off this photoshoot.  I could NOT have done it without them.  

I can't wait to show you the pictures.  Once they're up on the Sari Bari auction site, I'll give you the link.

Reading this week - which has not happened except for a very few minutes before I sack out at night ...

Little Daughter by Zoya Phan.  Continuing this memoir of a Burmese refugee woman ...

and 

The Language of Sparrows by Rachel Phifer, a first novel, recommended by Pen Wilcock, author of the Hawk and Dove series, which I love.

That's all.  Now I'm taking my photoshoot weary self to bed.  Good night.

Needle and ThREAD #28: And now the binding

I must start off this post with a great big shout out to the amazing woman that has long-arm quilted all of my major quilt projects, Rebecca Verrier-Watt of The Quilter's Station. An award winning quilter, this woman is amazing!  I took our finished quilt top and back to her on Sunday.  She said she'd have it done sometime next week.  She called me yesterday to tell me it's done.  Yep, she's amazing and with all of this sari quilt sewing, she has been so generous with her time and labor.  Thank you, thank you Rebecca.

So, now that it's quilted, I've got binding strips to sew and several hours of hand sewing ahead of me this weekend.  I'll be listening to talks from the 2013 Desiring God Conference on C.S. Lewis while I sew.  The question for this morning is which fabric to use for the binding ...

I'm leaning strongly toward the one on the right, using the areas of the fabric with more green.

In addition to finishing the sari quilt, I've been working on some smaller squares.  These are part of Block in a Bag Swap and Block of the Month projects for my guild.  I am finding that participating in these small projects is a great way to learn and practice new techniques, like the ones I mentioned last week.  Using other people's fabric choices, as we had to do for this month's BOM and as we do each month with the swap, gives me the chance to explore and play with color without committing myself to large fabric purchases.  I am learning so much!

Block of the Month for October
Two Colors Star from Fresh Lemons

Reading this week:

Little Daughter by Zoya Phan, a memoir of a young Karen refugee woman from Burma.

Digital Photographer's Handbook by Tom Ang, and

Intuitive Color and Design: Adventures in Art Quilting by Jean Wells

Now back to the cutting table to work on those binding strips.  Happy Thursday, everybody!

Needle and ThREAD #27: The top is done

It's finished!  

Well, the top is.  And the back gets done today.  

It has been intensely satisfying to finish this quilt.  We traveled such a distance from our initial dislike of the saris we received, through growing appreciation of the look of small bits of the fabrics cut from the whole juxtaposed with other small bits, to the first WOW! moment when the first green strip was assembled, to growing excitement and eagerness to see the whole thing put together.  And then it was done.  And it worked.  And we love it!

I love this woman.  She hardly speaks English and she struggles at the machine.  But she's learning.

I practiced a few new things yesterday while working on a quilt square for my guild Block in a Bag project.

-Using spray starch before cutting.  You can make your own spray starch from corn starch and water.  Spraying your fabric with it before cutting makes cutting more precise and also makes sewing those small pieces more stable.  Here's the recipe I used.  Such a simple, useful trick.

-Chain piecing.  This wasn't new to me, but I haven't done it much.  It really does make putting blocks together faster and is so easy to do.  It also eliminates that ornery bunching that sometimes happens at the beginning of a new seam.  The link is very helpful so if you want to learn how to do this, read it!

-Using a stiletto to guide pieces through the machine.  Like this.  (Not the best video out there.  She needed to move her hand so you can actually see the stiletto.  I've seen someone else do this in a teaching video but can't find the link ... but you get the idea).  I've done this a couple of times.  The first time I tried it I used a dissecting probe. Are you saying "YUCK!"  It was well cleaned, I assure you and hadn't touched a pig intestine for a couple of years.  But I digress ...  Yesterday, I used a #2 bamboo double pointed knitting needle and that worked just fine, too.  A little more aesthetically pleasing, perhaps.

 These techniques and tools are old hat for seasoned quilters.  I've been making quilts for three and a half years now and I love that there is so much to learn.  I suppose if I'd taken a class back when I started, I'd have learned these tips and tricks long ago, but hey, there were pig intestines to dissect back then so I'm a little slow to the party.

And for reading this week:

I finished So Brave, Young and Handsome.  I really, really liked it.  There was redemption for Glendon.  Monte didn't get back home, but it was OK.  This exchange sealed the deal for me:

"You are so different," she said.

I didn't try to explain that.  You can't explain grace, anyway, especially when it arrives almost despite yourself.  I didn't even ask for it, yet somehow it breached and began to work.  I suppose grace was pouring over Glendon, who had sought it so hard, and some spilled down on me."

Little Daughter by Zoya Phan is next.  Phan was an ethnic Karen refugee from Burma and now lives in London.  This is her memoir.

Needle and ThREAD #25: A Fall Sweater

Hello again, Needle and ThREAD.  I've missed you!  August was a whirlwind of a month with so many comings and goings and not much of anything happening in the sewing room.

But this little sweater did get finished for a very special little girl's 4th birthday.  I sent it on without blocking so it's looking a little "poochy" in places.  I also am not very happy with the wonkiness that resulted when I picked up stitches for the front band.  I either need more practice doing this or need to stick to sweater patterns with the buttonhole band incorporated into each row.  Still, it's a pretty little sweater and the lattice work detail is not hard to do. If you're interested, the pattern is Springtime in Hollister.

I just bought more yarn yesterday for a little boy blanket.  Itching to get going on that one!

There is soooo much fabric in here right now.  Sari strips on the design wall, fabrics donated for our refugee sewing class in bins all around, and African prints, the best Goodwill fabric find ever, overflowing the cubby they're in.  This is a good problem to have.  Now, I've just got to sit down and get sewing!

Reading has taken a back seat in the last month.  I did finish a short book which has helped me to better understand the country of Burma (Myanmar) and the backgrounds of some of the women in our sewing class, Burmese Refugees: Letters from the Thai Burma Border.  More books on Burma and refugees on my reading list and some photography books, too.  I'm also itching for some good fiction.

Heading to the library tomorrow to replenish my stack!

Needle and ThREAD #23

It's that time again - Sari Bari Quilt Auction sewing time.  Last year was my first year to participate in sewing for the auction and I'm excited to be making a quilt again this year.  

The sarees arrived last Friday and I have to say that it was not love at first sight like last year.  My quilting buddies and I had chosen a set of sarees from a photograph, but what we received did not resemble the picture at all.  Too dark, too much of the same scale in patterns, colors that seemed dull.

After washing the fabrics several times to remove the heavy starch that is applied to them at the factory in India, and after spreading them out and looking at the pattern variations within each saree, I'm seeing more possibilities. 

I'm also quite encouraged by my quilting buddies, two of whom are artists.  We've talked about how limitations often spur creativity more than abundance.  We're imagining, looking at quilt patterns, and looking forward to playing with these fabrics to see what develops.  

We will probably not use all of the fabrics we received - or at least not use them all in one quilt.  Perhaps, in this batch of sarees there are two or three quilts that will be very different from each other. 

I do LOVE the green saree above, my very favorite in the whole bunch.  I want to make a sundress out of it and since the saree is about 9 yards of fabric, there's plenty of fabric for that!

If you are interested in learning more about Sari Bari or seeing the quilts from last year, go here and here.

I finally finished a couple of books.

Outcasts United by Warren St. John is the story of a refugee soccer program in Clarkston, Georgia started by Luma Mufleh, a young Jordanian woman, who was herself, an outcast from her own family because of her decision not to return to Jordan after college in the US.  Her gritty dedication to the refugee boys she coached and her love for their families is encouragement and inspiration to anyone who works with refugees. For anyone who knows little about the plight of refugees from around the world who arrive in the US seeking peace and security, it is an eye opening story.  We've had this book for awhile and I've been meaning to read it.  So, so glad Kandyce urged me to do it right away!

My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse is just fun to read.  Dry British humor.  Who doesn't love the always impeccable, always tasteful, always able to get Bertie out of a scrape butler, Jeeves.

The Art of Tasha Tudor by Harry Davis is an insider's look at the life and work of one of my favorite illustrators.  I enjoyed learning more about Tudor and the development of her art and its interconnection with her life.

I've got a few other books going including 52 Loaves: One Man's Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust, recommended by my friend, Amber.  I laughed out loud last night when I read this chapter heading quote:

"How can a nation be great if its bread tastes like Kleenex?"   - Julia Child

Alrighty ... time to go fold sarees, water the garden, and then go out to breakfast with my boy.  His Mother's Day gift to me.  I'm pretty sure we won't be eating any kleenex tasting bread at Zada Janes!