Last Thursday our annual Calendar Girls party was at the Bivins’ house as usual, & Dean, Betty’s DH, the extraordinary woodcarver stayed in his garage /studio, away from all us crazy women. I took a few shots of his finished pieces.
Jackie Carley, & Carol Wight Jones showed us their latest pieces that will soon be Christmas presents for family members.
We did our usual Chinese auction, with “white elephant gifts”. It’s always fun to see who ends up with the most junk!
Some were having trouble rolling doubles, so they used the fabric that I had wrapped my calendar gift in, & wore it each time they rolled the dice, to help improve their luck. It seemed to work!
Poor Mary P. Lee, didn’t need the “lucky fabric hat”. She couldn’t seem to quit rolling doubles, so ended up with more elephants than the rest of us. It’s always a laugh filled game, & the elephants weren't too bad. I ended up with a handful of fossilized shark teeth & a few small Christmas decorations. I intentionally stayed away from the large packages. My house is too crowded for large elephants!
Betty served a lovely lunch.
At home I am trying to study for ACLS tomorrow. I have been working on Kathy’s small quilt, & was having stitch-skipping issues with the long curves & feathers in the borders. It was getting very frustrating, until I realized, that if I just 'needle punched’ my design in first, then went back & sewed with the thread, it solved the problem. Then it went much faster!
I’ve had this problem in the past , with tightly woven fabrics, like good Batiks, & fabrics that have the rubbery textured prints on them. They tend to drag on the thread & cause skipped stitches. So what I did was unthread the machine, ‘sew’ the design without thread, then went back & sewed again with thread, & no more skipping! This is the easiest solution I’ve found yet!
Yesterday I went to my new Doctor. I really liked her. We went over all of my weird symptoms, & she suspects I may be dealing with allergies. She gave me a couple of inhaler samples, & set me up to see an Allergist. Of course & won’t see her until February, but it’s nice to know that I am working toward a solution to my annoying symptoms. The hand pain has been minimal lately, but I haven’t spent much time here on the computer either. She suggested I try hand splints for that, & see if it’s of some help, since I’m not anxious to sign up for nerve conduction studies!
Wish me luck tomorrow for ACLS, & say a prayer for my friends Jan (who just found out she has breast cancer), & Ed ( who was just diagnosed with prostate cancer).
Happy holidays!!
