Serendipity, convergence, and Quilter's Home

First, a happy belated Valentine's Day to all of my blogging friends.

These are the cookies that are left over from the ones the toddler took to his Valentine's party today.

The Iris quilt is finished - and I think I will rename it Serendipity Iris:

Apologies for the crookedness - I couldn't get my holder to cooperate.

Why serendipity? I went to a talk on Thursday by Al Siebert, who founded and runs the Resiliency Center. The highest level of resiliency "is the talent for serendipity--the ability to convert misfortune into good fortune." This pretty much defines what happened with this little wall hanging. Because I miscalculated the size, I had to add a border. Then I had to decide how to quilt the border. I decided to try a random big stitch meander to tie in with the black squiggly fabric, and it worked better than I could have ever imagined. Even TMOTH, who is rarely impressed, gave it a "wow."

This is a close-up of one corner. It WOULD be the corner with the wonkiest border seam.


Now it needs a hanging sleeve and a label, a lot of time removing cat hair, and it's DONE.

Why convergence? I bought the March/April issue of Quilter's Home today, on the advice of fellow bloggers who deemed it worth the $5.99 cover price. (AND, I bought it at the grocery store on the way in to work for full price, rather than using my JoAnn's coupon!) In this issue, there's an article titled "Are You Creative?" Well, duh. Why would anyone quilt (or do ANY kind of craft, for that matter) if not to be creative? I know there are people out there who will only work from a kit, or use EXACTLY the colors called for in the pattern, and I actually understand the satisfaction of *making* something. I just tend to wing it more.
Will I buy the magazine again? Maybe - with that coupon from JoAnn's ;>)

On a sadder note, Phyllis A. Whitney has died. I doubt that I've read any of her books for at least 30 years - but in high school, I devoured all of her books that the library had.

My other, even greater favorite, from those years, Mary Stewart, is apparently still alive. I still re-read her romantic suspense novels from the 60s and 70s when I need some extraordinarily well-written light fiction.

Gratitudes:
1. FINISHING something
2. Plenty of chocolate for Valentine's Day
3. Half-price thread at Jo-Ann's
4. Time for reading - maybe I'll hunt down some Mary Stewart
5. Quilt retreat on Sunday!