AA - the first step

our applique instructor is the same lady who made the sewing machine go bonkers when she was putting the castles in spain block together at the BOM meeting ... Sheri is a real sweetheart and very, very patient with my cranky hands and Auntia's frosty fingers ... i believe her exact words were you have the coldest hands i have ever touched when she reached over to show Auntia how to use her needle to position a leaf ... we are the only two students in the class (which either means everybody else already knows how to hand applique or they all heard that we were gonna be there and didn't show up) and the one teacher/two students ratio was super ... we learned needle turn applique last night and next week will learn a different technique ... Sheri told us that the folk heart threads book is the one she likes to teach beginners because it's folk art and so it's not supposed to be perfect ... it's supposed to be folksy...

...this is my block - i still have to make three little circles for the center of the flower ... i have to keep telling myself that it is a flower and not an alien waving his little E.T. arms at me...
...and this is Auntia's finished block ... i'm loving the plaid leaves ...... our homework is cutting out the pieces for flowers with squared corners for next week's blocks ... the whole process was much less stressful than i thought it would be ... we learned a lot ... and it was kinda nice to not have to worry about meeting points and matching seams and not stretching biases...
...Auntia took this picture on the way home ... we were going 65mph down 287 and watching a glorious sunset most of the way ... the delicious aroma of Schlotsky's sandwiches was wafting through the car ...... our home is in a valley (a very, very windy valley) and the houses around us block any view of the Rockies ... unless i stand on a step stool and lean into the sewing room window till my head smacks the glass - then i can see about a quarter inch of one of the 14ers ... the setting sun is out of range unless we walk down to the corner and over two or three blocks ...... Schlotsky's serious sandwiches ... a sunset ... and good company ... what could be better?
...unfortunately, Mingo has fallen off the wagon again ... this is what he was doing while the rest of us were attending AA

...and when we arrived at home there was a message from my sister ... Little Nonnie has bronchitis (antibiotics) and a pinched nerve (neck exercises that she will not do unless she is forced by a physical therapist) and an ulcerated sore in her mouth (special $37 mouthwash four times a day) and PMR (with its accompanying threat of the nightmare of Prednisone rearing its ugly head) ... sigh.

anywho ... the sunset was beautiful, the sandwiches were yummy ... and hand applique is kinda fun