STOLEN ONE BUCKET LIST!!!

My bucket list was stolen!

It appears my bucket list was switched with someone else's. This other crazy person seems to have had doing a half marathon on her list. She must be someone much younger than I am. She has to be in much better physical condition than I am. She must have very different priorities than I do. Seriously, who has running on their list? Who could undervalue their knees like that? She deffinately didnt have "learning how to crochet a granny square on her list" like I did. I bet she eats tofu hotdogs and drinks green smoothies. She is probably not addicted to candy... like I might be.....if I was inclined to like that sort of thing.

Upon further thinking maybe she decided to do this race for a really good reason. Maybe it was in memory of a friend who died young of a terrible disease. Maybe that moved her off the comfy sofa watching Downton Abbey into the gym. Maybe she was eager to connect with a family she loved. What if she had lots of special memories of this family. Memories of lots of sisters of which she had none in her family. A family that always included her in their travels and life stuff while she was growing up. Maybe there was even one really special sister that became her friend during those horrible high school years. What if that sister became her roommate in college and the maid of honor at her wedding? What if one married and raised her family of three daughters on the sunny west coast and the other lived and raised her family of three daughters in the northern forested midwest and they hadn't seen each other in years? Could any of that be reason enough to change a bucket list?

It can. It did. It's tomorrow.

 

Turkish Rugs and Other Handcrafts

Turkish rugs!

 

What is the deal with Turkish rugs? I have always wondered what makes them different from other rugs....and why are they so expensive. Now I know.

In Ephesus we visited a "carpeteria." Sounds like cafeteria and in a way it was since we started our visit with a beautiful meal in the garden of the rug place. I think they discovered somewhere that people are much better shoppers when they have a full tummy. We had a nice lunch and the food was grilled in the outdoor oven near our tables.

After lunch we entered the carpeterium. There we saw women working on the rugs. The spokesperson for the event was a Turkish version of Gerorge Clooney. No kidding. I have a better picture on my camera to show the resemblence.....he said he wished he had a euro for ever time he was told that.

 

In the showroom we saw the silkworms and they demonstrated how they get the silk threads. I held a silk worm caccoon in my hand and the worm was jumping all around like a jumping bean. It is amazing and freaky. The caccoons are in a pot at hotwater where the woman would beat the water with a brush until the the threads start to come off. They are so thin and seem fragile but they are really strong. The threads are then spun together into thicker thread.

 

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The women weaving sit on small benches where they are in front of a huge loom with a picture pinned upof the design they are making. It looks like just a cross stitch pattern. Some yarn is above and some skeins sit beside them on the bench. George CLooney explained the difference between cotton, silk and wool rugs and why some cost more than others. Everyone then went into the next room and when almost everyone left one of the ladies invited me to sit beside her. I thought it was to watch her closer but she handed me a piece of pink yarn and told me to weave it.....in her charade kind of way. So I took the yarn and she was very good at correcting me with her English "no no no" when I was heading in the wrong direction like under rather than over. I then slid the knot down and like a flash she had a knife hidden in her hand when she swiftly cut the thread off. That was one knot. Now I know why these rugsthey cost so much.

In the next room we were all told to sit on the benches around the room. The room had a large open areas on the floor. An amazing show with spectacular showmanship surrounded us. Carpets came flying in (almost literally ) while a team of maroon shirted men would enroll the rugs in perfectly choreographed routines. We were then served tea and told to crawl around on the rugs and feel them. I've got some good pictures from that. Suddenly, out of nowhere came the Turkish timeshare team. They were released into our midst like hungry dogs. They all spoke english and they were relentless. The opening line was "which one would you like?" The cheapest rug was about $350.00 and that was about the size you could put your pets water dish on. Prices went up from there to around 25,000 for the replica of Abraham Lincoln's office rug.

Rugs with saffron used in the dye were even more expensive. All the prices did include shipping to your door. Two people in our group bought the small rugs. They have you sign the back of your rug after purchasing so when it finally gets to your house you don't say, " thats not my rug!"

 

Other hand crafts in Ephesus were the pottery and elaborately knitted socks and slippers from the ladies that would come into town.

 

 

Coming to the Quilt Party

I read on a friends blog about the online quilt show and  took a look. I have been enjoying  the Park City Girl Quilt Festival so much. I knew I needed to join the party!  With my last blog attempt almost a year ago, this has been quite the nudge.  

I try to make a quilt every year during our long, cold winter season.  Gathering up all the colorful fabric to surround me during the long gray days  helps to brighten my spirits. It beats sitting under one of those "happy" lights.  

I always have someone in mind to gift the finished product to when I begin.  These are my  quilts from the last two winters.  I missed stitching this winter....as I found myself out of town supporting a friend who had the stitches on her life quilt unravelling.  

This quilt is called, "Fandango" and it was a kit purchased at our local (and now, sadly gone) quilt shop. If you look closely, the fabrics are plaids and stripes. If it was left up to me, I would never have bought any one of these fabrics.  We all thought they looked like some old guys shirts. Well, did I learn something.  The  fabrics were beautiful all put together, as you can see. 

This was made for my friends daughter's high school graduation and finished for her college graduation!  Inspiration was gathered from a trip to Seville, Spain where we (us moms) took flamenco dancing lessons for a week to celebrate a milestone birthday.  Our husbands spent the time being less inspired at the dance but became experts on some fine cuisine and authentic churros.  I just loved the vibrant colors as you can see from the department store photo of the dresses.

 I gave it to her at her graduation camp out.  Memorial Day weekend on Lake Superior.  It was so cold we all had on long underwear, down vests, down coats, hats and when we sat around we wore our sleeping bags.  Was this fun?  Oh yes!  And the quilt was put to good use right away!

The off  square quilt is from Karla Alexander's book, "Stack a New Deck."  It is called "Bent out of Square."  I soon discovered that making something  to look that random took more work than I imagined.  My daughter picked out 23 different kinds of batik fabric (and she is not a decision maker) for the top. 

 This quilt was for my first grandchild.  We did not know if it would be a boy or girl so we couldn't lean towards any shades of pink or blue. (I begged her to find out...the info was available to them...but they refused because they wanted  it to be a surprise. Who does this now days?)  I was able to have it ready for her baby shower on mothers day weekend.

Thanks for coming to my part of the party! Since my current posting history is on an annual basis, I am not to techno savy (and I do wish to get better at that)...but for now I just jumped in there to join my fellow quilters :)

http://parkcitygirl.blogspot.com/2009/04/quilt-festival-spring-2009.html