Always a fun day when I get together with Wanda, though she started out with upsetting news: a friend of ours has had a medical scare (never good news, but especially after the rough year she's just had 'it's not fair'), and spent much of Thursday having all sorts of tests.  Now we all just have to sit and wait for the results, though unofficial guesses are apparently optimistic.

  After a brief Show&Tell (Wanda approved of my Disappearing 4-Patch blocks and the mini-quilt I started during Jessica's class) we got started.  However we ran into a snag at one point because I did not get enough (or the right size) webbing on Friday. So that seemed like a good point to stop and go to lunch (YUMMY!) Afterward we popped over to her house, in essence to rummage through her webbing stash and and also pick up some heavier thread, though it was also an opportunity to admire her jacket now that all the pieces have been sewn together.  I also wanted see the progress on the Pizza Box block for Donna, which Wanda had put in such a safe place (so her cats wouldn't mess with it) that it was MIA for a while.  But she did find it, and despite her aggravations with the paper-piecing (I'm not the only one, and if Wanda has trouble with something you can just imagine the fits it gives me!) it is turning out beautifully; Donna will love it!

We then made a run down to SAS where I got the correct amounts/sizes of webbing (and saw lots of people in there picking up all sorts of fun fabrics for Halloween costumes) and then headed over to 35th Ave. (on our stop there last time Wanda had forgotten to pick up some gift cards she needed) where I found yet more cute kitty fabric on the sale shelves, and the perfect fabric to work into my mini-quilt border.  Could not find my coupon, but after Elaine, at the cutting table, overheard me she gave me one that is expiring on Monday that she insisted I use.  Really!  Said it would 'save' her from having to shop for fabric when she doesn't need anything.  (I told her need has nothing to do with it, but she still insisted.)  

By the time we got home it was almost 4:00 and Tom was getting worried about us.  We had invited him to go out to lunch with us, which offer he declined, but when he suggested maybe instead we could bring him back a take-out order I did mention that we weren't coming straight home from our lunch outing. Anyway, once we had all the necessary materials at hand we got back to work.

When it was time for the final step clips are easier to use than pins, so Wanda suggested clippies.  I knew I had some somewhere (because I had tried using them when binding, but didn't like them) which is why I had the Tools Tub out, to look for them, but they weren't there.  They were, however, in one of the little sections on the tray (with a clear top) that she lent me a couple of years ago which is 'attached' to my machine to hold the fabric level with the sewing area. So every time I've sewed I've probably seen them.  Didn't I feel stupid?! Happens a lot when I sew.... LOL! 

(I had also picked up the necessary heavier needles for working with the mesh, though later, when looking through my "Tools" tub for clippies I found enough little boxes of needles in varying sizes that I may never need to buy any again ...providing I remember that I have them....) 

And by 5:30 I had my first gift completed!  Of course I can't post a picture (because the lucky recipient has been known to visit my blog) but maybe it'll show up in a post-holiday entry in January.  Today I am going to work on some all by myself.  On the one hand I "know" the procedure now (at least in theory) so it might go faster (at least I don't have to leave the house to find webbing, heavier thread, heavier needles, etc.)  On the other hand, I won't have a resident expert at my side helping, and could be singing this song:

Help Me, Wanda, Help Help Me, Wanda!

Can I get a bag completed before I head off to the gym this afternoon? 

But if you're curious, heck back later for an update 

and discover whether I am jumping for joy.... or tearing out my hair. 

Last night Tom and I watched our current Netflix, Long Way Down, which we both enjoyed.
(Another rec fromTerry? Can't remember.
)

Meet Martin, JJ, Jess, and Maureen. Four people who come together on New Year's Eve: a former TV talk show host, a musician, a teenage girl, and a mother. Three are British, one is American. They encounter one another on the roof of Topper's House, a London destination famous as the last stop for those ready to end their lives. 
In four distinct and riveting first-person voices, Nick Hornby tells a story of four individuals confronting the limits of choice, circumstance, and their own mortality. This is a tale of connections made and missed, punishing regrets, and the grace of second chances. 
Intense, hilarious, provocative, and moving, A Long Way Down is a novel about suicide that is, surprisingly, full of life. 


I was up until midnight, wide awake (and reading) so I was surprised to wake up so early this morning.  However did get to see a very pretty red sky when I let Tyga out.  Wasn't aware that we're in for some weather!