Flamingos and bobbins??

I put flamingos up for my title image because flamingos just make me very happy. They were my absolute favorite animal as a child, and although I have loved them a bit less in recent years, they are definitely making a comeback in my life. I think we can blame my mother for thus, as she purchased the flamingo flowerpot for my office, with the logic that I needed something to keep my sheep flowerpot company. I think that sentence right there goes a long way to demonstrate how I end up with crazy things sometimes. And then we found that cute little flamingo yard set for my zen garden that also is in my office. I think next time I'm home I'll grab some more of my flamingo things (did I mention I had a whole bedroom and bathroom decorated in flamingo decor?) to bring back to work. Bright pink is exactly what northwestern Indiana needs, especially in winter (not that its winter now though, I suppose).

Although my first bit there was about flamingos, I think I more intend this to be about my crafting, with maybe a little about the rest of me too. First, I'd like to explain why I chose this as the title for my blog. The Christmas present that N and I got for my mom this year was a trip for her and me to the American Quilter Society 2009 Quilt Show and Contest in Paducah, KY at the end of April. We had a great time there (more on another day). A lot of the booths and vendors that we saw had those little wooden signs with cute little quilty sayings like "Sew many quilts." The one that I really liked was "May your bobbin always be full." It has this ring of optimism to it (which I'm really trying to embrace in a difficult semester), but it also feels a little bit snarky to me, as well. And as we all know there is almost NOTHING more annoying than running out of bobbin thread when you're halfway through a long seam, having failed to wind extra bobbins in the color that you need, meaning the only way to get more thread down there is to completely unthread the machine, wind the bobbin, take out the fabric, re-insert the bobbin, get the bobbin threat back to the top and then try to figure out where, exactly, you were supposed to be stitching. This is typically even more frustrating because you've also managed to sew for a good several inches (if not an entire seam) before realizing that you were not really sewing because you were out of bobbin thread. Perhaps you see my point about more optimism being something I need in my life.

The above cat is named Catcat. More on her and the other cat to follow.