The Ladies of the Needle

We have a knit/crochet club at Berkeley Friends Church that meets once a month, and I'm once again learning to crochet (my friend Felice tried to teach me once, many years ago, but I didn't keep at it and never learned much). One of our sometime attenders in this club suggested that we call our selves "The Ladies of the Needle," which has a certain ring to it but also sounds a bit like a knock-off of a John Le Carre novel.

Anyway, today Dorothy brought the quilts that her mother had made to show us, and they were so amazing that we all started taking pictures. And here they are:

This one is all done with Hawaiian print fabric squares.















Detail shot of same.














Dorothy shows us the second quilt she brought.













This one is actually laid out on the first one, the peach and dark blue that look like borders on it are the borders from the first quilt.












Detail from the second quilt. They were both totally awesome! I have a couple of quilts that my grandmother Strait made, but they are not in good repair. I actually used to use them as quilts - imagine that!

CAKE!!?!??!?

Ah, Red Velvet Cake. It holds a special place in my heart, because, well, because it holds a special place in the folklore of me and my friends. There's the B.W. Red-Velvet-Cake-vomiting story (in which scenario he gets drunk, eats red velvet cake, vomits it up, and his friends insist on taking him to the hospital, not realizing that the reason for his velvety red vomit is, in fact, red velvet cake), the J,-and-M.-order-red-velvet-cake-for-dessert-after-breakfast story (after which Brian waits at least a full hour, until we're alone, to turn to me and exclaim, "CAKE!!?!??!?." And, if that weren't enough, there's This is Why You're Fat, with it's chocolate velvety balls.

So, imagine my joy when I saw this at Yogurtland (self-service frozen yogurt, 30-cents and ounce!). I hate to say it, but that particular flavor of frozen yogurt isn't that great, and not even particularly evocative of red velvet cake (though maybe it is of the batter, which I've never sampled). Still, as conceptual art, it can't be beat.