Rayen

It took two weeks for me to finish embroidering this row of patchwork on the recycled linen quilt, but I had fun with it this month. Two more rows to go, and it will be ready to bind. I'm not going to rush, so I expect I'll wrap up this quilt in October. For now I'm going to take a break and work on some smaller projects for the rest of August.

While my favorite person was visiting last month we had dinner at our favorite Japanese restaurant, where the food they serve is not only delicious but beautiful, too. She had their chirashi dinner, which is assorted raw fish, tamago, kani and pickle radish with sushi rice. My guy had the chicken hibachi dinner, which is stir fried chicken and veggies with noodles and fried rice. I opted for the chicken bento box dinner, which is teriyaki chicken with steamed rice, two kinds of gyoza, seaweed salad and surimi sushi. We all agreed that everything tasted even better than it looked. :)

It took a while for me to slog through the 49 episodes of Meteor Garden , the Chinese adaptation of Boys Over Flowers , and for the most part it wasn't all that bad. Instead of writing a long review I'll cover the pros and cons. Pros first: 1. Dylan Wang as the male lead character Daoming Si was an interesting casting choice. He's definitely a strong visual, but he also brought a unique interpretation to the role. 2. The wardrobe and settings departments did great work, especially with the variety of clothing and locations. 3. The love triangle between Si, Shancai and Lei worked almost as well as it did in F4 Thailand. 4. The story was even more detailed than the Japanese version. 5. The secondary romance was quite charming. And now the Cons: 1. Shen Yue was pretty one-dimensional in portraying the lead female character Dong Shancai. She spent most of the series in a negative emotional state, which got tedious fast. 2. Whoever wrote the dialogue needs ...

I won the Goodwill online auction for "14lbs Fabrics Collection Lot w/ Scraps" with my first and only bid. Since it came from the same seller as the 9 lb. fabric lot with all the panels I feel pretty hopeful that it will be worth it. When it arrives I'll post pics of exactly what I receive. As I expected, I was outbid on this auction. Any time there are fabric bolts in a lot the bidders swarm. I'd rather stick to bidding what I really think it's worth and no more than that versus paying too much because I was trying to outbid someone else, so losing it is fine with me. There are a four more quilting-related lots I'm considering bidding on, if I can get them for the minimum bid amount. Still mulling it over for now, but I'm probably going to break my promise again. :)

This is my working right hand, on which the first three fingers function at about 90% with lots of breaks. Now that I've developed on both hands trigger finger, a condition in which tendons lock up, my ring finger becomes very painful whenever I move it, especially when I bend it, and sometimes gets stuck. I'm wearing an adjustable splint on it now to keep it straight. The pinky finger isn't me being snooty; it just doesn't bend much anymore. This is my dominant but non-working left hand, which has trigger finger in the middle. This finger is the worst of the two as far as pain goes. The last time it got stuck in the curled-over position I had trouble bending it straight again (so it's splinted, too.) It's also turning inward/sideways like my ring finger. I have maybe 20% use of this hand on a very good day, but almost no fine motor skills. These are the splints I'm wearing, which I bought from Amazon here . They're a bit expensive, but...

The Love You Give Me is a Chinese rom-com second chance at love drama with not one but three romances, and proved that even the heavily censored and strictly g-rated series can be absorbing, charming and completely cute. After five years of managing on her own, single mom and AI designer Min Hui (aptly protrayed by Wang Yuwen) meets up with her first love, wealthy and powerful investor Xin Qi (played by the equally talented Wang Ziqi). They have a lot of bad blood, plus Min Hui has a startling secret she's desperate to keep. In order to secure an important hospital project, however, she must persuade Xin Qi to give her company a chance. Gradually they work things out, but Xin Qi isn't a pushover, and he's also suspicious about Min Hui's little boy, Quanquan a cute four year old with a heart problem -- just like his own heart problem, in fact. Yep, Quanquan is Xin Qi's son, and this revelation changes everything. The second chance/secret baby premise sound...

I said I was done with bidding on fabric auctions, I know, but then two lots came up for grabs that I couldn't resist. This one included four bolts of fabric in colors I need for my planned pink and blue quilt -- maybe even enough for the backing -- and also a decent amount of a low-volume print that may possibly be enough to back a king size quilt I'm thinking of making this winter. I've also decided on a max limit based on what I think each one is worth, and I won't bid more than that for either lot. Because of that I probably won't win the first lot, as there have been a couple of bidders competing with me on it (this always happens when there are bolts in the lot. We all know how valuable they are.) The potential backing fabric in the first lot. The second lot appears to be quilting cotton scraps, and remind me of the 9 lb. lot I got with all the panels. There might be some yardage in this lot, too. What looks like some handmade bindin...