"The lunatic, the lover and the poet..."

Through my sister Susan's blog, I find that the Charming Girls Quilt Club members have been tagged to answer the following questions, which will give us an extra entry in this month's prize drawing. So here are my answers.

1. My favorite fabric: I'm not familiar with many brands and designers, except that when I really love a fabric, it usually turns out to be from Cranston.

2. The pattern I'm most looking forward to finishing is my patchwork interpretation of an antique appliqued leaf quilt. The original, called "Halcyon Days," is featured in Quilts for All Seasons, a book compiled by my sister Susan, edited by Patricia Wilens, and published by Oxmoor House in 1993. My quilt is almost finished, just lacking one corner quilted and the edges bound. I think this will be my UFO for August.

3. The food that is my weakness is currently Ball Park franks.

4. If I knew I couldn't fail, i.e., that it would be worth reading, I would write another novel.

5. The best "life advice" I know is "love God and do what you will" (so said St. Augustine). The premise being that if you love God, you'll try very hard not to do anything to offend Him.

I have great difficulty accessing Charming Chatter/Charming Girls. I spend about five minutes just getting into the site, then get confused about where to post, and getting back to the main page takes another five or so. It's probably the fault of my computer having too many encumbrances and not enough memory left, I don't know. But I wish Kelly and some of the members would visit Sourwood Mountain to say hi and to check my progress on the Una quilt.

I've been sewing since 7:00 this morning, and am just about ready to start on the border of the quilt top. So I do expect to have it finished by the end of the month.

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My sewing machine is currently situated in the living room, adjacent to the TV cabinet. This more or less slows down the sewing, but keeps me entertained. I just watched "A Midsummer Night's Dream" on TCM. This is one of the most delightful films I've ever seen. It was made in 1935, and I've seen it maybe a dozen times; I first found it in a video rental place about 1985. It's a charming and rather spooky production of Shakespeare's play; if it had been filmed in color, it probably wouldn't be spooky, but it's all black and gray. Victor Jory plays Oberon, the fairy king. James Cagney and Joe E. Brown are the chief and funniest of the players who produce "Pyramis and Thisbe," the play within the play. Dick Powell and Olivia De Havilland are the main love interest, and little bitty Mickey Rooney is the craziest Robin Goodfellow imaginable. Some of the theme music is suspiciously similar to that of "The Wizard of Oz" film.

AMND is at least as good as The Wizard. It's mostly populated by little people and fairies, and everybody can fly except the humans. The caption of this post is from the play; it's the (human) king's statement of those who have the most vivid imagination.

66-100 Things

66. After I got my first pair of eyeglasses at age 12 or 13, I was amazed to see leaves on trees instead of just big green blobs.
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67. The way to cook good oatmeal (Quaker Old-Fashioned Oats): Bring water to boil, dump in the oats and some salt, return to boil, stir, return to boil, put a lid on the pot and turn off the heat. Wait 5 to 10 minutes and serve. Or eat. There is no way to cook the ground-up oatmeal so that I'll eat it.
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68. Things I'd like to learn to do: (1) Swim (2) Dance (3) Whistle through my teeth
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69. Things I'd like to own: (1) A green thumb (2) A Jaguar X-something sedan (3) A baby grand piano
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70. My zodiac sign is Capricorn, along with Rudyard Kipling, Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon.
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71. My favorite snack is white wine, cheddar cheese and Ritz crackers.
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72. I have seen 2 UFOs.
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73. I have witnessed one event that I'm sure was supernatural. Others suspected.
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74. My mother and her parents and brothers lived in a real haunted house. They had a cat but no dogs. After she married, Mama had a dog named Ginger who wouldn't go near that house.
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75. My cat Mo can make ear-splitting noises like those Mama described from the haunted house. But they had other manifestations, not just noises.
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76. My grandfather Will S., and one of his brothers, were once on a long-distance walking trip. One stormy night they slept in an abandoned church building, which they later found out was not there. It had burned to the ground years before.
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77. Granddaddy Will's parents had a set of dining room chairs that moved in the night. No matter how the family arranged them, around the table or against the wall, next morning they'd be scattered around the room.
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78. A lady named Mattie lived in the hollow at the foot of Oak Mountain. She had a goat that would call her name--"Ma-ma-mat-tie!" She finally killed the goat. But this isn't about me. Except that I resent the killing of a smart goat.
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79. I once had a pretty calico cat named Carly. When she wanted to come into the house, she'd stand at the door and call, "Joanne! Joanne!" Well, it sounded like it.
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80. I'm a charter member of the Smithsonian Institution's Native American Museum council or whatever they call it. "We" have around 80,000 Indian artifacts in the museum. Next time I get a chance to go to DC, I'm going to check it out (haven't seen the Museum yet).
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81. I don't really collect anything now, but I have several piles of stuff I collected in the past: Yellow ware pottery; dolls; paperweights; bookmarks. I have about 20 quilts, so I guess I can call that a collection. They say that if you have more than 2 of anything, it's a collection.
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82. The most recent book I've read is People of the Whale, about an Indian tribe in the northwest U.S.
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83. I love all animals and feel close to them--although there are some I won't get close to if I can help it. It pains my conscience to put out roach discs or to slap a mosquito, but some things you about have to do if you're going to survive.
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84. Bumblebees nest, or congregate, or whatever they do, in holes around my house. When I go out on my deck, one or more will hover in front of the door or buzz around my head for a while. I call them my guard bees.
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85. I was stung once by a honeybee. And one time I stepped on a red wasp and it stung my foot. Ouch! Otherwise, I've never been stung.
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86. I drive a 16-year-old car that has been passed down through the Cage family. I've had it since 1999. It has almost 48,000 miles on the odometer (is that the right -ometer?).
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87. I once bought my daughter a used 1970s-something Camaro. I loved that car--she let me drive it occasionally.
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88. I've never had a broken bone (knock on wood!). Well, once in a fit of rage, I kicked a metal office chair and thought I had broken my big toe--it turned black. But I'm not sure it was broken.
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89. I don't read as much as I used to, because I get eyestrain so easily now. "Old age ain't for sissies." Someday I'll probably have to switch to audiobooks.
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90. I'm glad this is getting close to 100.
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91. I've got a boxful of 5 hydrangea bushes to plant. Tomorrow I've got to dig 5 holes.
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92. My favorite TV show is Jeopardy.
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93. The game I'm best at is Scrabble, but I haven't played it since my mother passed away.
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94. Games I can't stand are chess, bridge and Monopoly.
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95. The movie I've gone to sleep in the middle of the most times is "Star Wars."
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96. Back in the 60s, I was the first female to wear pants suits to work at General Electric in Huntsville. That sounds funny now, when nearly all women wear pants, even to church, if they want to.
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97. I'm not on Facebook, I don't Twitter, and I don't own an iPod. I don't even know for sure what an iPod is.
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98. I like computers, and am mostly in favor of technology, but there's no use going to extremes.
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99. When I first learned to recite the alphabet, I nearly always left out the N.
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100. When I get bored, I go to sleep.