Trip to ETA and Denise, The Chicken

GOOD TUESDAY MORNING
AND
HAPPY
VALENTINE'S
DAY !

Jerry gave me the nicest card this morning.  I bought him a strawberry cheesecake/cake with 3 giant strawberries on top, but it is SO RICH you can only eat a sliver of it.  Guess that is a good thing, huh? 

It takes a long time to download videos to You Tube even if they are only a few minutes long, so I had to do that yesterday and last night.  Now that they are downloaded, I have a new tutorial for you with both Phylly and I in it.  It will be posted in the "Tutorial" section over there on the right.  I will call it "Round Back Correction".

Now, for ETA, for those of you who sew.  ETA stands for Education of the Textile Arts.  A long name for "Sewing".  It is put on every year by Peggy Sagers.  You can learn all about her at Silhouettepatterns.com.  She has lots of free videos to watch.

Peggy is the nicest person in the whole world, but she isn't the most organized.  The poor teachers were all very flustered because they didn't have a table to work on or a projector or an easel or something else they needed.  Every class was the same.  The brochure showed that one lady was to do a demo Saturday morning.  Phylly and I really wanted to go to that.  Turned out a DIFFERENT lady was on the stage instead.  We had to miss the lady we thought we were going to see because her demo was the next day.  The lady that was trying to do her demo is someone we really love, but we have seen her many times.  We felt so sorry for her because she had NOTHING but a flat stage to stand on and nothing to work with.  She had to go get an easel and a pad of paper.  She then had to put all her files and demo sheets on the FLOOR!  One lady was taping papers from her Post It Easel Pad onto the wall to make a screen she could project pictures onto.   One lady told us she was supposed to have a class on Friday, and it did not get scheduled at all.  I think Peggy tries to do TOO MUCH!

HOWEVER, in spite of all those issues, we had a very good time.  The food was good.  The beds were comfortable and the rooms were very nice.  Phylly brought her chicken with her.  I think she has been working too hard and the stress has gotten to her.  I kid you not.  My friend Deanna says that I am "special" -- well, I'm not the ONLY one!  Phylly carries this chicken in her purse and takes it everywhere.  I am NOT KIDDING!  She even brought it to lunch at the hotel restaurant and MADE me feed it!

Here it -- actually, she calls it Denise -- is on the stage waiting for the instructor to go find an easel and a pad so she could do her demo.

Here she is in MY suitcase.  How on earth did

she get there?  Phylly says she is an "alien chicken" and follows her wherever she goes.

So here is the REAL scoop on the chicken pincushion -- not that Phylly really isn't "special".  I made that little pincushion for her for Christmas.  I gave it to her with NO PINS IN IT.  The chicken is made out of denim, and I quilted it in a diagonal checkerboard pattern.  Phylly just found herself putting the pins in on the criss-cross intersections of the quilt pattern every time she put a pin in it -- she calls it "pin feathers".  She does some hand sewing at work at times, so she took Denise to work with her.  Then she lost her mind and started taking pictures of her all over the store. 

 Here, she has her in a wheelchair............

And in a Seat Lift Chair...................

And on a Bedside Commode...........

I probably should have called 911 and had her committed, but then I got to thinking about it.  I have had many friends at different times in my life that I thought were really true blue and loyal and would always be my dearest and bestest friends forever, but when they found out I was "special", they dropped me like a hot potato.  Maybe -- just maybe -- it takes a nut like Phylly to endure to the end with me.  Only time will tell. 

And if you think I am just MAKING THIS STUFF UP, watch this -- proof positive!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQjuTh0cYfE

And what on earth does THAT have to do with ETA???

Okay, okay.....................

The first night we were there, which was Friday night, we went down to the lobby restaurant to have some supper.  We were sitting at our table eating, and who should step out of the elevator and walk over to the restaurant right next to where are table was?????  Of all people, the greatly feared teacher from last year:  Cynthia Guffey!!!  Phylly and I were scheduled to take all of her classes this year. 

We took just one class from CG last year.  The first thing CG did last year was walk all around the classroom looking at what everyone had on and she said, "You are ALL wearing knit!!!  You know WHY you are all wearing knit?!  Because NOTHING FITS YOU!!!"  Poor Phylly was the only one wearing something she had made -- or, at least, the only one who would DARE admit it.  So that is why she got pulled to the front of the class.  Then CG proceeded to tell the whole class that Phylly needed to buy a better bra and get her bust lifted up and pointed out that she could see clear across the room through Phylly's sleeves.  I told Phylly at the time that I was going to hide under my chair if I ever took another class from her because I would die if she did that to me!

So this past year, Phylly lost over 30 pounds.  She bought an aluminum clad - heavy duty- lifter upper - bra and made new clothes with LONG sleeves.  I made new clothes.  We both decided we were going to wear something we made to her class and see if she picked on us like last year.

Sooooooooooooooo, here we are, sitting at our table on Friday night, and we see Cynthia Guffey get out of the elevator.  Now, picture Princess Di in sweats, no makeup, and messy hair.  Phylly and I looked at her and then looked at each other and looked at her again.  She was still beautiful, but she looked like we usually do insofar as how she was dressed.  I caught her eye and said, "Hello Cynthia".  To our complete surprise, SHE CAME OVER TO OUR TABLE.  I lifted my purse off a chair and motioned for her to join us.  She did!  WOW!  Imagine.  This is the lady we feared so much, and now, she is sitting at our table like an ordinary person.

She was lovely.  I knew her husband had been sick from another teacher telling me last year, so I asked about him.  She talked about him and how she took care of him.  He was up in their room.  We talked for about 20 minutes, I guess, and then she said she had to go.  What a delight it was for us to meet her like that.

And talking about Cynthia.  Here she is when she was younger:


We hurried as fast as we could Saturday morning to shower, dress, eat and show up for what was supposed to be HER demo -- according to the brochure which we still had in our possession and we checked to be sure -- and when we got to the area where it was supposed to be, we practically ran into her.  We said we were there to see her demo.  She said, "What demo?"  Then she looked at the blouse I was wearing -- which was my bow blouse worn intentionally for her class -- and she asked if I had made it.  I said, "Yes".  She said, "You did a very good job!"  Well, that was it!  I was in heaven.  Could this scary lady GET any nicer?!  Wow!  You just don't know people, do you?

We went to the empty stage to find out Lorraine Henry was giving a demo.

Well, we know her very well and love her.  She is the opposite personality of Cynthia.  Soft spoken and sweet, sweet, sweet all day long.

Other than that, we just kept going to classes and stopping to eat.  We skipped the last two classes on Sunday because the weather was supposed to get bad.  Phylly tried to take us to the wrong town, but we got turned around and made it back home.  She blamed it all on Denise, of course!  We learned some new things.  Check out the new tutorial for the round back correction we learned from Cynthia -- when I get it up, that is.  EXCELLENT information!  I got in trouble in Peggy's class for "scooping" my jeans out.  You are never supposed to "scoop" according to Peggy.  It's that whole crotch curve thing.  When I get that down pat in my brain, I'll do a Tutorial on that.

Better go.  The day is calling. 

Hugs,

Joy