Friday, August 4, 2006

RAK'd by Sheila

Yesterday I mentioned attending the "Coffee, Crochet & Chat" sessions sponsored by my local crochet group; I was lucky and attended both the morning and the evening sessions.  What I didn't mention yesterday was that I brought one of the items I was so wonderfully RAK'd with.  No, I decided to wait in sharing the details (on my blog) about the RAK'ing because I thought it deserved it's own journal/blog entry.  And I think you'll agree.

Many of my readers have gotten to know Sheila either by her thoughts she shares with us here at my blog (in the comments sections), or by reading her blog, which is now back on AOL as "
Needles and Hooks" that represents her love of knitting sewing and crochet.  (As far as I can recollect in all of Sheila's postings, she is not a knitter.)

When I first "met" Sheila, it wasn't through our commonality of crochet.  Nope.  I met her through an AOL message board when I was looking for help getting started with my blog.  Geesh; I think that's 2 1/2 years ago now!  She was quick to offer me great advice, helpful tips & hints and such.  Then when she admitted to me she crocheted I told her I wanted to read about it -- on her crochet blog.  And she did.  Then, every so often, she'd sneek in entries about her sewing passion, and recently blogged about quilting some beautiful bags.

Then one day she posted a picture of one of her quilted bags saying she was going to ebay it -- so naturally I contacted her immediately: "Sheila," I pleaded said, "I simply must have one of your beautiful quilted bags!  Name your price!"

Little did I know she intended to RAK me with one -- she inquired about my favorite things (I like coffee & giraffes), and later, right under my nose, she blogged about it (but never mentioned who it was for!) -- then to my delight, she surprised me with it!  (I know I'm gushing on with run-on sentences, but it's really my unconstrained excitement!)  Isn't it wonderful?  Look at all those giraffes!  I'm not a quilter, but I do know she put a lot of time, energy, effort AND creativity in it!  I'm still marveling over it!


I brought my new bag to our local "Coffee, Crochet & Chat" sessions and the girls women just went wild over it!  Sheila included pockets inside to help keep me organized, and included little button holes here & there to allow for me to thread various yarns through for projects needing to seperate the fibers.  And the bag is lushiously big -- big enough to carry all the items I need for the various classes I teach.

But that's not all folks!  Sheila also included beads for my children, and crocheted rosettes (not pictured) for me.  Am I spoiled or what?  :D

Thank you soooooooooooo much Sheila!!!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!  I love it!!!!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The bag is beautiful.  If you like giraffes, Yahoo has a wonderful picture of a mother giraffe cleaning her new born baby.  I'm certainly glad we don't have to use our tongues on our young.
On another note, Dee, you have inspired me.  Your attempts to knit have made me want to be a better crocheter.  I figure if the crochet maven (yiddish for expert) can try to knit, then I should be able to crochet more than hats and afghans.  I made my mother the Valentina Devine spiral scarf from the spring Interweave Crochet and as soon as Herscher's sends me a Tunisian afghan hook, I'm going to make Magaret Hubert's cover bag from "Hooked on Bags."  My first attempt at Tunisian crochet.  I hope to be able to show it to you at Knit Out Crochet Too at Union Square.
Speaking of Interweave Crochet, Interweave Knits had an article on Annie Modesitt, which didn't mention that she crochets or edits the Crochet Pattern a Day calendar.  It really bothered me and I consider myself much more of a knitter than a crocheter.  I wrote them a letter and their response was rather disingenuous.  They said that the interviewer probably didn't ask and Annie didn't mention it.  If you interview a pianist, I would think you would ask them if they play any other instruments.  If a Rolling Stone had an article on Billy Joel, I'm sure they would mention that he is writing classical music.  How could the interviewer not have asked "Do you do any other needlecraft?"  
At last night's NYC Crochet Guild meeting, I asked for more people to write to them.  I'm hoping that in the next issue, they mention their oversight.
Granted on a scale of one to ten, it doesn't rank as a Mel Gibson moment, but none the less it was offensive.
Thanks for letting me vent.
Wendy

Anonymous said...

Either I'm sunburnt from my jaunts today or I'm seriously BLUSHING!!!!   When I saw that whimsical giraffe print with them wearing party hats and headphones, I said, "Oh, this is DEE!!!"

You are very welcome!!!  I'm so happy that you like everything!!!!  And I'm happy to learn that your "C, C & C" people liked the bag too.  I worried that it might be too big but then I thought of your teaching, that you're a professional crocheter who could easily fill that bag with yarn and I thought it would be a good size if you're working on something large.  I had a lot of fun making it for you.  

Dee, you've been such a help to me that words cannot express it.  Just know that I really and truly appreciate you.

Much love and friendship,
Sheila  (still blushing...not used to these big public announcements)

PS to Astaryth's comment - I figured YOU'D like the giraffes!  LOL!  Coming from the woman who plays with real wildlife!!!

Anonymous said...

PS to Dee - Did you have to fight the kids for the glow beads?  LOL!  I know you like that glow stuff as much as I do!!!