Strip Poker

It was strip poker night. I went with such high hopes! All the ladies gathered and the poker playing commenced. Hand after hand, and I was not a winner. Finally, I won a hand, and was able to maintain my dignity! Well, that didn't last long. My elation was dashed by yet another loss. The door was open a bit for some fresh air. I hoped no one would be walking by and look in at our play. I did not want anyone else to see me in my state of loss, of frustration. Finally we switched tables and I hoped that my luck would change. But that was not to be. I realized I do not know how to play poker, with my clothes on or not. I decided that I must research winning strategies so that I could go home a winner, maybe, next time. What a sad tale of whoa! (Paragraph) Actually, you can see what I did win. All the blue strips and the one beige star strip on the top of my bin were the only ones that I did not have in my bin when I went in to play. I had a full bin of strips, pretty, bright, colorful strips. Someone, who shall remain nameless, won all my pretty, bright, colorful strips. Those strips were to be my Scrappy Trip Around the World quilt. But alas, no yet. I lost half of my bin! It was so full I could hardly keep the cover on the top! (Paragraph) After I lost all my strips, we brought out our sewing machines and started to sew. What did I have left to sew, you ask yourself? In some small dark part of my brain, I told myself to take along a community quilt project to sew, and fortunately I did. I sure wasn't able to start my Scrappy Trip Around the World without my pretty, bright, colorful strips!!! I had my mind set on beginning my Trip, but I sewed together some Half Log Cabin blocks that I made years ago for our Community Quilt Group. They were made so long ago, there are no pretty, bright, colorful strips in them. I am not even sure there is any purple in there either. I used Sharon Craig's Half Log Cabin book and made 50 or so blocks in blues and burgundy. I wanted to make a quilt that a man could use, or like. But, it does have some florals in there, I realized Friday night. It also has a fairly bright burgundy (pink?) swirly strip in there as well. Maybe the gentleman who may receive this community quilt will not have great eyesight and just love the feel of a quilt, rather than the pattern of the fabrics. I can only hope! I have not accomplished any additional sewing this weekend other than mending a hole in a pair of pants. The weather has been beautiful, and I did manage to walk around the park today. I also have been reading Emilie Richards' book Lover's Knot. It is very entertaining so far. I am over half way through. I am very proud of myself, too. I have not read the ending yet. I am trying to hold out until I actually get to the ending in my course of reading. I am well noted for going straight for the ending, then reading the middle, then the beginning if I don't really understand what is going on. Then I will read it all the way through, from beginning to end, usually one more time. If I like the book a lot, I may read it a second or third time before I pass it on to someone else to read, or return the book to the library if I borrowed it from there.

I learned a big lesson this weekend, I do not play poker well, and do not like losing! So, all in all, some gain was achieved for me. I may have lost my strips, but I now know I don't like playing poker!

Happy Quilting