(such a) Fickle Stitcher

DH brought lots of wonderful things home: Gibble’s Cheese Puffys, Swetzel’s Spice Wafers, a down comforter & duvet from his mom which went straight on #2Son’s bed (we are having an unseasonable cold snap here in South Mississippi). But the one he could not wait until morning to show me was this:

I decided to bring him to work so I could enjoy (& benefit from) him more, but I also plan to create a bead mala for him to wear. He’s not quite 3-inches wide and tall, perhaps a little less purple-looking than the photos, and made by Gary Steinborn of Venice Clay (Buddha Cats). Since he is blue, however, he will serve well as my Sangye Menla buddha, the medicine buddha (of whom I wrote a paper for my Buddhism class several years ago).

There is some interesting folklore about cats and Buddhism, no doubt more than I have heard/read! One holds that monastery cats are bad monks reincarnated as cats for punishment. Personally, I believe that one is told by cat-haters/dog-lovers. I prefer the belief that cats are good monks on their last incarnation prior to achieving nirvana.

There is some interesting cat lore here, and a delightful book by an author I met last year, Gerald Hausman, The Metaphysical Cat (excerpt).

And here’s the lastest (and maybe best) photo of my boy, Brickle:

It’s a joyful day: my husband returned home last night from a three-week visit with his daughters/neice, grandchildren/neices, mother and sister! (And nothing super serious failed/died/broke/happened while the Man of The House was away!) I saw him for about 10 minutes then fell asleep. I look forward to a nice supper with him tonight.

I want to show off the Inchies which I put in the mail yesterday to a friend in France. (We had a swap at CyberStitchers EGA, and she sent more than everyone else, so I made up the difference — only it took me ages to get them finished and in the mail to her!) I basted wool felt to some muslin and stitched the crewel motifs with Heathway wool and Pearsal’s silk threads (from Tristan Brooks Designs).

The motifs are from a variety of in-progress projects by Barbara Jackson. My original intent was to complete all nine squares, but then I thought I would leave four for Virginie to stitch and have as a completed design by both of us… we’ll see what she decides to do with it.