Quilter, Seeking Quiet Place To Recuperate Mentally

 What do all these things have in common and why are they driving me crazy?  Read on and find out.

Ambrosia is trying to drive me crazy.   I don't know why she's set herself this goal, but the evidence is irrefutable.  The trouble is I think she's succeeding.

For those of you who haven't met Ambrosia and her sister (by adoption) Nefertiti, you can read about them here.  http://lifeatspringrock.blogspot.com/2010/01/introducing-ambrosia-and-nefertiti.html

My granddaughter Claire has moved into her Big Girl's Bed and of course needs a quilt to go on it.  On Saturday night, when I was frantically trying to get Claire's quilt finished to give to her on Sunday when we attended her baby sister's Christening,  I searched for my thread conditioner in the little blue box (Thread Heaven it's called).  I knew that the chances were pretty good that Ambrosia and once again failed to resist the lure of the little blue box and pilfered it.  I finally found it under the chair I sit on to hand sew my quilts.  I put it on the table beside my sewing chair in the lounge room (I was watching television while sewing) and got back to what I was doing. I needed to go get the cream thread from the sewing room to sew on the label.  I was sewing the label before I'd finished all the binding because it would be more difficult to sew down the label  in the car as we travelled up to see the grandchildren on Sunday.  I knew there was no way I'd get the quilt finished on Saturday night.  If I'd known the whole night would turn into one unsuccessful treasure hunt I may have given up there and then and gone to bed with an icepack on my head.  I put the thread on the table near my chair and then had to go do something else (I can't remember what - I was doing a number of things at the same time as usual).  When I returned to my chair I couldn't find the thread anywhere.  I checked under the chair, inside the chair, back to the sewing room in case I'd absent mindedly put it down in there.  I looked everywhere it could possibly be and some places it couldn't possibly be, but it was nowhere to be found.  I spent a lot of precious sewing time looking for the thread and finally decided it would be a lot faster to just go get another spool of a close enough colour.

I got another greyish cream thread, settled down to sew the label on and turned to get the thread conditioner from the table.  It wasn't there!!!. Holding on tightly to the spool of thread (I wasn't going to risk losing a second one!)  I searched all the places I'd just searched for the thread with just as much success.  By this time I was sure I was going mad.  I told Graeme the sad truth about my sanity and he mumbled something I couldn't hear - most probably that I'd been mad for years in his opinion, but as I couldn't hear exactly what he was saying and I was preoccupied with planning a nice long stay somewhere quiet while my brain recovered, I didn't take issue with whatever it was he said.  I just didn't have the time at the moment to debate the exact date I'd lost the plot in his opinion.   Besides he might have mumbled something complementary about my mental state.  Yes, that was obviously what he was doing right?

Even though I remembered putting both the cream thread and the Thread Heaven on the table, the table was definitely cream thread and Thread Heaven free.  Luckily I had a spare unopened box of Thread Heaven I'd been saving for when the one I was using was all used up, so I opened  that and finally got the label sewn on.  The rest of the night's sewing remained uneventful.  I didn't leave my chair for anything though, I wasn't going to risk coming back and finding some other sewing item had fallen into the black hole located somewhere near my sewing chair.  Neither missing object appeared throughout the night.

When I'd finally decided  that it was bedtime and I couldn't possibly sew another stitch, I put Ambrosia and Nefertiti in the bathroom for the night as usual.  I usually just pop them into the dark room and close the door quickly so I don't end up chasing them around the house after they've escaped.  We've had quite a few rodeos lately when they've managed to see my intent before I picked them up.  They bounce off the walls, skidding along the kitchen floor, scoot into the lounge room to hide under furniture and generally manage to evade my attempts to grab them.  But I digress.    

I went to bed still thinking about mental therapy options.  The next morning when Graeme was in the bathroom he came out with a spool of cream thread.  He told me that I'd put the thread on the vanity unit last night and walked away without it.  I was 100% sure I didn't go into the bathroom after I'd picked up the thread last night, but who can tell.  When you are going crazy, blank spots are as common as hallucinations.  Ambrosia, who was sitting on my lap at the computer, assumed her most innocent face and changed the subject as soon as she could.  Then it was my turn to visit the bathroom and there, beside the cats' bed, was my little blue box of Thread Heaven.  All was explained!  

I knew Ambrosia had turned into a sewing tools thief but I'd thought I'd checked all the likely places she'd hide her ill gotten gains.  The bathroom never occurred to me.  I am continually pulling pins out of her mouth as she tries to make a get away with a mouth full of glass head pins.  She will steal my scissors if she thinks she can get away with it.   The reason the Thread Heaven was under the chair is that she loves to lift it from my table, jump to the floor an bat it around in her spare time and my thimbles are number her one great game.  She climbs onto my chair and delicately picks the thimbles up in her teeth, drops to the floor, spits out the thimble, and the game begins.  Nefertiti will then join in the improvised football (or is it hockey, I can't figure out the rules so I'm not sure) game as I chase them through the house trying to get my hands on my thimble before it disappears under the fridge or some other large furniture item.  Ambrosia and Nefertiti are happy for me to join in the game as long as I don't actually manage to get hold of the thimble.  I just don't play by their rules and they know if I manage to snag the thimble that will be the last they see of it until Ambrosia can sneak up and steal it once again. They are very fast and very talented kittens when it comes to thimble football (or hockey as the case may be) and I now have three thimbles missing in action.

Hmmm, there seems to be a trend here.  Is it possible that Ambrosia is stockpiling sewing notions because she's planning a quilt of her own?  I'll have to keep an eye on her.  After all she knows where I keep my stash!