Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

My spooky sewing project? Well, Wednesday was our fourth wedding anniversary. I think that the traditional gift is fruit, which just wasn't very exciting. A basket full of peaches is not very romantic.

What is romantic? Being in bed! Being in a big comfy bed with soft sheets and sleeping for eight hours. Charlie has been working a lot lately trying to get a product shipped, and sleep has been at a premium. So I decided to make him a pillowcase and a sham.

Besides work and sleep, right now Charlie likes Cthulhu. We've both been reading the Lovecraft short stories and also playing a rather involved board game that is set in the universe. Cthulhu, in short, is a huge tentacled horror of a god, lurking and waiting until it is his time to come wreak havoc upon the world. He hovers on the edge of dreams, occasionally gifting sensitive people with glimpses into his realm. They pretty much always go mad. It's dark stuff. It's wonderful, creative, spooky, creepy dark stuff. And Charlie loves it.

I went to my favorite quilting fabric store, one that has a stunning array of cotton prints, and tried to pick out a handful of fabrics that looked like parallel universes of utter insanity. Then I cut them up into strips and made a few long swaths and turned those into the borders of the cases. Tucked up next to them is a thin strip of black-night-and-stars, the border between dreamtime and madness.

innocently lying on the deck

Perhaps I got carried away. But part of the glory of being married to someone for this long is that you know that they understand exactly what you were thinking and can appreciate it. Not everyone can say "Happy anniversary, love, here are your pillowcases for sweet dreams. See that strip of stars? It is the only thing lying between you and the unmitigated horror of these other universes. I especially like the one that looks like tentacles or eyeballs, whatever you pick."

---------------

Eggs laid in the coop today: 5
Eggs laid this year: 110