Jeff and the Totalled Toyota....

I just got a call from Jeff about an hour ago...

"mama???"

You know when an almost 18 yr old calls you mama in a terrified little boy voice that something is wrong.

I was informed that he wrecked his car.....he HIT a HUMMER!!!

Nothing like doing it big time!

Luckily the Hummer is fine..it's high enough up off the ground that he just blew the rear tire on it and perhaps dinked the rim. But Jeff's Toyota is folded, crumpled, crunched, warped, and ruined! Whhhaaaaaa!

He is okay. Seatbelt was on, airbags went off. Evidently he was following too closely, she went to make a right turn just as he was picking something up off the floor..a CD? His Phone? He said he just glanced away for a second and before he knew anything he was under her bumper. :c(

Of course his insuance will pay for her damage, but his own car is totalled. He only has collision on his, so we won't get anything out of it other than what we are able to salvage through a wrecker. We will save that and wait til we get up to NC to buy him another. In the mean time he can work and save his money towards it. No sense in buying another car here, paying the state taxes on it, moving to NC and paying taxes on it there again within 2 months. No way.

Someone told me once that many lessons can be taught,but some things just have to be learned. I think this is one of those for Jeff. Don't take your eyes off the road, even for a second! You never know when the person in front of you is going to put on their brakes and make a turn right in front of you, and you can't anticipate that they are going to keep going on down the road the direction you are going. They just might have reached their destination and need to pull off.

My heart rate is slowing down. I'm going to pack the car and get ready to head out to Charleston in a few hours. I left Jeff at the scene when his dad arrived to take over. I figured I didn't need to be there too. Let it be a father & son thing!

Goin' to Charleston!

I'm headed to Charleston this afternoon to do a lecture/trunk show for the Cobblestone Quilter's Guild!

I'm planning on a fun evening. When I was at the state guild retreat (doing massage and working on my own projects) I got to know some of the ladies in their guild, and we had such a good time! I look forward to seeing them again tonight!

I'm meeting up with them at Jason's Deli for dinner before heading over to the meeting place. I'm being pampered! They have booked me a room at the Holiday Inn at Patriot's Point so I don't have to drive all the way home tonight. It's a good thing...after a long day and packing up the car again, driving over a hundred miles at that hour of night is just too much to handle. So I'll stay the night, and head straight to my office for massage clients in the morning. :c) Wish there was time to stay and play, but there just isn't! It will be a quick trip.



I just finished quilting the most lovely blue basket quilt for Julie W! The colors are so soothing, blue against white/cream. I haven't worked on anything of my own this week, so I thought I would share her quilt with you for some eye candy.....who doesn't love baskets?

Winston-Salem, NC Bound!

Well,it's official. DH accepted the offer presented to him. I feel like I'm living in a daze right now. So much to do. And I don't know how fast it will happen. I guess all I can do is take it one day at a time!

Dang, I'm really going to miss the Goodwill Clearance center and the $1.00 a pound cotton shirts! *LOL* I guess I'll have to stock up before the moving van arrives?

I appreciate those in the Winston-Salem vicinity contacting me with info about the area! I'm looking forward to my first house hunting trip up there.

I'm going to tell work that I will continue as a massage therapist until Jan 1st. Maybe a bit longer depending on how soon we can close on a house, etc. It's going to be difficult to bid my clients fare well!

There are so many mixed emotions going through my heart and my head right now. Yep..one day at a time. I'm going to take it one day at a time!

Mmmmmmmm! Granola!

When my friend Randy was here in October to go with me to Quilt Camp at Camp Gravatt, and then on to Charleston for our fun girls weekend, she brought along this yummy home made granola that I fell in love with!

I have since made it twice...and even my son Jeff (who prefers sugary and artificially colored cereals!) loves it!

It's perfect with yogurt, or with milk, sprinkled on top of ice cream or just as a munchie handful! Here's the recipe:

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees f.

Combine in large bowl:
5 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup sunflower seed kernels
1/2 cup toasted almonds (I bought the slivers) or other nuts (walnuts, cashews or pecans are great!)
1/2 cup coconut
3 teaspoons cinnamon
I also add raisins and or craisins or any other dried berries to the mix!

In microwavable container mix:
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup brown sugar
1-2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup maple syrup

Combine oil, honey, brown sugar, vanilla and maple syrup, heating in microwave to mix. (1 to 2 mins is enough)

Pour warm ingredients over dry and mix to combine.
Spread on large cookie sheet and bake for 30-40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Watch for browning.

Allow to cool completely (granola should be dry to the touch and not sticky at this point) and store in air tight container!

Enjoy!

Annual South East Dear Jane (and friends) Retreat, 2007

Now that the whirlwind of finding out who the winner if Cathedral Stars is past...I can finally unpack my car and find my camera and upload the pics from retreat!

Let me tell you that Mansfield Georgia is BEAUTIFUL in November! The drive there from here was lovely. It took me about 3 hours from my house, and the trees are just about in full color. I was in awe at the gorgeous golds, oranges, reds, yellows and various shades of green against a blue blue autumn sky!

The retreat was held at Charlie Elliott Conference center. There was a huge huge room we set up our machines in. The lighting was perfect. The windows overlooked the woods, and on down to a lake below! There are banks of hotel type buildings where we roomed. It couldn't have been better.

Not everyone was working on Dear Jane. Over the years that has kind of evolved into projects of all kinds as others have finished their DJ quilts, but still want to attend and it is more of a "bring your own thing" now! There was one energetic gal, Mary, who was making designer handbags out of the most beautiful upholstery fabrics with wild trims. So fun to watch her work!

I arrived, and upon entering the building for the first time, I was greeted by this welcome mat! Oooohhh! You know it is going to be a good weekend when even the door mats are quilty looking!


Not very many people were there yet, so I had pick of the corner I wanted to sew in. One wonderful thing..the walls were CARPETED so you could just PIN to them for a design wall!! I am so enthused about this idea, I might carpet the walls of my next studio.. :c) I hung my "Nearly Insane" there, hoping that seeing it would motivate me to finishing it sometime in the future too....but it didn't get worked on. Still, I guess it got to breathe outside of the box it's been kept in!



I have been dragging this pink/brown DJ thing to retreats for over 4 years now. Don't you think it's time I got it FINISHED?! Or at least pieced into a completed top? Every time I pull it out and work on it, I love it. But it is so tedious that I just keep pushing it aside for other things at home. I am happy to say that I finished piecing the last two rows of the center while at retreat!

Yes, you got it right. I pieced 17 blocks, and all the sashings and cornerstones that went with them during the retreat...and gave seven massages in between! How's that for productive?! *LOL*



The weekend was filled with the hum of machines, the ring of laughter, all the wonderful things that happen when quilters gather together. I really love the one on one time I get with quilters during the massage sessions. You really get to take time out and get to know someone so much better. These ladies are awesome and inspirational!



Now that I am home....I still have to attach those last two rows to the "Mother Ship" but it may be a while before I pull it out again. We have received the job offer from Corning in Winston-Salem and it is too good to pass up! They will buy our house here, so we are free to buy something else there. They want us moved quickly. We will have to start house hunting right away. My head is in a spin, I can tell you. The benefits so far are better than anything DH has had here....it is like a complete gift horse??

We are still waiting for a reply from the one job that would allow us to stay put. But at this point, staying put doesn't even seem like the best thing to do? Yes, I'll be walking away from my massage practice...and starting over....but compared to the benefits of the job for DH,that is small potatoes. Who knows...maybe I'll have more time on my hands to...QUILT?? :c)

If we don't hear back from Georgia Pacific about the job here by Wednesday, we will accept the Winston-Salem job and move full steam ahead. I would love to hear from anyone in the Winston-Salem area! I know NO ONE there...

AND THE WINNER IS........

Melanie Grimm of Frankfurt, Germany!!

I have emailed Melanie and let her know she is the donation quilt winner! Here are a couple pictures of Dean Linder drawing the winning ticket. I sure wish I could have been there, but at the same time I was glad to be at the DJ retreat...(next post will be about that! I had a GREAT time!)

*DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!!*

I just returned from retreat and ran straight to my inbox to find out who won the quilt drawing for "Cathedral Stars!"

The email says.."SOMEONE FROM GERMANY" won the quilt! That means one of my readers has purchased the winning ticket!!

I am so excited. I will find out in the morning and contact you via email about the quilt so I can get your snail mail address and have it shipped to you.

I can't wait to find out WHO the lucky winner is!!

A very tired But happy me......I finished ALL the blocks from the pink/brown DJ!! I'll post pics when I can, I'm headed to bed now..too tired to keep my eyes open!

Headed Out!

It's DARK 30! I'm just heading out to Georgia for the South East Dear Jane retreat! I'll be working on my long time pink and brown UFO..."The albatross at sea"...and hope to get it closer to being a finished top. As you can see, the car is packed to the gills!

I'll be doing massage as well!

We are down to the wire on two pending jobs for DH. Corning in Winston-Salem NC has come through with a proposal. We should hear back from Georgia Pacific by this afternoon for the position that is HERE. If he doesn't get it, he will accept the Corning offer. So right now we are 50-50!!


Please send all the positive energy you can in this situation..the stress is killing me, so it's a good thing I'm headed out to go SEW for the weekend. There is nothing else I can do either way, so it's best to put it out of my mind and stay BUSY!

Have a great weekend everyone!

IT WORKETH!!!

Somehow....the text CAN'T touch the table boundaries on the page, or the words don't wrap in IE. I had to do "center text" to get it away from the boundaries, and it works.

Stupid IE!!!! (*&@#$(*&@#($*& But it works...

Bonnie

I HATE IE!!!

I am so tired of the inconsistencies between different web browsers!

I worked all night to de-bug some issues with my website...and everything looks great in firefox, or in netscape..but in IE?! It sucks!?

And I can't figure out what is wrong,and why the page is so screwed up in IE. The page is too wide for the format, and things are not even in the same place as they are in the other browsers. (*&@#$(*&@(*&$#@ MICROSOFT!

Any gurus out there that can give me a hand? I'd sure appreciate it!

Happy Halloween!

How are you going to spend your trick or treat day? Do you get into the holiday or not? Have your kids grown and with it the love of Halloween gone? I found this cool link on the Origins of Halloween. It was really interesting to me, lots that I didn't know!

I loved Halloween! I loved doing the cookies, the decorations, the whole pumpkin carving night, EVERYTHING. But now my kids are grown. I remember vividly the last Halloween that I really got "into it". Then one year, suddenly, the boys were "too old" to want to carve pumpkins. They were too old for trick or treating, and they didn't want to stay home to pass out candy, they were off into their own lives.

So I bought the plastic "plug in" jack-o-lanterns! I still put those up the 1st of October, use the Halloween place mats, and have a Halloween quilt table topper on the kitchen table. I think there are still Halloween themed kitchen towels that I forgot to bring out this year. But that's about the extent of it.

This year....No one will even be at home! I've got choir practice tonight, Jeff and Jason are both working, DH is in Atlanta for that job interview. The lights will be off at my house, and it feels really weird! I didn't even buy candy. I don't need to eat it, certainly, and since no one is going to be here to pass it out...it's like I've completely opted out of Halloween! I used to have a Halloween t-shirt that I'd wear on the day, But that went with the last dresser-cleaning I did. This year it feels like just "another" day!

So here I am digging for some pics to show you...the remainder of my trip to Falls Church VA! I found some goodies at an antique mall in NC, good for a photo op! Of course you know I am drawn to maverick stringy quilts! This one had an ice cream cone border on ONLY ONE SIDE of it! I bet she thought it was too much work to continue the other three sides,and just scalloped them and said to heck with it! *LOL* I thought the price was high for the bad shape it was in, but it was fun to look at. Besides, pics take up less space in my house!

One thing I love about these "scrap bag" quilts is the limited palette. You see that so much when someone was just working with the limited selection of scrap pieces they had from clothing, etc. Here she looks like she only had blue, tan, red, pink, black, and shirtings. But I love the effect!

This hexagon mosaic was in really nice shape,and very well done!

I took a pic of this woven coverlet because I was intrigued by the apparent "block design" in it! Could it be future fodder for another quilt? MAYBE! I thought it worth a shot,who knows when that might work as a great alternate block or something?

Banana Bread Recipe

For those of you looking, here's the recipe again! And I have modified it from the previous version due to some playing around with ingredients over here. My family (And the choir) say this is definately the Bonnie's Best Bodacious Banana Bread!

Cream together:
1 1/3 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sugar

Add:
4 eggs
6 over-ripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla (or a bit more)
1/2 cup milk

When well blended add:
3 cups SELF RISING FLOUR
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts (have also used pecans...mmmmm)

Spray 2 loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray. Pour batter into pans and bake at 350 for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Bread is done with knife inserted into center comes out clean and not gooey. Test not to under bake, or over bake.....

Bread is best after being stored in the fridge for a day or two....Enjoy!

Banana Bread Morning....

This morning marks the first official day of HEAT ON in SC!! I guess we can finally say that definitely fall is here!

I brought home bananas on Sunday from choir practice...oh yes...they missed me enough from my traveling around that they sent me home with more over-ripe bananas! I figured making up a batch of banana bread is a good way to warm a chilly kitchen, so it's cooking right now. Mmmmm...smells good.

I got a very fun email from one of the gals in my workshop in Falls Church. She has already finished her top! WOW! It turned out so great too..love her use of scraps and her borders! She writes:

Hi Bonnie! I just wanted to thank you for the workshop you taught at the Falls Church QU on October 20, and to tell you what a great time I had! I have been following your blog for quite a while,

and it was very exciting to meet you in person! Does it seem weird to you that for those of us who follow your website you are a bit of a "celebrity"??? It was appropriate that the name of our

workshop was "Star Struck"! haha

At any rate, this workshop and your trunk show was just one of those fun quilty things that kind of "rejuvenated" my creative flow, and really made me want to dig into my scrap bins. So I have

sewn like a fiend for the past week, and attached you will see the photo of my quilt! I am also in the process of piecing a backing for it out of 10.5" squares of ugly fat quarters. After seeing the backings

on your quilts, I may never purchase another fatback again! I'm also attaching a photo of you and I from the workshop, as I know you meet tons of quilters and they are all probably dancing in your head....

but I'm the lady who had on the apron.

P.S. I think the most remarkable thing from the workshop may be my new love for Eva Cassidy and her music!!!! I have purchased two of her cd's and just about worn them out in the past week while I

was sewing. I can't wait to pass her music on to my internet quilting friend in Canada when I send her Xmas package this year...

Thank you again for a very fun day!

Martha

When we were setting up for the workshop, I saw Martha put this cute little apron on with lots of pockets, and I thought WHAT A GREAT IDEA! Especially while retreating or taking a class...keep all your goodies on you so you don't lose them or have to go searching for them under the pile of scraps! I've got my eye out to remember to take an apron with pockets with me to Dear Jane retreat this weekend. I have a sleeveless smock thing that I machine quilt with, it snaps up the front..and protects my clothes from threads and machine grease, etc...but I hadn't thought of a cute apron for retreats!

I enjoyed my time in Falls Church so much, I plan on attending their retreat next year..I've got an open invitation,and I'm accepting!

Crabapples!

The borders are ON! I can't go any farther with this. And for those of you wondering, I am still quilting customer's quilts, in fact am in full swing for the holidays...so any piecing time for me comes before 9am, and after 5pm, and on Sundays which is the one day I don't work on customer quilts if at all possible!That's why it seems the biggest push for me gets done over a weekend when my "days off" are supposed to be:c) I try as best as I can to work my quilt job like a normal 9-5 job with massaging scheduled in between. Sometimes I am successful at it, sometimes I get behind. It's hard to schedule your life in advance when you don't know what whammies it is going to throw you!

Would you believe I made WAY MORE checker parts than I needed to? Of course! Who is actually counting when you are dealing with random short strips? All I was thinking is I needed 864 individual squares for the border, and that seemed daunting so I kept piecing strip sets together!

Now I'm going to have a bunch of scrappy 9 patches to play with later on down the line.


The quilting on this one is going to have to be later down the line too because I've got too much in the queue. That's fine with me, I'm not sure how I want to quilt it anyway! Those big setting triangles have wide open space for some designing....the trees themselves are busy and full of lots of seam allowance. I was thinking diagonal lines from top to bottom, old style.

The outer border was an after thought. It still kind of is. I can say that when piecing a border from a gadzillion 1" finished squares, that border is going to be stretchy and wavy no matter what you do because of the weight more than anything. So I like to add one more border to sandwich it in between two "stable" pieces. Then it also won't get too chopped off in the binding or stretch too far out of whack while quilting. After I got the checkered border on there, I tried EVERYTHING in every color to find something that would work for the outer one. Green was too much green....gold was just too soft for the darks in the quilt center....red was TOO red and made it look like Christmas. This is actually a red with black. So it has the look of a dark dark red, and it seemed to be best to me. Oh, and the quilt top finished at approx 70"X70" (Tree blocks are 8")

My mind has been running to and fro, and can't seem to settle at all. I think that is why I have been such a piecing hound over the past few weeks. With DH's job closing looming closer...(and that putting us right in the middle of the holidays) And his not having found another job yet...I'm finding it harder and harder not to panic. So I stay busy. It really IS out of my hands. I can't get him a job..I can't march up to the plant manager of the plant that is close to us and say "You must hire him because we want to stay here". I'm having a hard time letting go and letting life take me where it wants me to be.

He has an interview in Atlanta on Wednesday at the head quarters of the place that is close to us here..but they have 3 plant openings, and two of those would move us out of the area. Only one would keep us here. The interview in Winston-Salem has him thinking he wants THAT job....

There is one more in Eastern NC that he is waiting to hear back from, he got a phone call from them the other night and said they would get back to him.

And I still haven't told anyone at my massage job because I don't really have anything to tell until these interviews are done. But still it is killing me. It takes all of us there to make the rent, and if one leaves, the others have to carry that extra rent amount. I don't want anyone to have to do that for me. I feel bad about that...but I don't know if I am staying or going, so what good does it do to put THEM up in a tizzy?

Off to machine quilt for a while.....

My Checkered Past, Present, And Future!

At least it seems like these checkered borders are going to take forever! I sewed lots and lots of strip sets Light/Dark/Light, and then Dark/Light/Dark...cut them into 1.5" subsections....and now I have chained them all together into two-sies....ready to be pressed and sewn into four-sies and then eight-sies....etc...


I added a narrow BROWN inner border to the quilt center..it pulled in the browns from the tree trunks and really warmed up the whole thing.

Stay tuned...more unveiling to follow!

Darn It, Mereth!!

Mereth had a suggestion.....and so I followed it. I had ONE extra tree block and so I laid it underneath the quilt top...and put it as if the tree top part was the next border of the quilt..and it sings.....

She was right..it doesn't take much for you to know if it is a yea or nay situation! And..thank heavens I have way too many 1.5" strips in this bin just aching to be set free and sewn/cut/sewn into a checkerboard border.

Sometimes you just can't take the easy way out!

I may however, decide to put a "spacer" border before the checkerboard one..maybe another narrow red something? I'll have to measure the top and see what I need to add to it to make the math come out right for the checkerboard.

Back to the sewing machine!

Time to finish the trees...

Remember these trees I started eons ago?? I took the blocks with me when Randy and I were in Charleston. I got the center pieced there, and we found these border fabrics at "People, Places & Quilts" (PPQ to those local here!) in Summerville, SC.

I haven't sat still long enough to trim up the center from the floating triangles, and decide if I really WANT these fabrics for the borders. What do you think?

FYI...the sashing is a true deep red,not that pinky color it turned out to be in the second photo! The setting tris of course are....what else...poison green :c)

Part of me wants a busier border since the center is so scrappy. The other part of me says...oh just use the fabric and be done with it!

Maybe just a saw tooth border and then the final border? I've been looking through my books on antique quilts for ideas for the border, but nothing seems to suit.

P.S....I keep coming back to look at the pics because stepping AWAY from a project and looking at it from farther away (like in a reducing glass) can give you ideas...but someone please please tell me that my latest thought of doing a complete 9 patch checkerboard border with 1.5" strips/squares (3" finished border) is going just a bit overboard?!?!?! :cÞ (But I still think it will make the quilt look more complete? Not like I was trying to just slap something on there and be done?

The Early Bird Catches The.....CAT?!

Or more like it is the other way around! I was sitting here at the computer early this morning and heard a squawking ruckus downstairs!

I jumped up...knowing Oscar had done it again! He had caught a bird, and had brought it inside, LIVE! Only this one was live enough to get away from him and fly around the house!

I first saw it go to the ceiling fan, and then behind the TV cabinet. I ran to get DH who was still in bed.

By this time I was trying to get Oscar AND Sadie the dog to stay away from the area the bird was in! I had no idea how damaged the bird would be, but he seemed to fly okay, because no sooner did I look behind the TV than he/she flew up to the top of my kitchen cabinets!


The camera was right there, so I thought..what the heck! Get some pics..it's blog fodder, right? But before I could get a pic at the top of the cabinets, it flew into the dining room and clung to the cord on the blinds. Poor thing must have been scared out of it's mind!

By this time I was grabbing the closest thing I could find that I could drape over it...a linen table cloth! But..it got away and flew into the next room and landed on a chair. At least it was a flat surface and it made it easier to drop the table cloth on it!


Poor thing was peeping and trying to bite me. I think it is a female cardinal? Mostly brown, but definately orange beak and some red feathers here and there (along with the feathers that were on the floor in the kitchen... :c( )

I took it out to the front step...opened my hand...and it flew away down the street. I don't think it was that damaged. Hopefully no bad kitty teeth punctures.

Now the Roomba vacuum is going downstairs to suck up the feather fluff.

And it's not even 8 am yet! How's that for an exciting morning?

Fine Finishes....

I've had a crazy day today, along with the rain! I made it to the office for my 11am appointment, which did not show up.......and the rain kept coming harder and harder. My next client called to reschedule....so I got the rest of the afternoon off!

I finally made it over to the bernina store to get two new bulbs for my 1080. BOTH were burnt out. I bought those, and finally a straight stitch plate (watch me break needles when I forget to switch back when I need a zig zag!!) and a clamp on table lamp to take with me to retreat next week in Georgia!

Well, do I have to mention that the bernina store is not far from the good will clearance center with the $1.00 a pound goodies? Aiiiiyyyeeee! I needed more light shirts. Light 100% cotton shirts are not as easy to find (and less variety) than the colored ones...so I started out just picking up light shirts (NEEDED) but then started throwing in dark shirts in wonderful colors (WANTED) and still find myself rationalizing that I got out of there for only $17.00! There was a dress for me in that bag, and a couple shirts as well for WEARING, not for taking apart and quilting....but still. This shirt fetish, it's got a hold of me BAAADDD!

And just to prove it, I finished the top that I made from the pockets, plackets, collars and cuffs! I finished the border tonight and really love how it turned out. Stars in the corners! 4 patch centers that carry out the checkerboard pattern...fun fun :cD Believe it or not, this quilt is 100% recycled SHIRTS!

I can't call this Rocky Road to Kansas. I just can't! I didn't make it in Kansas..or on the way to Kansas! I finished the blocks in Virginia! I've toyed with a few names:

*Rocky Road Through Richmond (lots of R's..I like how that sounds! Sewed blocks there one evening)

*Fall's Church Frolic (worked on the blocks there two evenings)

*Virginia Bound (Because I also worked on the blocks in Petersburg my last night when I only made it half way back to SC!)

I think I am leaning towards "Virginia Bound". It's short...and includes all the places that I worked on the blocks while in Virginia. What do you think?

I even found this cool "Virginia" fabric on the $1 a yd table at Hancocks! Is this perfect for a back or WHAT?! :cD


I also have some pics of the "true friends" quilt that I finished binding before I left for my trip...forgot I uploaded the pics, and certainly didn't remember to post them :c)

OOooohhhhh....RAIN!!

It started raining last night. It hasn't stopped! Isn't it wonderful?? Those of us in the south east know how desperately we need the rain! It isn't pouring hard, just a steady rain. I slept with the windows open. It is still relatively warm here in SC, and so much of the year we can't sleep with windows open because of heat and humidity. This felt great! I woke up to sound of cars driving down the rain washed streets....*lazy stretchies* just Nice.

I removed a couple of posts from my blog this morning. I feel like the angst has gone on long enough. I'm tired of the whole mess. Those of you who have been following me for a while know of which mess I speak. I want it over. NOW. I need to move on, this isn't the kind of quilter I want to be. This isn't the kind of woman I want to be. It seems to have brought out the worst in me, along with those who chose to send me anonymous derogatory comments about my reaction to the violation of my pattern copyright. (No way to reply to those...pretty cowardly to send anonymous no name/no return address comments) Of course they were only protecting their own friend. And maybe I would have done the same.....but I still would hope that I could look at the the situation with a discerning mind and be able to see truth for truth. Friend or not..when the facts are straight out in front of you.....what stands as true? Maybe that truth varies from person to person depending on what side they chose to be on and how loyalty influences how they see the facts. At any rate, I feel like I am at an impasse.

If I keep letting this eat at me, is it going to turn me into a better person? I don't think so. Expecting apologies from those who have lifted my designs is an unrealistic expectation. I know that. That's the only justice I want. I don't want to fight with lawyers, and I am sure they don't either, and who has the time/money/stamina to deal with that kind of fight anyway? In the long run.....what is that going to prove? Does anyone really WIN? And it isn't about winning.

Anonymous posters have called me hateful and selfish and unprofessional for posting things the way I did. I tried a phone call, but it went nowhere. No admittance to infringement...no offer to remove the patterns, tho the fact that another version was made to alter the pattern "sufficiently" pretty much proves that she realized she HAD to do something. The facts that my copyrights pre-dated hers meant nothing to her. The only answer I got was that everything was already at the distributors and couldn't be recalled.

Those who have supported me.....it means more to me than you will ever know. My life has really been thrown into a whammy in the past few months, a lot of which I haven't talked about, and you lift me up. Thank you.

Those who have condemned me.....you don't know me very well. I'm not out to make money on my designs at ALL.

I have to say that hurt, no matter what shape it comes in, or how it manifests itself, makes us all react differently. You rallied around YOUR friend, and that is understandable. But you attacked me because I wasn't close at hand to defend myself. I am not the ogre you made me out to be in your nasty posts.

I want my designs used for charities, for gifts, for teaching classes, for spreading the love of quilting the way it used to be. Quilting is about sharing. Quilting binds women's lives together. I haven't made a DIME ever with all the work I do in providing a website with patterns to encourage quilters in the love of quilting for the sake of quilting. All expenses incurred by providing this resource are my own. And to me it IS worth it. Because the good far outweighs the bad.

I apologize if I have been petty. I hope you will understand why. Imagine yourself in the same situation. How many of us would have been a "saint" considering the circumstances?

My last thought to Out on a Limb is this....if I were in your own quilt guild...lived local to you...would you still have done this? Would your friends still have rallied around you? I really don't think so.

"Out On A String!!"

Hello Quilters!

I have added a new pattern to the Quiltville website!

Do you love string piecing? Do you have a bin of random sized small scraps that you just can't bear to part with? These little pieced diamonds may be just the ticket for you! I foundation pieced these little gems onto diamond shapes cut from recycled phone book pages. I also used the old fashioned tried and true method of using inset Y seams to sew this block together. I know there are "easier" methods out there, but I just didn't want additional seams in my block corners or in the side triangles. Sometimes a bit of extra effort is worth it! These block instructions will teach YOU to sew those Y seams too! Pattern available Here:

Things in Quiltville are in a bit of an upheaval as my DH continues to interview for jobs in (and out)of our area. The plant he has been working at is closing it's doors and being moved "more centrally" and combining with another plant somewhere in Iowa. No offence to Iowans....I really want to stay in the south east! He has 3 interviews pending with 3 different companies, one of which would keep us where we are and we wouldn't have to move. You know which one I am pulling and praying for?!? You got it! I want to STAY HERE!

Please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers during this small upheaval in our lives. I know it is small potatoes compared to those losing their homes in california fires right now, and other places around the world. But I still need your prayers for my own sanity :c)

As the holidays come closer, I want to thank you for being part of MY quilty family of friends! I love your emails and the pics you send of the quilts you have made with the instructions and patterns from my website. I am encouraged to find I'm not the only one wondering how I ended up with so much fabric and how was I going to sew it all up in one measly life time!

In Stitches - - - - - - - - - -

12 hours of sleep works wonders!

I fell asleep at 7:30 last night! I think I needed it. I couldn't keep my eyes open, and slept all night. I vaguely remember it raining. We need rain so bad. I looked out side this morning, and yes the streets are wet. It finally feels like fall here in SC! Love it.

The leaves were gorgeous going up toward DC through NC and VA....and on the way back you could see that more had changed over the 4 days that I was gone. The only thing that I don't like about fall/winter is the getting dark at 5pm. If it gets dark at 5, I'm ready for bed at 7, and it feels like I accomplish only half of what I should during the day.


I need to finish with the rest of my trip! On Sunday afternoon, Amy and I took the metro into DC to go see the exhibit at the Renwick Museum! I love that the museums in DC are free. Because it was a Sunday, there were not a lot of people down there. We did stop and watch a dance troupe and some singers doing a performance about global hunger. Interesting contemporary stuff. But I think there were more performers than there were watchers...
(this arial viewpic is linked from their website)
We walked the few blocks from the metro station to the museum. Of course, they didn't allow pics of the quilts, they wanted you to buy a $45 book....so...I took pics of the banners out side!

This is one of the only pics I found of quilts in the exhibit, linked to their site.

I left DC about 4 pm and started my trek homeward. Traffic getting OUT of DC, even on a sunday afternoon was horrid and it took forever at 23mph to get anywhere. It was 7pm before I made it to just south of Richmond, near Petersburg where I decided to pull off and spend the night. I checked into a Days Inn, ate at a seafood place near by, and went back to my room. Yes....me and the featherweight sewed some more! It was there that I finished the last block for the string quilt. YEAH! I was deep into an episode of Law and Order, so I pulled out some X album type blocks that I had pre-cut ages ago and chain pieced those.





In the morning, I packed up and headed the rest of the way home! If you ever travel down (or up) I-95....follow the signs and take an exit at Selma NC! The down town area is loaded with antique shops! I thought this would be a "short" detour, and it took me 3 hours! *LOL* I had fun just cruising the antique shops, and even found some goodies to bring home. I fell in love with this old english tea pot. Another store had these cute (not antique) vintage looking enamel ware cups and pots with sayings on them. I had to buy the one that said "kitty treats" for Oscar's treats. it was too cute to pass up. Another shop had tons of quilts, the prices were up there tho, and the condition was not so excellent on most of them. I did however find this little cutter piece that someone had bound! I love the burgundy resist fabrics in it and the shirtings of course. I also love how it is a "SQUARE ROUND" drunkards path variation instead of the usual completely round ones that we see!

I made it home around 5pm and laid down for a 2 hour nap. I've been trying to catch up on more sleep ever since. I think after last night's 12 hours I'm good to go.

I have more pics of quilts I took in the antique malls, but they'll have to wait for another post. The day is passing, it's already 9:30 and I've gotta hit the door running!