Stupid Internet Rumors.....

I have "dear family member" who tends to fall for every internet rumor out there, and will either tell me about it on the phone, or Fw:fw:fw:fw:fw:fw: it to everyone in her email address book with the title of "PLEASE READ!"

The latest one just did not ring true to me. Even when hearing about it on the phone.

The rumor goes like this:

"Those 'cute' cocktail carrots you buy in grocery stores come from deformed crooked big carrots. They are put through a machine to become small cocktail carrots. But after they are cut to size they are soaked in large vats of water mixed with chlorine to preserve them.

Then she went on to tell me that they are SWEET because they are soaked in a sugar solution,or worse yet, a HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP SOLUTION! *gasp*

Great, I'm getting visions of giant mutant carrots being forced into shape....but so what? I've GROWN those mutant carrots in my garden before..you know the ones that you pull out and they have two roots on them? Or they start looking like an Orange Abraham Lincoln or something? It's a carrot.

As for the chlorine part, a check on snopes proved the following:

First, baby-cut carrots are cut down from bigger carrots, but the carrots used are specially bred to be sweeter tasting and their color is even throughout the carrot. Malformed carrots and those not the right size for baby-cut carrots will be left either as whole carrots, turned into juice or used for animal feed.

Second, the baby carrots are bathed in chlorine as an antimicrobial agent, and this is considered an accepted practice when processing all fresh-cut, ready-to-eat vegetables.

They are rinsed to remove any excess chlorine before packaging.

Third, what about that white "film" on the carrots? This is nothing more than a dried out carrot surface. Any carrot, even one from your own garden, will get this dried out look if it were peeled and not kept in a moist environment. If your carrots start looking whitish, simply rehydrate them with a little water.

Geeze Louise.....Needless to say that my doubts were confirmed. And if my relative would "Carrot ALL" (care at all) about what she was forwarding she could have checked it out. But of course, these things....these scare stories...are always good for email fw:fw:fw:fw:fw:fw: fodder.

Is it against the law to put your own relatives into your spam filter? :cÞ

Newly Painted House :c)

I can't believe what a difference this makes in this little cottage of mine! It warms it up considerably, and our painter couldn't have been better. Remember I had to remove kitchen wallpaper from sheet rock that had not been primed? There were gouges and peeling wallboard paper, it was UGLY. So we decided to do a faux texture in there, much like stucco. I LOVE IT!! He even did some faux painting....mixing in black and a terracotta color over the brick red paint in the kitchen....FUN!

Only problem is now we have to re-hang everything to get it back functional. And here I am not wanting to cover up the newly painted walls or pound holes into them with nails to hang the stuff!

When does one go from "gotta have it all" to "less is more"? I might not put out as much as I had decorating wise before. We will see. I might find myself having a yard sale :c) (Yeah, right, like tell me when THAT will fit in my schedule?)

So this is today's agenda....get this from a "just moved in" look, to being cozy and warm and inviting.


House Painting
The dining room turns out to be smaller than I thought. I can't fit BOTH the hoosier cabinet AND the china cabinet in there and still have room to move the chairs away from the table :c( So...the hoosier is still out in the sun room. That's okay. I can now unpack my china!

And I have those shutters I bought at the Liberty antiques festival to go on either side of the dining room windows. They are a battered green. This is going to look rustic and cool :c)

And since it's 9:30am...the day is a wastin' and I better get started!

Somewhere in Cartersville, GA.....

I'd never been to Cartersville before! It's north of Atlanta, up towards the foothills of the Smokey Mountains..If you follow I-75/401 all the way north, you will end up in Chatanooga TN. :c) It was BEAUTIFUL up there! Rolling hills, dairy farms, trains winding their way through the hills.I loved my time there, and the people, the quilters, well, top notch doesn't reach high enough!

Here are some pics from our Happy Scrappy Houses class. As always, it is a challenge to get those "boxed in" folks to think outside of their box,but eventually they will succumb to putting an orange door on a purple house, etc :cD

One lady said over and over that she couldn't do it because she is self-admittedly "Too much of a control freak". I asked her if she was happy being that way? She said "Well, yes....mostly..." And that's okay! But just know that you might be missing out on some fun, and some growth, if you always keep yourself within that box :c)



Cartersville GA Oct 2008
The last two pics.....you will see a handsome gentleman and a lovely gal in front of a quilt...this is the guild RAFFLE quilt! And I had the pleasure of drawing this lady's name on guild night. We called her right in the middle of the meeting (you could hear a pin drop) And when she said "NO WAY!!" We said "YES WAY!" And the whole room cheered! I'm sure she was taken a back by the noise of us all cheering and clapping for her.

The next day she came and picked up the quilt with her hubby, and brought along the FIRST TOP she just finished...baskets! With APPLIQUE HANDLES! I think she is going to join the guild, and she will be well taken care of.

Zoo Videos

I loved the Panda! TOO CUTE!

And the Flamingos...they are just so quirky, how can you NOT like them!? Kind of like me, long skinny legs, big body..uhhuh...and pink! What's not to like about pink?! :cD

Quiltville in the Wild!

I left Mansfield GA on Sunday, driving up through Atlanta to reach Cartersville. I saw the sign for Zoo Atlanta, and just HAD to stop! The weather was gorgeous, and after being cooped up, I really just wanted to walk and get some fresh air.

It also came at a timely moment because I am listening to "The zookeepers wife"by Diane Ackerman on Mp3 as I travel.

The story is about one of the most successful hideouts during WWII in Warsaw, Poland. What a great story.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Ackerman (A Natural History of the Senses) tells the remarkable WWII story of Jan Zabinski, the director of the Warsaw Zoo, and his wife, Antonina, who, with courage and coolheaded ingenuity, sheltered 300 Jews as well as Polish resisters in their villa and in animal cages and sheds. Using Antonina's diaries, other contemporary sources and her own research in Poland, Ackerman takes us into the Warsaw ghetto and the 1943 Jewish uprising and also describes the Poles' revolt against the Nazi occupiers in 1944. She introduces us to such varied figures as Lutz Heck, the duplicitous head of the Berlin zoo; Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, spiritual head of the ghetto; and the leaders of Zegota, the Polish organization that rescued Jews. Ackerman reveals other rescuers, like Dr. Mada Walter, who helped many Jews pass, giving lessons on how to appear Aryan and not attract notice. Ackerman's writing is viscerally evocative, as in her description of the effects of the German bombing of the zoo area: ...the sky broke open and whistling fire hurtled down, cages exploded, moats rained upward, iron bars squealed as they wrenched apart.

So as I'm walking around the zoo, I'm picturing events in the book, and how people would have gone undetected living in zoo enclosures, underground,etc. Amazing perspective....

You know what it costs an adult to get into a zoo these days? $20! I can't imagine how families afford it at all...unless you live local, get a year's membership and use it every weekend.

Still, it was wonderful fun seeing the animals enjoying the sunshine. The humidity is finally way down, and temps are pleasant! I think they were enjoying it as much as I was.


Zoo Atlanta Oct 2008
Here's a little slide show for you (oh these slide shows are the coolest thing! I know there are a few of you on dial up that can't do it, so please forgive me..it's the only way to get the most of my photos.)

I was trying to upload a couple videos to google,but it's taking forever, so I'll leave that for later!

Dear Jane Southeast Sewing Retreat!

Just to show you how spacious the room we sewed in was....here are several pics!

I think there were 24 of us attending, which put 2 of us to a table. It was perfect. The lodging is much like hotel lodging...my room had a set of bunk beds and a double bed, and I had it all to myself! I really needed to not worry about keeping someone up with my snoring when I am so exhausted. Another one of those things that comes with middle age adult onset. ARGH. Being tired and sleeping in strange beds usually means that I don't sleep too well.

The food was really good too! Part of this retreat is that we don't have to cook..they cook FOR us, and Boy did they cook! It was better than last year, either that or I was so hungry I didn't care :c)

If you look at the walls, you'll notice that not everyone was working on "Dear Jane"...it's more like Dear Jane & Friends. You can work on whatever you want to work on!


Irene had brought her finished Virginia Bound quilt top, LOVE those Joseph's Coat borders! Isn't it fabulous?


I also want to share with you the antiques I found in an antique mall in Opelika, AL. ONE of the quilts came home with me....I'd make you play a guessing game,but here it is! Look at the back..it says "Savoy "R" Fine Sea Island Sheeting"! Isn't that just too cool? The quilt had been folded for so long that some of the blue ink on that label crocked over into mirror image. The fabrics are crisp and clean, even the one flannel piece is still fuzzy. There is nothing in here that would put it to any specific date other than that printed piece of flannel, as the stripes and plaids are timeless. I'm checking with a friend of mine to see if she can help me date it.

I love the two brown borders and the two blue borders. And the binding? Well, one side is front to back, one side is back to front, one side is knife edge turned to the inside..just no rhyme or reason! It's as if the maker had 4 people binding at once just doing their own thing. Don't you just love it?! Look at those fans. The thread is heavy, as if they used the string from unraveling the seams on feedsacks to do the quilting with.

The other quilts were cool too, tho many too shredded to want to do more than take a pic of them:


antiquing through AL & GA 2008
You will see a pic of a "Gunnie Sack" dress in there too...I wore one just like this to my jr prom. *LOL* I had to take a picture....memory lane and all that, you know? Funny, but I don't consider anything YOUNGER than I am to be an "ANTIQUE"..do you?

Naps....BLISS!!

If someone asked me ANYTHING...ANYTHING about what I could possibly wish for, it would be the time to take a NAP. And you know what? I took one! A full 2 hours, with an extra quilt piled on the bed. There is something about sleeping in the winter and fall that just requires the extra weight of an additional quilt, and it doesn't always have to do with the temperature of the room, it's the cocooned in feeling of just that additional weight for slumbering...or is it hibernating?

Needless to say I feel 100% spoiled, and it's only Saturday. Oh Boy! Oh Boy! oh Boy! Maybe I can have another nap tomorrow too? Can I,huh? Can I PLEASE?!

First of all, you have to listen to what I am listening to! James Taylor's latest album COVERS! It's a free album preview so click the link and enjoy. Oh man, I love his music, and it weaves it's way around and through my whole life and always effects me the same way. My fave cut? Wichita Lineman. This one goes back to when I was a kid, and I know my folks had this album by Glen Campbell.


Here's a little bitty that I finished. I always take some hand quilting with me when I travel, and I finished the quilting on this in PA...started the binding there in Chambersburg, and then finished it up in Auburn! Hows that for a traveling quilt. It's small, the blocks are 4.5" and made from bonus triangles. I'm now quilting on the "3am hot flash" and loving how it is turning out. This is the only kind of quilting I'm getting done now a days, but that's okay with me. I have many little tops that deserve hand quilting...and they travel well. I'll baste another one and take it with me to IL & WI, just in case! It's that evening stitching that keeps me centered some how in amongst all this excitement.

This morning was errands and running around. I guess I don't have to tell you how the food supplies in this house were greatly diminished after the past 3 weeks or so. Remember I only had 2 days in between coming home from PA and leaving for AL? So...there was a Sam's club run in there as well as a big stop at Walmart for groceries. The post office at the Mall (OR what I usually refer to as the MAUL because I can't stand the crowds of people and the bad parking far away from where I need to be....)is open on Saturday, so I was able to take the book orders I filled last night including a bunch of international orders and post them.

My friend Charlotte reminds me "How do you eat an elephant anyway?" ONE BITE AT A TIME....so every day I'm taking another bite and trying to stay on top of things.

While I'm typing this, I've got slide shows uploading to webshots. It seems the best way to show you what went on in the workshops! The gals in Auburn/Opelika were just terrific. What was REALLY fun is several of them were also attending the Dear Jane retreat with me, so we got to enjoy each other for several more days.


Auburn_AL_Oct_2008
Enjoy the photos!



My project for the retreat? The Salinda Rupp Quilt, Nearly Insane of course! I finished 1 and 1/2 rows. Doesn't sound like a lot. But the blocks WERE insane! Each one made me wonder more and more about Salinda and why she pieced things the way she did. Did she have other quilts? Maybe with BIGGER pieces? Her quilt was made in 1870 remember, so maybe times were tough, even though she was a northern gal from Lancaster County, PA. Maybe these little snips were all she had to sew with,and she was bound and determined to put them to good use? Whatever it is, her quilt is a tribute to her ingenuity and spirit.

The space at the Charlie Elliott Center is great, with plenty of lighting....well, until it got really dark :c) Funny how aging eyes need more light than we ever thought we would just to thread those needles. I'll start a new post with those pics! Needless to say, I never saw such a table loaded with chocolate and goodies! It was really hard to be good..but Charlotte will verify...I was!

She's Home!

I got home yesterday about 5:30 pm. I really could have been home by 3pm,but then a girl must stop and eat, fill the car with gas, find potty stops, buy shoes at the outlet mall, and wander a couple of antique shops too!

I came home to the smell of fresh paint.....those of you who have lived here with me in blogland for a while know that when we bought this house last feb, the first thing I had to do was peel paper while waiting for the moving van to show up. It looked like Laura Ashley had exploded all over the living room/kitchen/dining room..and it HAD to go!

It took til now for me to decide what I wanted to do and have the time to do it (as well as the $$,you know how that goes?)

I've got khaki walls above the white chair rail, and a brick/brown/red below! In the kitchen, we even had the painter do some texturing because the wallboard was hammered. They had I don't know how many layers of wallpaper on the wallboard with no primer. UGH. SO....stucco texture! And then a faux finish!

I'm uploading pics...can you believe I took 177 over the past 10 days? I was at a guild in Alabama, then the Dear Jane retreat in Mansfield GA, and then I was in Cartersville....lots of activity.

I'll edit some down and post them as soon as I can. Of course, more cases of books arrived while I was away, and those orders need to be taken care of.

The first thing I had to do this morning was clean the kitchen top to bottom. I tell ya,you just can't leave men alone for weeks at a time and expect things to be the way we left them. It didn't help that I only had 2 days in between PA and AL...the microwave (their main cooking tool it seems!) was so YUCK I couldn't even heat water in it..*LOL* I'm just puttering and cleaning today. I need to for my own sanity.

The weather got COLD while I was away! All my leaves are covering the back deck etc, and need to be cleaned up, but that can wait until they are ALL done falling.

Toby ran away while I was gone. Remember, this is how he adopted us in the first place, and I think he was not happy with being kenneled up in the back yard, and walked on leashes. *SIGH* I really DID try with him. He has not come back in over a week now. Hopefully he found someone else who can put up with his wanderlust....or maybe he found his own way back home from whence he came? We can hope.

So...for now...I'm sending you this pictureless post just to let you know that my feet (and my luggage) are back in NC for...well...about a week....except for....the guild meeting I'm doing in Smith Mountain Lake VA this week...but it's only a day trip...this is the story of my life!

Checking In!

Hello from Georgia!

Can you guys stand a post without pictures? I keep thinking you need pictures to hold your interest on this page while I blather on, but pictures are not cooperating with my laptop. I can't get it to recognise my camera...so...lots of pictures are still stuck on the camera, and no way to upload them until I get home.

Auburn and Opelika AL were a TON of fun! I got there Tuesday for wednesday class, and a Thursday evening trunkshow. One of the best parts was meeting our own Sarah N! She looks just like her pictures and is as sweet as can be. She even gifted me with a grocery sack of scraps. OH BOY!

The star struck class went great. I just LOVE seeing everyone's fabric choices and how different the quilts all turn out to be. Just gorgeous!

Thursday I was treated to a morning coffee with one groups of quilters, then off to a quilting bee at the home of another quilter, out to lunch, a tour of Auburn University and down town historic Opelika and all the gorgeous victorian houses....out to dinner, and then the trunkshow. There was NOT a spare moment in there. Just GO GO GO GO! Oh, and I just thought of something..I can find a pic of Auburn University online and link it to fool you into thinking I took pics :c)

I was really touched by my visit to this guild. If you are on quiltvillechat@yahoogrouups.com you might remember that there was a gal named Cindy Wall who was really looking forward to this workshop. She'd just finished her "Old Tobacco Road" mystery with us, and she passed away suddenly. This was her guild. It had only been three weeks since her passing, and I have thought about her and thought about her since hearing the news on the list.

I stayed at Louise's house...and Louise was in with the group who was in charge of distributing Cindy's stash. Many many many kits for charity quilts were assembled from her stash. A letter from her mother was read to the guild on Thursday night about where all the quilts are destined to go to help those in need. This is the kind of gal that Cindy was, even when she is not here anymore, her kindness towards others is still being felt.

There were some notions being distributed at the little sewing bee I went to, the circle of Cindy's closest friends. I am the recipient of one of Cindy's quilting hoops. (I have a lump in my throat as I write this..) She even put her name on it in sharpie. I'll think of her every time I use it. She will be greatly missed, and even though I didn't know her in person, only through email, etc, I am touched by her life.

Cindy also had a Gammil Long arm machine. If anyone in the AL area is looking for a good machine (basic, no stitch regulator, but it can be added) at a wonderful price, please contact Louise. I have no information on this machine. I just know that Cindy did beautiful work on it, I got to pet her quilts up close and personal. If you are looking for a machine...this would be a good one. They need to find a buyer because Cindy's house needs to go on the market soon.

Friday morning I headed over her to Mansfield GA for the Dear Jane Southeast Sewing Retreat! I've been working on my Salinda Rupp blocks. OH man....I've only done like 5 blocks the whole time, I think these last rows have all the hardest ones! But this has been a wonderful reteat. For instance....I have wifi in my room, but the cell phones get no reception! *hehehe* BLISS! The food has been great, the company even greater.

Charlottte (Jason's Kim's Mother :cD ) is here with me and we have done a lot of catching up and laughing while we have stitched. She is working on her Dear Jane and her work is lovely.

Sadly,retreat ends today..about 2pm I am off to Cartersville GA for a Happy Scrappy Houses class on Monday, and a Tuesday Lecture and Trunkshow. Wednesday is the Virginia Bound workshop, and then THURSDAY I get to go home.....I can't wait. There is no place like home. No matter how much fun I am having, I just miss H O M E !!!

Home Again! But not for long....

I'm living out of a suitcase! Even at home! Heck, it makes life easier you know? 4 outfits..all interchangeable..like kid's GARANIMALS! (Do they still have those?)

I got home, went to bed...this morning I unloaded my suitcase to wash my dirties, and will just repack them, because tomorrow I leave for Alabama and Georgia!

I will have a bit of respit in the middle. I'm attending the South East Dear Jane Retreat after visiting Opelika and Auburn AL, and Carterville GA. 3 days for me to stay in one place and finally SEW! Only problem...I don't know what to bring with me!

The nearly insane stuff is all packed in one container, so that will probably be it. And I have a hand quilting project....and a small binding to finish. Tada. That should do it for 3 days, don't you think? Maybe I can fit a couple naps and some long country autumn walks in there too?

Those 8 cases of books? They didn't go far enough! *LOL* The arrived the afternoon I left for PA, and now.....poof! Gone! I'm getting out what I can before I leave tomorrow. Needless to say, the fact that it is COLUMBUS DAY completely escaped me, and when I tried to mail off a huge shipment this morning...I was greeted with a locked door, reflecting the bewildered look on my face!

Oh well. What's a girl to do?!


I don't even know where to START on the photos from PA!Every day was an adventure! Here are the pics from the Pineapple blossom class held in Holidaysburg, PA. The home of the SLINKY. The home of Mallow Cups....the home of wonderful quilters!


Altoona Pineapple Blossom Class
The classes were Friday and Saturday, so Sunday and Monday were rest days, but we filled them up! Bedford PA has an annual Fall Foliage Festival complete with a little quilt show.
I got pics of the guys pressing cider! You should have smelled it...oh my! The food, the fun, the vendors...it was great. I spent a couple nights with Carol and her mom and their Bedlington Terriers. TOO CUTE! I'd never seen this kind of dog before. They are darling. And upon hearing that I was looking to adopt a Singer 301...Carol took me up to her attic to show me "UGLY BETTY"...a poor dilapidated singer 301 that needed a home. It was found after spending all winter outside in a tent at a flea market. Amazing girl...a bit ugly, but she runs! I'll get pics when I have more time.

From Carol's house I was transferred to the home of the Goulionis Sisters! I hope I spelled that right...I couldn't remember! Libby is the Quilter, her sister is the best cook I've come across...I love Greek food, so I was in for a treat at every meal.

After Altoona, I went NP to stay with Nancy overnight...you read her comments if you visited the links I left last post. If not...do it! It is too funny!


PA Travels
Next was Lancaster County! I met up with Connie who I have emailed back and forth with for years....she and I are cut from the same (scrappy) cloth as the saying goes! We tried as hard as we could to find some Amish type touristy photo opps, but there were not many on a thursday afternoon. And everything we drove past,we were going too fast to get...but here is a little slide show to give you an idea. I love seeing Amish Wash floating on the line..Just LOVE it. We saw girls being pulled by mule teams harvesting fields, young boys running pushbikes up the side of the road, it was just like out of a picture book. Just no great photos, mostly due to the fact that I know they don't like their photos taken.


From there it was to Chambersburg where I was welcomed by Nancy AKA Patchwork Penguin and her family! Time time really did go too fast. Beth came all the way up from MD for the class, showing up in her Quiltville.com Tshirt with the caption "I'm a Bonnie Junkie" *LOL* I'm sure she gets strange looks, but hey....we have fun, don't we Beth? :cD I was even inducted into the "Sundae Quilters" Bee...complete with a pizza party and ice cream sundaes after! TOO FUN! I know I'll be seeing these girls again.

Thanks everyone in Pennsylvania for making this such a memorable trip. There is so much else I want to share and say....like THE MEADOWS frozen custard shops!! OH MY! But time is short and I need to get moving so I'm ready to leave tomorrow.

Take care Ya'll..I won't be too far away!

One More Day Til Home!!

Hey Yall!

I'm peeking in early this morning for a quicky because I don't have to leave for the last lecture/trunkshow until 10am...which means.....I GOT TO SLEEP IN! And I have a few minutes to post.

My time in PA has been WONDERFUL! I have made lots of new friends, strengthened some already-friendships, had a blast..I can't put it all in words, and you'll get more of a travelogue when I can get home and put pictures in with the words :c)

Two of our blogger friends have been posting though, and you can catch up on yesterday's doings at Nancy B's Patchwork Penguin blog. That's where I am now.

Wednesday was a special treat, I got to go stay the night with the OTHER Nancy, NP (Near Philadelphia)and got to be the surprise for a very special guest. I'm still belly laughing at this one!

Thursday was spent galavanting around Lancaster County with Connie....and I even got the priviledge of being the quilt delivery person, delivering Connie back her leader ender quilt that Carol (in Altoona) and quilted for her!

You know, they say there are 6 degrees of separation between people, and I think with quilters, it's only THREE. It is amazing who knows who and how we all know someone who knows someone. It's a small world held together with quilty stitches!

DH informed me that the 8 cases of books arrived at home the day I left. I knew they would! So....I get home tomorrow...will spend Monday and Tuesday filling orders..then guess what? Wednesday I'm off to ALABAMA and GEORGiA! Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Oh, and I have to tell you guys the story of Ugly Betty, the battered and unloved Singer 301A that I adopted while here :c) SOON SOON! I'll post pics soon!

I was welcomed as an honorary long distance member of the "Sundae Quilters" bee here in Chambersburg....with a cool tote bag and everything, And yes, we had ice cream sundaes! YUM! The laughter just never stopped.

Well, I better hit the shower and get this day going....I'll be back with you soon!

More On The Way!

This is where I live my biggest nightmare....well, not the biggest necessarily, its a bad one as well as a good one! I am sold OUT of every book! There are more being shipped...8 cases....but they won't arrive until after I'm already in PA teaching. I leave Thursday. I'll be gone 11 days.

This might put some of your orders 2 weeks behind schedule. I'm sorry it couldn't be helped. Just know that I will do everything I can to get them expedited as soon as I get home on the 13th!

I have currently filled all invoices up through #1559 So if your number is lower than that, your order is on it's way. If your number is HIGHER than #1559, I'm sorry....they just didn't get here before I had to leave!

Anyone who hasn't ordered yet, but was about to...if you need it sooner than that, you might order directly from pickledish.com. But please note that I am not signing those orders, I can't...they don't come to my house...they are shipped from the warehouse :c)

I hope this doesn't put anyone in their own private pickledish!

Mail Call!

This is a pic of the back of my car, full of orders ready to go out! The Post Mistress was NOT a happy camper that I showed up on Monday morning and swamped her! She said...."You need to have THIS post office's zip code on your stamps.com stamps so we get credit for processing all of these." I said, "I didn't know that, I just put in the info that stamps.com asked for, which was MY address." In my mind I was thinking, "Would you rather I didn't pre-stamp these at ALL and stood here while you processed them one by one?"

Okay....I swallowed that comment, and thought maybe this was a time to kill her with kindness because I am NOT going to drive to another post office when this one is only a mile up the road from me.

Today she was MUCH better,and SHE apologized! I was able to ship MOST of the international orders this morning, at least those who had replied to their paypal requests that I sent about the balance due on their shipping after having them weighed, etc.

I have sent out ALL I can. There are more orders to fill. There are more cases of books in transport to me from Kansas, so all is on hold until they get here. I'm hoping today or tomorrow because I'd like to get as much out as I can before Thursday morning.

On today's agenda, besides getting the trunkshow and everything ready for leaving, I get to go get new passport photos taken and submit new paperwork for that. Why? I haven't been able to find my passport anywhere since moving here. For all I know it could have gotten tossed in the packing paper. I'm planning a little trip in December, and I'll NEED it. So.....more standing in long lines to get that done today.

Has there been any progress on the Fungly Quilt? Nope. I have a few rows sewn together, but that's it. All this running around is cramping my quilting time!


But look what I found Friday! This is an EG Benford machine, which is a badged machine,meaning it was made by someone else, but this badge was put on it by the retailer. The badge also says 16 Castle Square, Brighton (UK) which must have been the address of the proprietor.(sorry about the blur on the photo!) I have no idea on the age, but I love the shape of the base. It is missing it's hand crank. Looks like there used to be a lot of gilded decal,but that has all worn off during the years. What amazes me most of all, is this thing STILL has a needle in it! How old is that needle? I have no clue...but there it is!


I also found an old dilapidated ladder that I am going to use for hanging quilts in the house after the painting is done. And I found a pair of beat up old green shutters that I am going to install INSIDE on either side of the dining room windows. I saw this done in a magazine and it really added rustic charm to the room.

Squishie Deliveries!

Yep, I'm up early! Too much to do today to sleep in!

Fist item on the agenda? Tackle the "IN COMING" Mail here at Quiltville! I've been so busy with the OUT GOING mail over the weekend, that I left this job for this morning when I had some peace and quiet here in the house.

I received not one, but THREE suspicious squishies! *LOL* I looked at the names on the return address labels and I swear I never ordered things from these people, so what could they be sending me in the mail?

You guys are SO fun!

Judi sent me strips and squares from the swaps on Quiltvilleswap@yahoogroups.com! THANKS GALS! These are GREAT! And they are just what I need to spice up my own scraps that are starting to look "same 'ole, same 'ole" to me! I love them! And the extra fabric too. I've always got use for that, even if it goes into a charity quilt, it is much appreciated!

And look...Kathi C is a blog lurker and sent me some pieces from her Orange Crush quilt, along with a "SPARE" Rotary cutter for me to keep in my suitcase when I travel so I don't leave one at home! *LOL* She read about me being rotary-cutter-less on my last trip! Thanks Kathi...this will now be the "glove box" rotary cutter! *LOL* I suppose I could use it as a weapon in a pinch, right? :c) You are terrific!

You know how you get attached to certain things you are used to? These blue dritz 45mm cutters with the spring loaded blade guard and rubber handle are my FAVE!

Katheryn also sent a squishie along with extra postage she forgot to include on her book order. WOW! These are great!

I feel like it's my Birthday or something :c), only one that doesn't add any more numbers to my age!

Does this come naturally with pets, or is he just a quick learner? I was working on my Fungly Challenge last night, and Toby had to park himself right in the center! What do you think of this funky bright yellow with purple stripe? Isn't it PERFECT!? Okay, Perfectly Fungly!Actually, it really brought all these weird blocks together. I tried EVERYTHING in my stash, which is extensive, more than extensive. THIS ONE is what the quilt wanted.

I was going to set the blocks together without sashing between, but it was so mucky, and you couldn't really see the funny fabrics if they were all up against each other. So..I switched gears and plain ole sashing it is. I should get the top finished,at least the center part today. Then I'm off to the Post Office with the carload of books.

I packaged up ALL the book orders I could, and am waiting for more books to arrive. I needed two cases to go to Pennsylvania with me Thurs...so I held those back in case the books don't come before I go. Fingers crossed that more will arrive in the next couple days and I can do another round of "going postal in the dining room" before I head to Altoona!