A bit faded, but fun!

Here is a pic of a Halloween Kaleidoscope I made several years ago. I chose the kaleidoscope pattern because just the shape of the pieces reminded me of candy corn! It was made for a guild challenge....there is a blue halloween print in there that has pumpkins and owls and spooky trees and leaves, and the challenge was to use it in a quilt. I love the interplay with kaleidoscope patterns, they just keep your eyes moving back and forth and over the quilt.

The other halloween fabrics inlude candy corn (outer border) witches, brooms, bats, ghosts and haunted houses, black cats, crescent moons with witch sillouettes flying across them, spiders and spider webs! The back is also a halloween print with ghosts, bats, pumpkins, cats and big purple letters that say BOO....with spooky eyes where the holes in the B's and O's are :c)

Jeff's surgery was last friday. Everything went fine, but they did have to open up the hand to pin the bones back in place. He's been a real trooper about it, the funniest thing being the fact that he can't get that arm wet, so I have had to bathe him in my big garden tub! Of course this means that he was taking a bath in his SHORTS because heaven forbid a 15 yr old be seen by his mother, or his father for that matter....

Since getting him home I have been cramming on school work, and trying to get caught up on customer quilts that really seem to pile up this time of the year. Even if I've scheduled them what I thought was far enough apart, never fear, when you are scheduling something several months in advace, it never fails that life is going to take turns that you can in no way expect. The machine can break down, kids get sick or need surgery, you end up having to go out of town, or spend 3 weeks quilting refugee quilts because you feel that is more important than anything. Throw my own school into the mix and it's been a very tough year to keep to a schedule!

One lady who's quilts were a few weeks late told me "I thought you were a professional business woman" when I told her what was going on in my life and that her quilts would be delayed a bit longer. I decided right then to send her quilts back to her so she could find someone else more to her liking. A quilt for her wall (that had already waited over 30 years) didn't seem as important to me as quilts for refugees. And maybe I was wrong in making that decision, but I have to go with my heart. I'm not a machine, and quilting isn't a matter of pushing the button to start the machine, and let it quilt itself while I go do everything else that needs doing down here. I know there are people with Statler Stitchers who do just that....computer program quilting where they can push a button and go do something else until a bobbin runs out, but that's just not how my quilting goes. And I guess I can't please everyone all the time. That is a hard fact of life to face when I try so desparately hard to do that...please everyone all the time.

After today I have only FOUR WEEKS of school left!! Whhhheeeeeehha! But in those 4 weeks are going to be alot of pressure, tension, stress and EXAMS out of my ears as this all wraps up. My Dad and Step Mom are coming to town for my graduation, and being as I haven't seen my Dad in a few years (relationship strain, but working on it) I have that hanging over my head too. Carpets need cleaned desparately!! How do I fit that in? Does anyone have any recommendations besides renting the "rug doctor"?? Anyone have their own machine that would be worth purchasing? Or should I just call Stanley Steamer and pay a fortune but have someone else do it for me??

Fall weather has finally come to SC this past week and it has been AWESOME being able to walk outside without sweating up a storm. I've been able to move my walk/jogging to mid-afternoon which works better for me in my schedule....this is definately my favorite time of the year!

Bonnie