Leaping lizards, it's leap day!

Happy Leap Day!
I love Leap Day! To me it is a free day. I can do anything or nothing all day because it is an extra day. Today I choose to not worry about a single thing. I won't worry about taxes or deadlines or dinner or bills or wars or peace or the economy. Today is one day I will take for the enjoyment of ME! I will read, sew, listen to music, take a nap, and anything else I want to do. I will probably go to lunch, you know eat OUT, not a sandwich or soup at home. This sounds like it will be a great day.
I hope you all have a fun Leap Day!
Diane

Dyeing

I love dyeing fabric. I love the "what if" part of it the most. What if I put 2 parts blue and 5 parts yellow and .5 part red? What if I take this piece I dyed last year that I hate and throw this and that and twist it and fold it and throw it in the bag and forget it for 3 days? What if I put a heating pad on this and let it cook for a couple of hours?
I LOVE IT!
What I don't love so much is dyeing to match a piece of previously dyed fabric or even commercial fabric. It isn't so much fun to me. It is too much like work.
I got an email a couple of weeks ago from a quilt artist telling me how much he loved my fabrics and how long he has been buying from me (ever since I first started selling in Houston at the International Quilt Festival) and wondered if I remembered him.
I did remember him. Isn't that funny how I can have hundreds of customers and I can remember them and even what they bought, yet I can't remember to pick up milk at the grocery store?
Anyway, David wanted to know if I would try to match some fabric he had bought from me in Houston in the fall. I explained to him I didn't love doing this. He asked me to visit his website and see the series he was working on from my fabrics. So off I go his website and I am knocked over with the wonderful work he has done! OF COURSE I WILL MATCH IT!
Well after 2 weeks of playing with color and praying for warmer weather since blue needs higher temps that any other color I finally have something done and he approves. I am mailing it off in just a few minutes and I hope he loves it.

Later
Diane

Quiltathon

My plan for today is to work as hard as I can to get everything on my To Do list finished so I can be ready for the Quiltathon this weekend. Judy over at Patchwork Times is planning an all day sew on Saturday, and I want to , no correction I NEED to do this.

My To Do list is LONG!
Get in the dye bath for two upcoming shows
Taxes
Clean under stairs closet
Bags of clothes to Goodwill
Mop Kitchen

STOP! I'm getting depressed! LOL I will do as my smart husband said, I will prioritize. I have to get fabric dyed and I have to get taxes done, so I will focus on those today.

On to better topics!
My youngest has been practicing his driving and I must say he is doing quite well. He only does two things that make me crazy. One is he wants to drive all the way to the right of the lane so he can easily go off the pavement. I know it isn't major and he will soon enough get the hang of center of the lane driving. The other thing he does, not only when driving, is he knows everything! I can say, "Hey Joe, your going off the road", he says "I know", or I can say "your going too slow or too fast or you forgot your blinker" and he says, "I know". My only response is, "well if you know it , STOP IT!" LOL
He really is a good driver for only been driving for such a short time and he really has a good sense of direction. I guess that is one of the benefits of being the youngest, you learn from your older sibling's mistakes. My oldest did not want to drive, we had to make him get his license for his first job at 18 years of age. It took him a while to be a good driver only because he didn't want to be a driver at all.
My middle child was too busy talking or singing or thinking about what she was going to do when she arrived at her destination to pay attention to her driving. She was the worst at directions! To top it all off from the time she was a toddler she wasn't afraid of anything. She was the child who always squealed "higher daddy, faster too!" She is still not afraid of much but her direction skills have improved, what a relief! :^)

Ok, I really need to bring this ramble to a close...
Diane

Friends

For years I have read books or seen movies where there was a group of friends who spent time together. They would go to dinner every week, or meet once a month for stitching. I always longed for a group of friends like this. I have my dearest friend Linda, who is the most special in my life. She has known me for years and loves me and I love her, but we don't get to spend alot of time together as we live 450 miles apart, and soon to be more. We spend alot of time on the phone staying in touch, and I just got back from seeing her a couple of weeks ago, which was the first real visit in a LONG time.

Back to what I was saying...I have always wanted a group of friends like you read about or hear about that have met and played togther in each others homes on a regular basis. I found I have that same group of friends. We meet and we talk and sew and laugh and sometimes cry, and fuss and unload and have the best time together. We all come from different backgrounds and are varied in age. I wouldn't dare try to guess who is the oldest, but we have a couple who are more mature (in age only) :^) than the others and I am the youngest (44). One is from small town New York , one from big town Texas, several were teachers, one is from another country. We have those who are very confident and those who are a bit insecure. We don't always agree, but we always care.

Isn't this BEAUTIFUL? Suzanne is showing her "Charleston" quilt.

Suzanne is from Austrailia and makes the most beautiful art quilts showing her beautiful homeland in fiber.

Joanne shows us the quilt she has completed. I was amazed since in January we were at a retreat and she was still working on making the blocks! BEAUTIFUL!

"Maxie" our ever present quilt dog. :^)Hand work, machine work or just laughing, we have so much fun.

husbands say the silliest things

Why is it that my husband never reads my blog except on days I have just told on myself for buying lots of fabric? LOL
He has read my blog on occassion, ands he has read his sister's blog (Paula, my quilt twin) a time or two, but last night for some reason he read both, past and present entries. That means not only did he read about my fun shopping here at home over tha past week, he also read on Paula's about my shopping in Houston! Then he had the nerve to ask me why Paula has her Zig Zag quilt finished and I don't. I explained to him, with me being so busy shopping and all who had time to work on the quilt? LOL! He suggested that I stay home and give the debit card a time to cool off. Silly silly man!

Later,
Diane

What have I been up to?

I have been in the buying mode it seems. First, I was at the quilt shop and noticed I had a pretty big credit and decided I had better get busy using it. That is when I bought the striped fabric and the way cute monster bash fabric. I bought enough of the stripe to make a backing and small border on a pretty large quilt and enough of the monster bash to make a stack and whack.

The jelly rolls are from the Look n Learn line from American Jane and I have and idea already for them. I can hardly wait.

Over the weekend I walked into Barnes and Noble and ran into Carolyn W. a member in my guild and we had to chat about the magazines I was looking at. Of course I had to go home with the Vintage Quilts magazine after hearing from her it was wonderful. So I added that with my new Kaleidoscope ABC's book and was excited about the prospects. Then she told me about Fabrics by the Pound. A local business that sells fabric that is usually a season or two (or more) old; but the price per yard is only $4.29. She told me they had just recieved a shipment of Civil War reproductions. Well, today was the day to go see what they had. I restrained myself but I still came home with quite a bit..the two pieces on the left are for backings, and the ones on the right are 1/2 yard cuts. Several of the pieces were cut very generously, like 3/4 yard or more. :^)

Then as if that wasn't too much I went over to Joann's Fabrics during their President's Day sale. They had their Omni-grip rulers on sale for 50% off. Combine the sale with my Guild membership card worth 10% off the whole purchase can you imagine how excited I was? I needed to replace my 8.5"X12" ruler, and I had been wanting a 6.5" ruler for a long time. While I was at it I looked at the 8.5"X24" and thought what the heck, I don't NEED a new one but there are areas where I have worn off the green stuff off the back so I will get one of them too. I walked out with all three rulers for less that the cost of the one 8.5"X24" at regular price. I was so pleased with myself!

I bought a king sized batting that I will need for my Double Irish Chain quilt I am working on. Nancy L. from my guild taught a workshop several months back and I see it every time I walk in my sewing room , but I got side tracked by the Carolina Crossroads mystery, which I still need to finish. Can you say A.D.D?

It didn't seem like so much, but pictured here all together..maybe I went a little crazy.LOL!

Later

Diane

Sure, no problem, I can handle it...

I have a silly little habit of always saying "sure" when I am asked if I could help. I also have a bad habit of not thinking of the consequences of my "sure" reply. This recent "sure" came about when I was at work at the local quilt shop and the teacher of a beginning machine piecing class only had 3 people sign up and she required 5 to make it feasible to drive the distance she has to drive to get to the shop. The shop owner and I were talking about how bad we felt for the ladies who signed up and were so excited about the class. I said I would be happy to teach the class. Then I found out the class was THE NEXT DAY! WHAT? Oh well, I can do it, not a problem. Then I ask the question I should have asked first, how many classes are involved, FIVE??? Five SATURDAYS!!! Oh my, the one day of the week I never work at the shop as it is the only time my family has to "play" together. Ok, no problem I will do this and it will be fine.
I start looking at sample for the class trying to decide what I am going to do, as I feel totally wrong using the teacher’s instructions. I go home and get to work on EQ6 and plan out a sampler quilt that would start easy and build skills.
The first class was a very long 6 hours long. I was exhausted. One of the students works very slow and methodical. I didn't want her to go home before she got one block completed so she could do the homework that I required. To make a long story longer this Saturday's class wasn't much shorter. The good thing is I have shortened the class from a 5 to 6 week class to a 4 week class with a possibility of a later get together for quilting and binding. YEAH!
All the while I have been having fun fun fun with my laptop. The other day I discovered that I was not able to reply to emails, and then I couldn't send even new emails. Now so many things on the computer is not working that even my guru tells me I need a new...SHHHH!!, don't say that, it will hear you!!! He has fixed, reloaded, wiped out, reloaded, cursed, deleted and reinstalled until he said there is no fixing it this time, it is tired. Well it has been to college, been through three teenagers and various term papers. It has been dropped too many times to count, fried by a lightening surge, been on 8 years of vacations, 5 years of quilt shows and has had more crumbs blown out of it than I should admit to. So today I am going to shop today and see if I can find a "friend" for my laptop, you know to help it and take some of the load off of it. No replacing here! No way, my computer is too valuable.
Now I am going to go take my Brother to the clinic to be checked out. It has developed a squeak and I know that can't be good. I am from a family of all sisters so when my sweet husband gave me my Brother for Christmas last year I knew I had to take care of it. I have always wanted a brother. No problem! I have one now!
Off to Pensacola!
Diane

Valentine's Day should be all year long...

We, my husband and I don't really celebrate Valentine's Day. Occasionally we will do something special, like today since he is actually home and not in Florida I am making him a special dinner. It isn't because it is Valentine's Day, but becasue he is home. My husband and I are very affectionate and have always been and always holding hands. We don't do gifts very often at our house. We never have, but I can honestly say I am rarely told no if I want something. I am spoiled, but Ray is too.
I had a friend once who had a very unaffectionate husband. She loved Valentine's Day since that was one of 4 days a year she was shown he loved her. I couldn't live that way. I want to be shown each day in the small ways how much I am loved. Example...this morning, Ray was dressing at 5:30 am to go offshore. He couldn't find his thermal unders but he wouldn't turn on the light because he didn't want to wake me up. How sweet! Probably 95% of the time he sneaks out of the house so quiet I never know he is gone, but he calls me just 45 minutes later while he is driving to work to wake me to take youngest to school.
After over 26 years of marriage I still can't wait for him to get home in the evenings and I love the fact that he calls me through out the day just to see what I am doing. He is still my favorite person.

I hope you have a great Valentine's Day, but more I hope you have it all year long!

Diane

It's a girl!

I have a brand new niece! She arrived this evening weighing 7 pounds 2 ounces with a full head of hair. I can't believe it, if I didn't have to have my youngest back in school today I would have been able to meet her!
Her mother was just a beautiful baby with the sweetest smile, I can't wait to see them all!!!
I think I need to make another quilt, a pink one this time.
Later
Diane

Home at last

This is what I saw too much of today. A day of driving that should have lasted seven and a half hours at the most instead lasted over ten hours. The first and worst of the traffic jams was two hours long and we travelled approximately 2 miles in that time. I was pretty stressed but knew I had over six hours left in my drive time. Because of the time spent at the first traffic jam it cause us to be right in the big middle of 5 o'clock traffic in Baton Rouge LA. UGH! Nothing like stopped to near stopped on the Mississippi River bridge. Did you know that the bridge bounces? Ask me how I know!
We finally arrived home and my brain is absolutely numb! I am off to bed and plan to stay in bed as long as I can tomorrow.
I will post pictures of my fun in Houston, including my bargello quilt top I made with my SIL, Paula. By the way, she has made her top much larger than the instructions said and it is beautiful!

Later
Diane
PS: If there are mispelled word I am blaming it on numb brain and Blogger not letting the spell check work for me tonight. Well that is my story anyway...