Why?

Why do I need to raise another $1000?  Because I want to make another sponsor donation to another Relay event.  I use my sale profits, and in many cases all of the money from my sales to donate to Relay For Life at a sponsor level.  I would like to make another sponsor donation, but have used up all my money, so I need to sell some quilts. 

And honestly, any offer will be considered.  Take a look at what I’m selling and save yourself the time and effort of making it yourself.  My prices are almost at the cost of the materials. 

http://delawarequilts.com/MyQuilts/QuiltsForSale.html

Quilts For Sale

http://delawarequilts.com/MyQuilts/QuiltsForSale.html

I need to raise another $1000 quickly, can you help?  Make me an offer on any quilt.

Thanks!!

More on Anonymous comments

This morning when I first opened email there were 23 anonymous comments to be moderated and in the hour and a half since I deleted them, 11 more have come in.  SO… in an effort to stop the robot that has latched on to my blog, I’m setting comments to registered users only for a short time. 

Now I know there are quite a few quilters who follow my blog who are anonymous commenters.  Most of you have started emailing your comments to me a long time ago anyway, and you know who you are…  But if you are anonymous or not a registered commenter, please send me an email.  My address is quiltersretreat  at  hotmail.com, just take out the spaces. 

Your comments ARE important to me, they let me know what I’m doing wrong, or right, or even just let me know someone is reading my words.  THANKS for all of your comments.

Now…  I promise to get back to quilting soon, and quilting posts too! 

Uh Oh

I was just working with the comments trying to see if I could do anything else to discourage anonymous comments, and I accidently deleted the last 50 comments on my blog.  SO… if you made a comment, and there were quite a few in the last few days, I wasn’t trying to delete them, but they are gone.  I am so sorry. 

Comments ARE important to me, even the anonymous ones are good for a chuckle sometimes. 

Again, sorry if your comment disappeared, it was not intentional.  

PS, so far today I have received 43 anonymous comments... I may have to block them for a while and see if that will stop them. IF you are an anonymous commenter, send me an email. My email is quiltersretreat  @  hotmail.com, but take out the spaces.

Anonymous comments

Anyone else getting bombarded with anonymous comments recently?  I think some robot has posted fifty or more comments on my blog in the last three days. 
And that is why I have comments moderated… I can easily delete or reject anonymous and happily accept real comments!

Two day vacation

Just home from a short trip to Lancaster with my sister-in-law Cheri. 

We got to visit Jon and Mendy and Simba on the way up.  We went by one of my childhood homes and were surprised to see it was on the National Register of Historic Places. 

I saw my first Baltimore Oriel at Mill Creek in Stumptown, Cheri has the better pictures since I had my telephoto lens on.  And on the way home we spotted two Bald Eagles, one over the toll exchange in Dover and the second at Argo’s Corner. 

I got the backing I needed for Key West Tango from the Quilt and Fabric Shack and second one for a future mystery at Zooks. 

I got all the goodies John desired and my yogurt from Kauffman’s Fruit Farm & Market. 

We had a thoroughly enjoyable overnight at the Amish View Inn, getting to see some of my favorite people there. And of course a glorious visit to the hot tub and a filling breakfast in the morning. 

Between us we took almost 2000 pictures.  Most of the good ones are on her camera, since I did all the driving. 

Best of all I had some quality time with a special sister-in-law!  I hope she had as much fun as I did.

Happy Mother's Day

I want to wish my boys a Happy Mother’s Day.  Until they came along I didn’t have any idea what a mother was, and they showed what it meant.  The good and the not so good and the wonderful…  Thank you Jonathon and Michael for giving me something in my life I really needed!

Relay is over

Well... one Relay is over but that doesn’t mean I’m done yet.  Yes, the local Relay has ended for the year, but it’s left me wanting more. 

First, the location of the new event was purely heavenly.  Sitting on the edge of a prong of the Assawoman Bay in a heavily wooded area, it was secluded and peaceful and away from the distractions of the world.  I took this picture myself from the top of a hook and ladder.  You can see the cabins and the lone camper, as well as the luminaria bags lining the track. 



Cheri, Joan and me

I was never prouder of my team, Cheri survivor, Joan survivor, and John who came out to support me.  (And to Candy who was Relaying up in NY thinking of us the whole night I’m sure!)  We all raised over almost $8000!


John and me

But I Relay to recognize the survivors and I felt that last night they were not suitably recognized.  Just my opinion, but it hurt me to see it happen.  I’m going to try another event and see how they do it, and then if needed another until I find what I’m looking for.  And maybe, in all that looking, I will help raise enough money for science to find the cure.

Tonight's the night

This is where we will be Relaying.  I’m not sure how much walking we’ll do but we will be there cheering on all the survivors including our own Cheri Gordon and Joan Kehoe. 

Thanks to all of our donors for helping us help someone fighting cancer, or helping some scientist find the cure.  Together we will beat cancer!

http://main.acsevents.org/goto/Marge.Gordon

Spoon Theory

It’s hard to explain how I live… this lady did it for me. I have polymyalgia rheumatica and fibromyalgia and I have a limited number of spoons.
Read The Spoon Theory

Not feeling well

I guess I can’t hide it, everyone knows me too well.  Kathy says “I know you are flaring because you are not posting”  And my poor husband, he knows because when I don’t feel well apparently I am a bitch to be around. 

So if everyone knows it why am I trying to hide it?  Why am I denying to myself and everyone else that every muscle in my body is screaming at me?  Why am I hiding the fact that I’ve slept 31 hours in the last 48 and still feel like I could sleep another hundred hours? 

I upped my prednisone this morning, just a little, hoping that will help this flare up.  I am prepared to up it again tomorrow if I don’t feel better by the end of today.  I hate taking pills, but I hate hurting more. 

I refuse to let this get me down, and if I have to take more meds and get that dreaded prednisone puff, so be it.  Right now I’d rather look like the Stay Puft Marshmallow woman than hurt like hell.

Trying day...

Rainy dreary day here in more ways than one.  Trying to understand things that I can’t understand and probably never will. 

And trying a new quilt design, another one using Snaps and Pops. 

Thank goodness tomorrow is another day, and the one after that, and so on.

There really is no pattern

A few people have asked for the pattern for my quilt, name still to be decided.  Really, there is no pattern.  None at all, I just sewed until I had most of the fabric used up and even rows.

I made this using one Macaroon Bali Pop, pre-cut 2 1/2 inch strips and Macaroon Snaps, 5 inch squares.  There was no added fabric and very little left over.   

Here’s what I did.  First I opened up the package of Snaps and as they were put in the package, no matching at all.  I only changed the order if I had two which were the same color or close.   I drew a line diagonally down the center and sewed two lines 1/4 inch from that line.  Then I cut them, pressed and had triangle squares. 

Then I added a strip to one side of each triangle square, thinking perhaps I’d make a log cabin block… but then I decided that I didn’t want to bother with which side I was sewing the next strip to, or which way the diagonal seam was going… I just wanted to sew with no worries at all and that’s what I did. 

I went around each triangle square one time and then squared those blocks all down to 8 1/4 inches.  Then I looked at what I had left, and realized I did not have enough fabric left to go around again but probably enough to add one strip more on each block, which created a rectangle block rather than a square. 

When I had them all laid out on the bed I had left over blocks and a few strips and didn’t really like the lay out… So I turned some blocks horizontally and some vertically and added strips to make them all the same size and sewed it all together. 

Quilt name?

Yesterday I posted a picture of my latest quilt on here and on facebook.  I asked for name suggestions on facebook and got several, two I really like. 

 My friend Candy suggested Snap, Crackle Pop...for the 5" snaps, the Bali Pop & the references to crystals...(someone said it looked like broken glass and crystals)

And my friend and neighbor Diana suggested Key West Tango.  I liked that name because to me the fabrics had a Key West color vibe and the craziness of it was similar to a tango.  (Diana isn’t even a quilter, LOL!)

I like BOTH names equally, much more than the Macaroon Gamble name I’d come up with. 

So which name do you like better?

Quilting gamble

Two days ago I took a quilting gamble,  taking a matching set of strips and charms and making something without a pattern or design.  First I went down the stack of charms as they came up and made triangle squares, I had 40 triangle squares (HST or DHS which ever you call them).  Then I started adding strips, sort of like a log cabin, but not really… very randomly.  I laid them out on the bed and turned rows until I used up as many blocks as I could.  And this is the result. 
Made from one Macaroon Bali Pop and matching Snaps (2 1/2 inch strips and 5 inch squares)