Winners

The Giving Quilt drawing winners have been chosen.  Thank you to everyone who commented.  I announce names tomorrow.

The Giving Quilt

If you have not read The Giving Quilt yet, it will be available in paperback from Plume on April 2nd.  I have two copies to give away, as well as a few other prizes which have been given to me by the publisher.  If you would like to win one of the prizes, leave a comment answering the question “Why do you give?”  I will draw names on Sunday March 31st. 

Making my own kind of music

First, yes I realize that in yesterday’s post I was quoting someone else rather than saying my own thing… I’m not that stupid.  Second, I said what I said to make a point.  Someone accused me of “jumping on every band wagon that came down the street” 

That couldn’t be any further from the truth.  I am and I have always been and I will always be my own person.  Just ask my husband, or children, and I guess most of my true friends.  I could give many examples, but I won’t bore you.  I am me and no one else. 

And I will not try to make you be like me, never.  I encourage you to do your own thing.  Even if you take one of my perfectly perfect quilt patterns and make the world’s most ugly quilt from it.  Even if you like something I don’t like at all.  Even if you say the dumbest things ever and I agree or disagree with you… YOU can be you, just let ME be me. 

how disappointing...

I got this email...  Congratulations You Have Won $1,000,000.00 USD from PCH LOTTO, Email us back: superprize.winner@somethingstupid.com

Dear PCH, if I won, I want you to come to my door with roses and balloons, none of this email notification stuff. 

Make Your Own Kind of Music

A friend posted on facebook today Cass Elliot’s Make Your Own Kind of Music… and it got me to thinking… 

I see so many people posting things that other people post, copying or sharing.  Some of the things they post they don’t even know where they came from, but they like what it says so post it anyway.  Some of them click on every link that says “like this and see what happens”, believe me, nothing happens.  Some of them change their pictures to match everyone else’s pictures to say something they strongly believe in, or to show solidarity in that belief.  There is nothing wrong with any of that… 

But you have got to make your own kind of music… 

Walk to the beat of your own drummer….

Make your own quilt design….

Build your own snowperson….

But you gotta make your own kind of music
Sing your own special song
Make your own kind music
Even if nobody else sings along

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.  Henry David Thoreau

 

Reader Programs

Because Google is doing away with Google Reader, and because I like reading all the blogs and bloggers like my morning newspaper, I had to find a new reader program. 

Feedly at http://www.feedly.com/index.html  I don’t think this one is for me.  First of all, probably because of too many google users jumping on, I couldn’t get half the links to load.  Secondly, I don’t like seeing half the pictures and that is what I see and that’s with my view reduced so much that I can’t read the text.  I’m not sure this is what I want. 

Another reader jammed with new google reader jumpers was Bloglovin.  I loved what they said about themselves on the about page…

About us
Reading blogs can be a pain in the ass. We created bloglovin´ so you wouldn’t have to visit un-updated blogs, open ten windows in your browser, or forget your favorite blogs' web-addresses. With bloglovin´, we wanted to make your blog-reading fun and easy.
Sounds sweet! How does it work?
Just add all the blogs you want to follow, and then you’ll get notified every time one of your favorite blogs has written a new blog post.

Uh oh… I don’t want to be notified every time one of the over 70 bloggers I follows updates, I just want to read them all at one time.  Kind of like reading the newspaper with my breakfast. 

So I signed up anyway to give it a try… not what I want either.  First of all, I want to read it all on one page, and I haven’t figured out how to do that on Bloglovin… yet. 

I think I’ll stick with http://www.netvibes.com/, so far it works the best for me.   I’ve been reading on there for a week now, and so far this is what I want. 

Do you sell your quilts?

Many people have asked me how I price my quilts when I sell them.  A friend forwarded this blog to me just now that addresses this question.  Please read it, I think Sam says it much better than I ever have!

Sam Hunter, thank you!  http://huntersdesignstudio.com/2012/11/08/whats-it-worth/

Verrrry interesting

New phone test. Hope I pass 

Added three hours after sent and when message finally appears... 
Three hours after I sent those text messages they finally appeared on my blog.  All other messages/texts are being delivered in a timely manner, so I blame google, again.  I swear google and facebook both hate me.. oh well, I can live without them both.

Yes, I got a new phone yesterday.  So far I like it, although it’s been pretty quiet today, no calls, and hardly any messages.  That means lots of sewing should be getting done… should be...

Test :/

I feel so special

I truly am feeling special today, I never knew I had such famous friends who cared so very much about me.  When I checked email just now my close friends Oprah Whinfrey, Pamela Anderson, Angelina Jolie and Jessica Alba had all sent me messages… wasn’t that sweet of them…  delete

Between those emails were a few suspicious looking emails from other friends, all  quilters and all ladies who are on one or more of my yahoo groups.  Someone must have clicked on someone else’s link without thinking and now… well I have a delete button and I know how to use it. 

And my 1/4 inch problem from yesterday… I never did figure out WHY it happened, but it is fixed now.  I took apart each one of the blocks verrrry carefully, bias edges of course, then pressed them gently, and sewed them again with the needle position moved over just slightly.  And now I finally have the 6 1/2 inch blocks I need… moving on to the next step now, and I better not run into anymore problems with this quilt!

Some days....

Some days it just doesn’t pay to get out of bed… I think today is one of those days.  I’m working on a quilt, a new mystery and new pattern.  I’ve made sample blocks before, and made half of the blocks needed for the quilt.  The first bakers dozen came out perfectly.

Working on more blocks… and they just aren’t coming out right.  I’ve measured all 12 of them, each one is off just 1/4 of an inch.  Just 1/4.  I’ve checked the seam allowances - perfect, checked the main parts - perfect and measured the parts I am adding, all prefect.  Nothing is wrong, but the blocks are all 1/4 inch too small. 

And it’s snowing…. maybe I will just go back to bed and start over again tomorrow.

Happy Spring

It’s a beautiful first day of spring here in Delaware, wee bit chilly but at least the sun is shining.  I’m more than ready for spring, and especially the spring retreat which is coming up soon. 

I did not take this picture, my sister-in-law Cheri did on her way to work one morning.  She kind of got side tracked and took just a “few” beautiful sunrise beach pictures, if you call 729 a few.  I’ll be sharing lots of them here and on facebook, they are just too beautiful not to share.

Pattern prices going up

Prices going up.  I hate hearing that, but I hate even more saying it.  But… sadly I am raising the prices on all of my patterns.  I said I would give $5 of each pattern sold to Relay For Life, and I do.  But recently the $5.50 price doesn’t give me a $5 profit.  So I’m raising the price on all of my patterns, and all of the PROFIT will be donated. 

ALL of the profit will go to fighting cancer. (The profit is what you pay for the pattern minus the PayPal fees.)   Money will be donated to Relay For Life through the American Cancer Society from December through June and to Heaps of Hope through Be Bold, Be Bald from July to November. 

Thank You for helping me raise money in the battle against cancer!

 

Gifts

Funny I’ve been talking about gifts and in today’s snail mail I received three.  One was a check for Relay, well sort of, thanks anyway Laurie.  Your heart is in the right place and I know it and appreciate it.  Another was a book, one I’d been waiting for and forgot about… it came out this month and it was on my wish list, some sweetie had it sent to me. 

And the third gift was one from the heart, a thank you letter from someone I donated a quilt to.  I didn’t expect anything back, the only reason my address was on the shipping label was because the post office put it there… some rules… but I got a sweet little hand written note from a 8 year old I made a quilt for.  That thank you letter gave me such a warm feeling and made me feel special, which was what I’d hoped my quilt would do for her. 

And with that in my heart, I’m off to make a few more quilts for kids!  Not for the thank yous, but because now I know that the quilts I make ARE appreciated.  Or as Cinthia says “the blanket made me know some where some body loves me”

Happy St Patrick’s Day

Happy St Patrick’s Day.  If you’re Irish enjoy it and if not, pretend!  I looked into Irish gift giving and found this.. 

Traditionally, gift giving in Ireland is customary for birthdays and Christmas.

If you are invited to someone's home, do take a gift. Flowers, chocolate, cheese, and wine are good choices.

The gift need not be expensive. Giving something personal and the choice of the gift is more important.

Gifts are usually opened in front of the giver. When receiving a gift it is customary to politely refuse a gift when it is first offered. When giving a gift to someone, expect him or her to do the same.

The same is true when offered a gift of hospitality: refuse it once and maybe twice. The third time it is offered, you should accept. This custom may have come from the days of the Potato Famine. Although people had nothing to offer, they could offer the hospitality of a cup of tea or other without embarrassment. By offering a third time, the recipient was assured that accepting the gift would not cause the giver hardship.

So if you ever offer an true Irishman a quilt, don’t be offended when he turns it down.  But be sure to off it again and again so he will take it. 

If you have not read The Giving Quilt yet, it will be available in paperback from Plume on April 2nd.  I have two copies to give away, as well as a few other prizes which have been given to me by the publisher.  If you would like to win one of the prizes, leave a comment answering the question “Why do you give?”  I will draw names on Sunday March 31st. 

The Giving Quilt

The Giving Quilt was quite appropriate reading for me, coming at the end of four successful retreats at which many quilts were made for charities, as well as many projects for the retreaters themselves.  I read The Giving Quilt the first time shortly after returning from those retreats.  It was part of my unwinding process, and I enjoyed it a lot, both the unwinding and the book.  It was also perfect timing, coming at the end of “My Giving Year” 

I enjoyed how the author, Jennifer Chiaverini wove the stories of the campers and staff together into a delightful story, just like we piece our quilts.  This quilt camp was slightly different than the traditional Elm Creek quilt camps, bringing together some new quilters and more experienced quilters for the purpose of making quilts just for Project Linus rather than themselves.  Their stories and the reason they wanted to give made this another delightful Elm Creek story. 

If you have not read The Giving Quilt yet, it will be available in paperback from Plume on April 2nd.  I have two copies to give away, as well as a few other prizes which have been given to me by the publisher.  If you would like to win one of the prizes, leave a comment answering the question “Why do you give?”  I will draw names on Sunday March 31st. 

Happy National Quilting Day

Happy National Quilting Day! I hope you are sewing, or fabric shopping, or at least doing something quilt related.

I am monitoring a new mystery which started about 9AM my time, so far no problems, questions or comments either, although I know a few are busy sewing. I am also working on another mystery, one for the future. Scrappy and so far I like it, a LOT, I hope the rest of the ladies do too. I also have a binding I am working on and I am reading the last few pages of The Giving Quilt, again.

 

New Reader…

With Google Reader going away, and it being the way I keep in touch with the rest of you bloggers, I had to find a new reader.  I read what others had to say about them, looked here and there, and decided on Netvibes.  http://www.netvibes.com/ 

Let me honest, I don’t like new… remember I fought the internet back in 1997 and fought Yahoo Groups in 2000, and couldn’t understand at all why anyone would want to blog or facebook…   And it was another blogger who started me on Google Reader, and boy was I glad she did. 

So I was happy to find this tutorial telling me what to do.  http://mstublefield.com/technology/how-to-move-from-google-reader-to-netvibes

Read it carefully, if I can do it… well good luck!

I’ve been using this for two whole days now, and love it.  Well so far I love it.  I’m still looking at other options but for now this one fits my needs.

 

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is mystery day on the Mysteries For Relay group.  There’s still time to get in on it if you enjoy quilting mysteries…. A $5 donation will get you in on this one, or a $30 donation will get you a whole year’s worth.  You may make your donations at

http://main.acsevents.org/goto/Marge.Gordon or http://delawarequilts.com/Relay/

 

While everyone else is sewing, I’ll be rereading The Giving Quilt.  I really enjoyed it the first time, and have been asked to write a review before the paperback comes out early next month, so I want to read it again.  I’ll have some prizes to give away compliments of the publishers too!  Check back tomorrow. 

Google Reader retiring

“We have just announced on the Official Google Blog that we will soon retire Google Reader (the actual date is July 1, 2013). We know Reader has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go. We’re sad too.

There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we’re pouring all of our energy into fewer products. We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience.”

Sad for sure, sucks really.  And Google really has never done anything to impress me. 

Is there another “reader” program out there I can use?  

What a difference a day makes

Yesterday it was sunny and warm.  Today it is sunny, but far from warm.  It might be 41 degrees out, but with wind speeds over 30mph it doesn’t feel like it.  And my poor daffodils are blowing and dancing in the wind. 

On the quilting news, I finished a top today.  I can’t say I made the whole thing, these were orphan blocks from a friend that I put together.  I added the border, although I’m not sure I like it.  It’s made with what I had on hand for the backing.  We’ll see after it comes home from the quilter’s

Spring is coming

 
I just know it is, and these are why I’m so sure…

 

Today

Today is my baby’s birthday, but he’s not a baby any more.  But to me, he will always be my baby… 28 or not, he’s still my baby. 

Happy Birthday Mike

Did you remember?

Did you remember to set your clocks ahead last night?  I did, most of them.  My travel alarm will need changing when I go away next time.  But my internal  clock didn’t get the message and I woke up with a killer headache.  So I got up, took two Tylenols and sat down to check email. 

Two hours later I woke up…. LOL!  That nap will cost me tonight I’m sure.  Oh well, at least this didn’t happen at a retreat!

Tonight's the night

For many years I’ve been on retreat when we sprang forward, but not this year.  The ladies of the spring retreat decided they didn’t want to share the quilt shops with all the quilt show shoppers and opted to retreat later in the spring.  So this year while Lancaster is mobbed with quilt show attendees and everyone has to spring forward, we’ll be home still counting down the days to the retreat..  31

It snowed!

It snowed all morning, from about 8 to 12:30.  Pretty little snowflakes blowing all over.  That’s four and a half hours of snow…and the ground is still green and the roads clear.  Yes it’s all wet, but clean and from the speed of the cars going down my road, I’d say clear too. 
Got to love a spring snow storm!

Today’s accomplishments

I might not have done any sewing, but I finished two patterns.  One I started many years ago, and decided it was finally time to finish it today…. Now I can’t wait to sew it! 

The second one was also designed a few years back, on EQ 5 I think, but I never actually made up a pattern and of course never sewed a stitch.  Now the pattern is finished and I am ready to sew… 

So....

About 3:25 power blinked, came back on and then went off again.  I saved the documents I was working on, and closed the lap top, unplugged it and then checked other appliances that might have been working. 

Then I decided to work on that binding.  However it was pretty dark in here, lots of clouds means no sunlight.  I have a “headlight” I use when I’m doing hand work but it wasn’t where it was supposed to be.  I tried to thread the needle.  Black thread, small eye on the needle and not a lot of light… guess what I never did…. Not one stitch, LOL! 

Fortunately the power came back on in less than an hour, and I survived.  And now my “headlight” is right here on my table where it belongs. 

What headlight?  Remember the LL Bean commercial at Christmas where the little children wait on the sofa for Santa with headlights on their heads… that’s what I mean by “headlight”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLHrlWZ9xq4

Today's weather

This is what I worry about today…

So…
Phone is charged,
Kindle is charged,
Nook is charged and
I have a large quilt to put binding on, while it sits on my lap and keeps me warm! 
I’m ready!

Weather?

Today has been sunny and clear, but the clouds are rolling in and the trees are moving and swaying, doing the March dance.  Depending on which weather man or map you go by, we’re in for wind and rain and possibly snow for the next two days.  The rain doesn’t bother me, and since I don’t have to go out, the snow doesn’t really bother me either.  That wind on the other hand…  that I could do without. 

Typical March weather I guess… time will tell.

Flannel

I had a really good idea, sort of.  I bought some flannel to make some cute little baby quilts for charity.  I thought a simple little four patch, flannel front and back, sew right sides together, turn right sides out and quilt.  Simple, right…

Confession, I have never, never ever, not in my lifetime sewn on flannel. 

One friend said to me that my idea was a good one, simple and easy.  I asked her about pre-washing and she replied that since I was making small baby quilts, “just wash them after you make them to give them the soft crinkly look.” 

However another friend said I had to pre-wash. 

Normally I do, I ALWAYS pre-wash, well except pre-cuts.  Always always always… so why did I think I could get away with not pre-washing this time I have no idea. 

So I put the question to one of my Yahoo groups…. And did I get replies… 

“You, the pre-wash queen not pre-washing?” 
“What a ridiculous question, especially coming from you”
“You are joking right, of course you prewash flannel”
“I was so shocked at your question I spurted my coffee all over my tablet”

So I guess I will be pre-washing

Happy March

March already?  This year is flying past… is it just my imagination, or does anyone else feel the same?

March 16th is National Quilting Day and we will be doing a brand new mystery that day on the Mysteries For Relay group.  You can make $5 donation to join in this mystery, or pay $30 for a whole year’s worth.  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MysteriesForRelay/