Happy Birthday, Dear! I've brought you a....

dog?

I left work early yesterday to get home and make Rob's favorite birthday meal, Swiss Steak and mash potatoes.  I use the recipe from the 70's.  His mother loves it, but doesn't remember making it for them when Rob was a kid.  Rob hovers over the stove when I make it, watching it in anticipation.  Afraid Mable's going to miss a bear and the bear's going to get his dinner. 

Anyway, I was going to vote on the way home too, and then the phone rang.  Sydney missed the bus.  Can you pick her up?

Sure, but she's going to have to wait til after I vote. 

Then I got the second call from a weeping teenage girl...there was this dog and it was loose and it was running in the street and it was going to get run over and it's really old and really docile.  What do I do?

I told her we would talk about it when I got there.  After I vote. 

Then the phone rang again.  Rob.  What do we do? 

I don't know and I'm not going to think about it til after I vote. 

I picked up Sydney.  And, this is a really old dog.  But he's cute and really docile in her arms.  We stop at a veterinarian's office across the street from the school.  The dog has a chip, but he's not one of their patients.  So, we call the chip service.  The chip information has never been entered so they can't help.

So, home comes the dog.  Because the animal shelter is across town and in 5 o'clock traffic, it would have taken at least an hour and a half.  And, honestly, this was easier. It was a choice between the shelter and the swiss steak.  And, the swiss steak won. 

Sydney is still weeping.  Rob is a little freaked at this interruption of his special day.  And, I just wanna cook some Swiss Steak.  So, put the dog in the crate and put the crate in the garage so our dogs will settle down.  Give it some water and go do your homework.  And, for God's sake, stop weeping!  That put the focus back on Rob and we had a cocktail and a nice long chat and proceeded with the birthday. 

I got dinner to the point it could take care of itself and I just needed to watch for pots boiling over and pulled out the laptop.  I found out how you're supposed to report a found dog, did that, the city called and matched the chip number to a phone number they had on file, called the number and made a young man very excited that his dog was alright, and put dinner on the table...on time.

Cause I can.

After dinner, Syd and I met Romeo's daddy in a parking lot where they got all kissy faced with one another and the grateful but awkward young man thanked us profusely before we drove home.  We were both smiling. 

 

Life is all about balance.  Balancing what I need and what my family needs and giving back to the Universe for the good life I live.  Friends, family, work.  Balance. 

Y'all have a great Friday.  We still have no Prom shoes.  Maybe I won't thaw anything for dinner and we will have to eat out...and I'll pick a place near DSW.  Balance.

Lane

You are my sunshine...

My only sunshine.
You make me happy, when skies are gray.
You'll never know dear, how much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away.

Today is Rob's Birthday.

Happiest of birthdays to you, dear!  Like I said this morning, I love you more after every storm and celebration. 

And, who else gets hotter with age?  It's like you're aging backward.

Lane

All together now!

I put in the last curved seam this morning.  And, yes, even though I promised to shut up about it, I will be giving tips on assembly. 

In this post, I talked about how I assembled the individual block sections.  Assembling the rows works exactly the same way.  You're sewing a diamond to a melon, even though there is usually another diamond and another melon attached to the other ends.  But, it's all the same principle.  Sew one curved seam at a time.  I will be adding information to that post, because I didn't say that when sewing a melon to a diamond, and then adding a second melon, don't sew to the end.  Treat it like a Y seam and start a quarter inch from the leading edge and backstitch.  Then, end a quarter inch before the ending edge and backstitch.  You're going to need those seam allowances to be loose later.  I happened to have done this, but I didn't think to mention it in that post, I don't think. 

When you're sewing two rows together, you really are dealing with a Y seam.  You can see how that point needs to fit in with the other brown squares.  The easiest way to do that is still to sew one curved seam at a time. release some pins and move to the next curve.  I'm sure some people could do that in one long seam.  But, I didn't even try.  I just did one seam at a time and it worked great.  .  (I've used masking tape to number my blocks after laying them out and doing my best to make sure that I got fabric variety in the setting squares.)

You can see where I put the original seam in in the picture above.  But, now, I'm going to bring in another seam at the angle that the pin shows.  That's the Y part of the seam.  See how I left the end of the diamond point loose by starting the seam a quarter inch in?  I've got to fold that seam allowance back out of the way later, so I need it to be loose.

Because I left my seam allowances open, I'm going to be matching this open seam, a quarter inch from the edge, to a point that is created on the other piece. 

To create that point, I need to fold the seam allowance (from two pictures above) back over the arc so I can create a new seam line for the next arc.  Because the seam where the setting square joins is pressed open, I can fold back the green diamond and the beige arc without folding back the setting square.  That forms the new seam line that goes from the diamond to the setting square.  Think Y seams.  If you're not familiar with all this, study those.  Understanding them is the secret to getting the blocks together. 

 

I drop a pin in that to keep it from folding back on me.  Remember, I do not want to sew over that match point.  I want all the ends to be loose.  Then, I match exactly where I want the seams to go together and I pin that.  Remove the excess pins.  I pinned two complete rows together.  But, I sewed one curve at a time.  I did that because I have to do some unpinning and re-setting up when I transition from one setting square to the next. 

 

 

This doesn't show it very well, but if you look along the right edge, you'll see that the transition is smooth from the brown setting square at the top to the green diamond below.  Start sewing a quarter inch from the beginning and end a quarter inch before the end. 

 

When you get to the end, pull just the last pin.  Look at the horizontal seam above...the one closest to the bottom of the photo frame.  You can see that one isn't sewn yet.  But, I just finished the seam that runs along the right edge, ending right at the match point, which is a quarter inch from the edge of the brown fabric.  I pull the last pin and turn the work 45 degrees and fold all the seam allowances out of the way.  I do not want to sew over anything here except the new seam.  Drop a pin into the beginning of the new seam and I can sew that seam. 



 

 

I included this picture to show how the seam allowances all get pushed out of the way.  I fold them back so that when the needle approaches, I can make a stitch just at the match point, without sewing down any seam allowance. 

 

 

As I completed a row, I pulled all the pins.  As I was pulling pins, I'd find tiny mistakes and at that point, I would fix them.  They're only going to get harder to correct later.  As I removed the pins from a set of setting squares, I'd turn that section over and look at it and make sure the seams matched good enough before I continued to pull pins from the next seam allowance.  I didn't do a whole lot of re-sewing here, but there was some.  It's hard to get all this to match up perfect on a curve and having all those pins in the way doesn't help.  So, once the pins are out, I can repair small sections very quickly, mostly because I handled it all one curve at a time. 

 

 

Work is busier than I can even imagine.  My big grammar and punctuation project is in full swing now.  We are extending that from my documents to documents we use all across the country.  We've found that because we write these documents one section at a time, they don't have consistent word choice...think how hard it would be to read a document where one paragraph is written in the past tense, the next paragraph in the future tense, and then a paragraph in the present.  It makes it very confusing.  Someone called me cynical in our meeting yesterday.  And, I responded with a short speech about how this was going to improve processes for people at my job level all across the country.  There was no more talk of me being cynical.  I came across as more of a dreamer...if we build it, they will use it...

 

Ugh...it's so hard to be that upbeat.  It left me a little breathless.

 

Everybody have a great Wednesday!  The girl got hit with federal withholding on her last check.  She made less money on the check and didn't understand why.  It's because they withheld on her tips and she made great tips.  Poor thing.  I know that's a hard concept to grasp. 

 

Very soon we need to buy shoes to go with that fancy dress.  I do not quite know how we are going to fit that in. 

 

But, we will.  Families have gotten things done for generations.  When the going gets tough...the tough make a good, stiff drink.

 

Lane

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



A weekend lost

Well, I have the surface back.  yay...  I have to say that everything worked great.  And, Microsoft was disappointing in just the ways I would expect them to be disappointing, as in they don't keep a record of my apps that I can just reinstall...I have to remember what they were and reinstall them.  And, it took several tries, at multiple hours each to download the file that ultimately saved the day...and they said that was my download speed, but funny thing, everything else we clicked on downloaded fast...except that one file.  But, their customer service reps were GREAT!  It almost makes all the other crap okay. 

And, I'm just glad to be back in business.  Thank goodness I've been good at backing things up.

Anyway, just a few pictures today, to brighten the mood. 

My Mom asked me the other day if she had sent us a brown Iris.  This must be it.  The pictures make it look more reddish and Sydney calls it the color of dried blood.  But, I can't imagine a flower being more brown than this one.  It's beautiful!

And, my little patch of iris in bloom.  The experts say, you can't grow that here.  humph!

This is a little hand quilting project I started about three weeks ago.  A dear friend gave me two sets of whole cloth patterns to quilt small quilts.  I picked this one as my first. 

 

 

Here it is with the blue ink washed out.  I don't know if you can see the quilting.  It's really a nice little piece.  And, I have plans to make more.  Rob has a plan to turn them into a single art piece.  And, I'm supporting that plan.

 

 

Okay, well, I really just don't want to look at this computer anymore.  So, I'm going to go see if I can find something more worthwhile to do that will get my butt out of this chair.

Have a great Sunday!  Lane

Just thoughts

I'm having computer problems. Remember how much I loved my surface?  So I bought a second one and let it replace my laptop?  What a moron I am sometimes.  The surface hardware is great. It's the fact that Microsoft can't keep their hands out of it makes me crazy. Thinking of switching to an iPad. And very politely told the tech that the other night and she seemed surprised. So my experience must be unique. I know you're not supposed to read between the lines with computer people...they're much too literal...but I got the feeling my computer had been having problems for a long time as she listened to my story.

I was out of town for a work conference. they did that get to know you game where they have things listed and you have to find people that have done them. One was has used a typewriter. And there were only a few that had. I work for a major auto insurer and I was the only person in the room that drives a hybrid. And only a few had climbed a mountain, but that one got interesting because I climbed pond mountain in Arkansas. Another guy climbed a cliff face. My boss's boss was the only one that owned a boat. Hmmm.

I flew to Cleveland next to a woman that reminded me so much of my dear friend LD. Looked like a little younger version of her. We had the nicest chat.

On the flight home last night, I sat next to a young woman who had hurt her back, lifting her child. She and I talked a lot. I did what I could to help her feel more comfortable. she was not the only person that called me kind. I can think of four that called me kind over the course of this trip. Funny that they all used the same word. I don't think of myself as particularly kind. I think maybe Rob is rubbing off on me.

I flew up on United. I flew home on American. So I got to really contrast the two. WOW!  I know which one I prefer. And now I know why.

Typing on phone. Things not saving right. So have a good day. And a good weekend. Lane

When I go to these meetings, I see people clump together in their little groups. I try to sit at a table where I only know one person and I try to sit across from them. Believe me y'all. This is an effective way of networking for a shy person. At a round table, when you talk to the one you know, you talk to the whole table.  And get to meet people. It works every time. But my co workers still clump. Don't get it. Spread out. Shake just a few hands.

When someone sees you bury your face in a plate of ribs, don't start telling them about your diet the next morning. They will raise one eyebrow at you and it won't be their fault.

Why is so much trashy gay romance written by women?  I've discovered that I love trashy gay mystery romance novels when I travel. Just the right amount of interest and thrill. I can forget about the inconvenience and feeling like a sardine and the fact that TSA is scary (why are the tiny blind ladies the scariest of all. It's like they're getting even for all the times we treated them like little ladies

We survived. All of us.

When Sydney said she wanted to go to prom and she needed a dress, I said you need to find a woman.  Dress shopping is not a skill I possess nor is it a skill I'm interested in possessing.  And, an old man skulking around a dress shop sounds a little creepy. 

I talked to Rob about it and he was all "it's such a special occasion, don't you want to be there...guilt, guilt, guilt."

But, I held my ground. 

And, Sydney held hers.  She had a couple things she needed to do before we went prom dress shopping.  Conditions, if you will.  Or, maybe you'd like to call them ransom.  And, God love her, she did 'em.  She got a job and she kept her grades up.  But, she did not go find a woman to help her dress shop.  She came back to me. 

And, yes, all you nice ladies out there just went "ohhhh, how sweet".  Piddle.  This was a battle of wills. 

And I lost.  And I started reading about how to buy a prom dress.  And, she and I started talking about it over breakfast and she was studying up on it too, doing her part.  Even if we were following different paths, we were finding out the same information.  And, she was helping me feel more comfortable about it.  So, yesterday morning, before she went to work, I walked up to Rob and just announced that Syd and I were going dress shopping after work.  And, he asked if he should go.  And, I said I did not care, I did not want to go.  So, he went with us. 

And, for the most part, I took it easy on Sydney and for the most part, she took it easy on me.  And, she and I walked up and down the aisles of dresses...I was clearly not the first man to walk down those aisles or the first one pulling stuff out and asking "this?"  So, apparently the old man in the dress shop being creepy isn't true anymore, but how was I to know that before I got there.  Sydney went in with an idea and I asked her to try three different style dresses in three different colors before she made up her mind.  Rob held down the fort outside her dressing room door. 

The shop was packed.  There were girls and mothers and aunts and babies everywhere.  And, there were dresses flying on and off mannequins.  I'd never been in a dress shop, much less one that was busy, but I'm glad it was busy.  It let us kind of melt into the background.  The girl that helped us knew what was up and she was perfect.  She paid us just enough attention to make sure we had anything we needed, and after she showed me how to zip a girl into a dress that doesn't quite fit, she earned the easiest commission of the day. 

I talked Sydney into trying this dress.  She saw it on the mannequin and I think was a little intimidated by it.  I think the one on the mannequin was a size two.  Sydney is not.  But, there was one in her size right there, so as she was walking away with two other dresses, she flounced it onto her arm. 

It was the first one she tried on.  And, it was fantastic!  She still had her hair up from working at the restaurant. 

 

 

It made the stuff she wanted to look bigger look bigger and the stuff she wanted to look smaller look smaller.  Sounds perfect to me!  I always look for those qualities in men's clothes. 

 



Then she tried on a dozen other dresses.  Okay, the exact number is being argued.  Some of us say it was a hundred.  Others say only ten.  But, I say it was a dozen. 

 

At the end, when we were all tired...50 minutes later...I asked if she was going to try on the black dress again, and she said yes.  And, this time, she came out with her hair down.

 

 

And, we all knew it was the one.  It doesn't even need hemming.  So, we walked out of there with it in a bag. 

 

Fifty minutes, y'all.  Now, that's how men buy a dress.

 

Actually, I'm pretty sure we got lucky.  Real lucky!  The queens of drag were smiling upon our little family.

 

Everybody have a great Sunday!! 

 

Ain't she pretty?  Maybe that picture will get her a date. 

 

Lane

A day at the movies

There isn't much going on in the studio right now.  More DWR.  I need to order thread for a couple other things.  Big yawn. 

So, I thought I'd share a couple of videos that Rob made. 

First is the Georgetown Quilt show, Poppy Panache. 

That was a fun quilt show.  If you have 15 minutes, I can promise a good watch. 

And, the second one is a walk through my garden last weekend.  It's much shorter. 

He catches me walking around just looking and enjoying it.  Hunting for weeds, and wool gathering.

It's part of the pleasure of having a garden.

Everybody have a great Thursday.  I have the day off.  Today and tomorrow.  The diabetic cat has to go to the vet.  She had an infection and had to go to the emergency vet a couple weeks ago and this is our followup.  I suspect we will be back on insulin...or maybe not.  She's such a skittish eater and eating the special high protein food is what keeps her off the insulin.  But, we're likely going to be back on the regular vet visit routine for a while.  It's a good thing I like that cat.

Have a good day!  Lane

Just one more post...

and then, I promise I'll shut up about it.

This weekend, I pieced the last of the arcs for the DWR quilt.  And, I took some pics because, like everything else, I think my method is magic or something and that everybody should see it.

There's worse stuff I could feel that way about. 

Anyway, I paper piece with freezer paper.  I don't need nearly as many copies of the pattern.  And, it just works better than traditional paper piecing for me.  And, the best part is that at the end, I don't have to pull all that paper off. 

I stacked 8 rectangles of freezer paper together and pinned them to the back of my pattern and sewed through it all to mark the lines on the freezer paper.  Then, I cut them out to shape.  I cut all my fabrics in 2.5" squares. 

I ironed the first square to the freezer paper template.  You can see how I made sure it overlaps the paper pattern by a quarter inch on the folded side.  The other side has the seam allowance included...that's the pencil line. 

Because the paper is folded back, it's really easy to line the next piece of fabric up with the shape it needs to cover, sew along the fold, not through the paper,  then I use my Add-a-Quarter ruler to trim to a perfect quarter inch seam allowance. 

Fold that second piece of fabric over so it covers its shape and iron it to the paper.  I generally iron...iron, not press...with the top of the iron to push the fabric over and give me a crisp fold line.  Then, I flip the whole thing over and press the paper to the fabric.  The paper adheres better if you get the paper hot than if you get the fabric hot.  Then, I repeat that process with fabric three. 

I use a ruler to trim the edge off when I'm done. 

And, then scissors to trim right along the edge of the paper to make the curves perfect.  I could probably use a rotary cutter, but the scissors slide so nicely along the edge of that heavy freezer paper that it's really easy. 

And, I get a perfect arc.  Peel the paper and it's ready to use.  And, I can use the papers 6-7 times.  I made 32 copies of the pattern and pieced 178 or so arcs. 

The last ones are made and I'm started on row seven.  The last row.  I'm very excited.

Everybody have a great Monday!  The pig roast was fun.  I'll save you the picture of the pig on the spit.  It was kinda maybe a lot for me. 

Lane

The secret revealed

I wish I'd figured this out earlier. 

There's been this fiddly bit that I've had to do when two melons come together.  I thought I had it figured out.  But then, when I tried it, it was still a fiddly bit.  I walked away from the sewing machine yesterday, trying to figure it out.  And, oddly enough, I figured it out in the shower. 

I went into it knowing where the problem is.  It's when I add those two squares to the end of an arc.  I need the seam allowance to always go toward the square.  But, if I let the seam allowance from the arc go toward the square, I get caught up trying to put two of those squares together.  And, if I let the seam allowance go away from the square, I get caught up at the same place. 

Solution, press that seam allowance open!

Stick with me because it's going to be a few minutes  before I tell you why. 

Then, pin the longer arc to the combined short arc and melon. 

Because that first seam allowance is pressed open, you can pick out a couple stitches, and open the seam allowance on the second side of the square as well.

There's some bulk there, so if you're doing really fine work, you might trim some of that out.  I didn't bother.  I'd rather deal with it when I'm quilting. 

Then, sew the first melon to the background diamond.

Okay, now here's what I solved by pressing those seam allowances open.  When I add a second melon that touches the first one, I have to transition from sewing the melon and background diamond to sewing the two setting squares together.  I couldn't get those two fabrics to match without some playing with it.  But, if everything is pressed open, they match up just perfect!  In the photo below, I have the background folded back so you can see that transition point.  At that point, I will stop sewing the background to the arc and start sewing the two arcs together.

Here's what it looks like with the background folded to the place it needs to be when the seam is sewn.

And, I get a perfect transition from one melon to the next, going around the circle.

If you don't press those seam allowances open, you're going to have to snip into your seam allowance every place that two arcs are joined by their setting squares to get the transition to happen.  Unfortunately, I already have 36 blocks made where I didn't do that. 

But, honestly, that's how I figure things out.  Trial and error.  Yesterday, I used this same trial and error method to solve, in four hours, a problem they told me in our morning conference call could not be solved...that data is NOT available. 

Well, it's available now!

Even my new boss said "I'm anxious to see if Lane can back up his confidence at finding a solution."

Well, I had to after that.

Rob said he will not make a block for our quilt.  But, if I pin a seam for him, he will run it through the machine. 

He's gonna be real surprised when I take him up on it.

Lane

More on curved piecing

You guys didn't think I remembered how to post two days in a row, did you?  Ha! 

Anyway, I wanted to talk more about the DWR.  I thought I'd talk about where I learned to piece curves.  I've had a lot of good teachers and that's why I think they come so easy for me.  I started out hand piecing drunkard's path blocks for this little quilt.  I saw someone hand piecing curves on Simply Quilts and she made it look so much easier than piecing them on the machine. 

Sorry about the lighting.  It's still dark here.  I did a couple of quilts cut from collections of 5" squares that way and it gave me an understanding of how curves fit together.  Then, I took a class from a local quilter and she showed me how to pin them together and sew them on the machine.  (drunkard's path blocks in the upper left...we did NOT set in the four circles, they are applique.)

And Sally Collins taught me to do all that marking and matching of points.  It all works together.  All those teachers, showing me little secrets that I can share.  The things that make this quilt easy.  But tedious.

Rob reads my blog and when he got home last night, he said "with those instructions, I think even I could piece one of those blocks."  Now, there's an idea.  Talk about a wedding quilt...both of us making a block for it.  I wonder if I could really talk him into trying.

But, I digress... 

Yesterday, we left off with this melon.

 

 

And, today, we're going to attach it to this diamond.  

It's all a matter of knowing where you're going to sew...before you sew. 

First comes the marking.  I mark the center by folding in quarters and pressing.  Then, I use a ruler to mark the x's in the diamond points. 

This time, the diamond goes on top because it's the concave (in-y) curve.  But, it works exactly the same.  Match the middle of the arc to the center of one side of the diamond.  Then, match the ends of the arc to the x's on the diamond and ease the rest of it together.  The joining squares hang off the edge.

Sew that seam, and press. 

Next, I'd add a melon to the opposite side, and if I needed to, a melon to join them.  There's a secret to adding a melon when two of them touch.  And, I thought I had it figured out.  But, this morning, I discovered that I do NOT.  I've been fiddling them together all this time trying to figure it out.  It's something about how the seam allowances have to be turned that I just haven't mastered.  But, I will work on it this weekend and try to come back with the solution to the problem on Monday. 

Sorry about that. 

All I can offer as condolence is that when I solve that one little problem, it's going to be worth it!  Oh, and I found the link to the pattern. 

Everybody have a great Friday!  Work continues to be an adventure.  It's like someone figured out how much time I had and took it as a challenge to fill it up. 

But, it makes the days pass so fast!

Tomorrow, we go to a pig roast.  Yes, two friends are going to roast a pig in their back yard.  Granted, they have the setup for it.  But, it's still going to be an adventure. 

I'm baking beans.  They take so much less oven space.

Lane

More on assembling the DWR

Last week, I talked about putting the DWR quilt together here and there was interest.  So, I thought why not show the hard part.  Because, honestly, it's not as hard as it looks and I think people should know that.  First, my pattern.  I was going to give you a link but I can't find it now.  It's the Double Wedding Ring Quilt Pattern by Jennifer Paganelli for the Girlfriends Collection.  But, Jennifer's isn't the only version out there.  I have the same pattern in a package from 1987, by Country Quilt Collections.  I picked that up at some show, and the price tag indicates its from Yoder's department store.  Isn't that in Shipshewana?  How'd it get all the way here?

Anyway, both patterns say to paper pieces the arcs and I used my freezer paper method for that and it went fast.  Much faster than the rest of the quilt is going...but that's because there was no pinning involved.  Most of the assembly time after the arcs are made is spent pinning...at least for me it is. 

First, I mark.  This is the background melon shape.  I mark the center, by folding in half and pressing.  Then, I mark the ends.  This is the actual place where the seams would come together.  So, it's a quarter inch in from the edge, measured from both sides.  See how it forms an X?  I'm going to pin through that x. 

Here are my arcs.  There are regular 6 piece arcs and there are arcs with the ends added on.  The pattern instructions explain how to choose colors.  I'm using dark brown and a medium brown instead of just two fabrics as the pattern calls for.  That should give me a more scrappy look. 

Next, mark the seam intersections on the arcs.  Then, I use what I call the "nail and pin" method. 

I drive a pin through the two match points like a nail.  That's the red pin in the picture above.  Then, I bring a pin in from the side and bring it though, right where those two seams should match.  That guarantees that when it goes through the machine, the seam will match the pieces exactly like they should be. 

Repeat with the ends of the arcs.  Here the red pin is the nail and the blue pin holds the seam in an exact match. 

Then, I pin down the rest of the seam lines to the melon shape.  I put the concave (in-y) curve of the arc on top and let if ruffle up as the shorter edge matches up to the convex (out-y) curve on the background melon. 

Sew that seam and press to the background melon. 

Then, I pin the longer arc to the other side of the melon, just like I did the first one, matching all the same points, except you have those two extra squares on the end that overlap the first arc.  Be sure that the seam allowances where the squares were added to the ends of the arc are pressed inward toward the arc and not toward the squares.  This is very important later, when adding the arc to a diamond. 

And, I'll end up with a larger melon.  Yay! 

I'm out of time, but tomorrow, I'll show how to add that melon to a background diamond. 

I stopped following the blog of a male quilter today.  That's always hard to do.  But, honestly, I was not inspired.  In fact, mostly I read his blog and thought "that is one of the ugliest quilts I've ever seen".  I started following him because several of the nationally known quilters talk so well of him.  And, when I got there, I kept finding things we had in common, in addition to the love of quilting.  We should have been great friends.  But, no matter how often I reached out, he never even said hi.  Then he started to take ideas I'd seen somewhere else and present them as his own.  And, he never gave credit.  And, that was just too much for me.  So, I set him free to make all the ugly quilts he wants...without me looking over his shoulder and thinking negative thoughts.  Because I'll look at ugly.  But, not even acknowledging that someone other than you actually thought of the idea you are presenting, even if you can't remember who it is, was more than I was willing to read. 

Sydney is doing great on the job.  She's making a good bit of pay between salary and tips.  It would be perfect for the whole family if she was driving and I wasn't having to go get her in the middle of the night.  But, as me dear old mum used to say, "this too shall pass."  I wonder if she still says that?

I think the last time I heard it, she had a kidney stone. 

Ha!

This too shall pass.

Have a great Thursday! 

Lane