Pooped Quilter

Whew. It takes a lot out of me to walk in this heat. I did nine miles today and stupidly got started later than I like. Wanna take a snooze? Read on. Things are pretty much same ol', same ol' these days. House is in shambles, book is progressing, and I am getting ready for the next show, in Long Beach.

I will tell you a little story. I believe I mentioned that I drove up to Paducah last week and about the fiasco with the photographer scheduling. By the way, it turned out he was really nice. Anyway, my daughter and I decided to take a day and piddle around town, have a nice lunch, shop, go to the museum, etc. An actual day of relaxation. I looked that word up in the dictionary because I had forgotten what it meant...anyway, the town is lovely. Wonderful shops are everywhere, tempting even the most prudent shoppers. I, of course, do not fall into that category so it was Temptation City for me. We found the most delightful dress shop right off the bat. We tried on tons of clothes and I found one terrific shirt--had to have it. Well, when I went to purchase the item, my credit card was rejected. I only use one credit card. My head was spinning. I decided, go eat some lunch and call 911 (HUSBAND). He was in meetings all day and not able to answer his cell. Panicky, I decided I would check out of our hotel and go home, immediately. I mean, I only had about $200 bucks in cash on me. I paid $80 of that for the room. It was now around 5 pm and we had about 12 hours of driving in front of us. Remember, we were pulling a trailer that, full, meant we got about 10 miles to the gallon. Do the math, I now had about $120 bucks. That purchases about 40 gallons of gas. That gets us about 400 miles.....we had nearly 700 to go...... As we are driving, our conversation went like, "O.k, check all over my purse for any more money."... "call your Dad."..."count the change"...."look in the glove box"".."call your Dad."...".think we will be arrested as vagrants if we sleep in a Wal-Mart parking lot like the 18 wheeler guys?"..."should we eat anything and use up gas money?" "call your Dad"........

Finally, we got in touch with Tom. He pleaded with us to stop at a hotel and he would call in his credit card number. Of course, I did not listen. I rarely listen. Why start now???? I just did not think I could sleep under the circumstances, anyway. We arrived home around five in the morning with less than $10 in our pockets, exhausted, and teary eyed. The next day I called the bank. They had no idea why the card was rejected. NO answers at all. What was that word??? Relaxation? Serves me right. Any word I have to research, I probably should not incorporate into my life...bad karma,very bad karma.

Red-faced Quilter

Well, I just found out why my workers did not show up. The head man's wife died over the weekend. I feel like such a jerk for even thinking bad thoughts. Please bear with me.......

Exhausted, Frustrated Quilter

Wow, it has been a week of an exploded house. Now, we are waiting for more of the "de-contructing" process. Where are they? Why-o-why do these worker guys not show up when they say they will? Now I am starting to remember one of the big reasons that Tom and I did all of the remodeling ourselves -- we did not have to depend on anyone else's schedule.

As for the book, I have only one more set of directions to write and I will be as done as I know how to be at this point. YIIPPPPEEE. Start preparing the margarita, boys and girls. Almost time to do some celebratin'

Quilting Book in the Works

O.k., I actually mentioned that I was in the process of writing a book earlier, not sure whether I was going to be a very bad girl by doing that. Well, I found out when we drove to Kentucky that I can announce it to the world. So, consider this my "world announcement." I am writing a book for American Quilter's Society (AQS) and the "expected" birthing date is March. The name of the book is, "The Scrap-O-Lator," and it will be all about quilts that use your scraps and stash. There is also a whole section on using your scraps in non-sewing projects. Now, the labor pains...just trying to get this baby done by August first is a major challenge. Tuesday morning Brandy and I drove to Paducah to take all of the projects to the photographer's. There was a mix-up, what's new?, and the photographer was not ready for us. So, we left everything in Kentucky and we will have to drive back in a few weeks. Such is life. I hope to show an image of the cover of the book in the next few weeks. Pardon me if I squeal and jump up and down and mention the book one or two --- MILION times!

Quilters Bogged Down

Yep, not much has changed on the homefront except more of the same water issues. Now, the house is just more torn up...sheetrock cut from the walls, more fans, more floor gone, etc etc etc. Jeez, my head just cannot seem to get focused on this project stuff. I am soooo ADD. sooo easily distracted. Hopefully, things will calm down here soon. Yeah, right. Running away from home is sounding like a good suggestion. Ever read, "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day?" It is such a cute "children's" book. I am unofficially changing the name to "Dianne and the Terrible, No Good......." That is my story and I am stickin' to it.

Quilters Re-decorate

More decorator photo ops. Anyone need some flooring, cheap? Yours for the taking. Oh, and you are also welcome to the bags hanging from the fridge door, and the bedroom doors, and, wherever else we can find to dry them out. The third and fourth photos are more evidence of our new decorating techniques. Uh, wait. That last one is the front of our fridge. Nothing new about that. That is what it always looks like. Whatever... We are definitely for hire. Just call. We do not have a long waiting list....

Welcome Home Quilters!!!

What a welcome we got on Monday. After being gone all week to Arlington, tired, but glad to be home, I innocently pushed the button to open the garage door. (By the way, Innocence was definitely not bliss...)....Water poured off the bottom of the garage door. I thought, "What is up with that?" DUH. Water was also streaming out of the bottom of the back door to the house. I screamed to my daughter to help and we ran into the house, which was also floating, and immediately realized that the powder room was the problem. First, we could not get the door to the bathroom open because it was swollen shut. After much pulling and struggling, the door opened, but, now, we could not turn off the valve. Water was streaming in our faces and the #$%$%^&^%##** valve would not budge. Finally, with the assistance of a hammer and a pair of pliers, success. OHMYGOD, we now went through the house to assess the situation. Water was in the living room, dining room, kitchen, bathrooms, hallway, and pouring through the walls to the patio and front porch. Not pretty. Definitely not pretty. So, we now have very noisy, very hot machines running 24 hours a day to extract gallons and gallons of water. I keep thinking, "Couldn't it at least have gone towards the grass????" What a waste.



Our house is now on Life Support...see the picture of the machines? The second photo is the new decor of our entry closet. Want to hire us as your new decorators?

Quilters Head to the Martha Pullen Show

Here we go. Just as I thought I had everything in order to make this a hassle free trip to Arlington, TX, the shipping company emailed me to say that my next load of cups has arrived in Dallas and will incur storage charges if we do not pick up the shipment by tomorrow. Yikes. Regroup. Stop everything. Call 911 (a.k.a., husband). He arranged for us to use a friend's truck. The problem is, the truck has a leak in the AC and needs freon. So, we drove into town, got the truck and took it to the repair shop. Now, back home to pack the car, then we will head back to the repair shop to get the truck and off to Arlington, and Dallas. We had planned to leave early to make it a relaxing drive.......it is now 3 in the afternoon.....best laid plans. If I do not have time to add to my Threads, well, you know. By the way, it has not rained in, like, forever, and it is raining now--as we go to pick up cardboard boxes full of stuff in an open truck? The fun never ends. If you are in the Dallas/Arlington/Fort Worth area, come see us at the Martha Pullen Show.

Quilter "Giving" Things Away

O.K., folks, I am going to do something I have never done before on this Thread. I am going to do some blatant advertising. If you go visit my fabrics on the Timeless Treasures
website, look at the fabrics I have to offer, choose at least three yards, total, of any of these designs, email me with your choices, and either make a Paypal payment or call (318 243-2983) or, send a phone number so I can get cc info, I will send you a free pattern ($10 value). Oh, did I mention I am also taking off 50 cents a yard making the fabric cost $9.00 /yard? This offer is good until Wednesday, June 22, 2011. Have FUN.

Sneaky Quilter

Just thought I would be sneaky and post a little preview of a quilt that I have been making. I am a tease.....