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.....

New Quilt, Finally

Finally, I am posting a new quilt. Of course, I have not actually quilted it, yet. Guess whose fabric line this is, heh heh. Whatchathink? Again, raise of hands for those who think this was on my "To Do List." Yeah, right.

News Flash, Quilter Breaks Toe

Ouch! So much for my practice walking for the next several days. I think I broke my toe while watering the flowers outside. Heck, even if it is not broken, it feels like it. The picture does not capture the real beauty of the color but it does record that the hit to my toe even knocked off my pretty nail polish. Sniffle, sniffle--that is the worst part. No vanity here....

Just for putting up with the picture of my yicky toe, I thought I would throw in a picture of the five foot window I sandblasted for my daughter's house. I am pretty sure I already showed some images of this baby, but, we are selling the house and it will be "Good bye window." Our hearts are more broken than my toe. Think I'll go quilt......

Quiter's Butt

Woopee for all of us. Not too many more opportunities to bug you, at least for this cause. Only $310 more to go for my required fund-raising amount for the Susan G Komen 60 Mile Walk for the Cure. Thank you guys for any and all of your support, now, and in the future. As I mentioned earlier,it saddens me to think that this will probably be my last time to walk in this event. Selfishly, I benefited from this walk. First and foremost, it made me get off my quilting butt and recirculate the blood to other parts of my body. Hello FEET. In the process of practicing for this, one has to walk a total of nearly 60o miles over the months period prior to the walk. In fact, I am heading out for a 4 miler today as soon as I finish this Thread.

Secondly, I have learned that kleenex is even more important than a water bottle. It seems walking is a laxative--all natural, that is for sure. I get dressed, drink water, go pee, etc, all in preparation for a walk. Thinking all the important stuff is taken care of, I head out. Invariably, within 15 minutes, uh oh.....luckily there are several "natural" potty spots along the way. So this is my tip for the day--when you cannot "Go," go for a walk without kleenex....works every time.

So, just in case you would like to assist me in my goal, or know anyone else who would be willing, here is here is the link:

http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/Events/General?fr_id=1430&pg=pfind

Smiling Quilter

Wow, for the summer my husband will get off work every other Friday. So, he came home last night. Not only am I a happy camper, I will be smiling a lot more these days. I think I will go make him smile, too......later guys. ;-)

I will sneak in a little Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk hint. I have $355 more to go. If you cannot donate, perhaps you know someone who can.

Restless Quilter

O.K., here I am up at 4:30 in the A.M....might as well add a tiny bit to my Thread as I weave in and out of sanity and sleep. Hmmmm. How about an image of something I have been working on when I should be doing other things, like writing directions!!!? This is waaay funner.

Worried Quilter

Yikes. Usually I get at least one comment every day from someone out there in the virtual world. Where are you guys? Do you actually have anything better to do than read this blog and write a little something? Where-o-where are my BFF's?

Nobody loves me, everybody hates me,
I'm gonna go eat worms.
Big ones, little ones, Fat ones, skinny ones,
Oh how they do squirm.
First one icky, second one sticky,
Third one stuck in my throat.

Dumb Quilter

How can one be so dumb? I just stayed up all night. I was working on a project and next thing I knew, daylight. The light was definitely not on in my head. Too late to go to bed, or is it too early? I wonder how many IQ points one loses along with the loss of a night's sleep? I do not have any spare ones to give away so I could be in bi-i-i-i-ig trouble. My tests: (1) Go for a walk and se if I can fnd my way hme, (2) write drections for a qult patrn, (3) cari on a busns confrence cal, (4) Go fr a wlk and see if I cn find my way hme, (5) wrte drections. Wel, so far, so gud.

Quilter Found, Quilt Lost

Hmm, I have written a new blog three times now and keep running off somewhere without saving it. One would think that I would already know that it disappears never to return if left to fend for itself. So, whether the Quilter is found or not is not important. It is whether the blog is found that matters, at least to me ( I mean, I know where I am...)

Oh well, it is not as if I ever have had a lot to say. In fact, my sister is visiting right now and she mentioned that she reads my blog and said, "Dianne, it has gotten more like a diary. Where is the fun stuff?" Perhaps the fun stuff is on vacation. I know that I am not vacationing; I am working.

I did want to mention something really nice that happened the other day. I got an email from a radio station person. It seems that some man was driving along and noticed something in the road. He stopped to check and it was a quilt. The label sewn on the back mentioned my name and the date. He contacted the radio station hoping someone could help him find me so he could return the quilt to its rightful owner. It was the quilt that was raffled off for the Susan Komen walk. So, while we are still in the process of finding the missing owner of the quilt, I think the efforts that both the man who found the quilt and the man from the radio station have made are wonderful--they restore my faith in the kindness of mankind. Thanks to the both of you.

Where 0 Where is That Quilter?

This is a quiz. Warning: there is no prize. Where is the quilter??? Me thinks she is hiding, from everyone. She is supposed to be writing directions. She is supposed to be working on a new quilt design. She is supposed to be .....oh-oh, is that a dress shop? Isn't that Dianne in the dressing room? uh-oh

so until she reappears, I will give you a reprieve on the fund raiser thing (Susan G. Komen) but not for long (Susan G Komen).....

Pooped Quilter

Whew. I got up at 6 this morning with the goal of, first, walking five miles and then, work in the flower bed. Sigh, I never did get to walk. I got busy in the flower bed and pooped out. I am trying to build a wall around an existing bed. Lots and lots of grass had grown into the flower area, so, first I had to deal with that issue. Then, lots of digging later, about a third of the wall is done. My daughter was helping or I would not have even gotten that much done. I took the hose and soaked my entire body. Remember, I live in Hades, a.k.a., Louisiana. I hate the weather here. It is hot, and hotter, twelve months out of the year.

If/when I get the project done, believe me, pictures will follow.

O.K., boys and girls. I need some help here. Shops are not responding as well as I hoped for my fabrics. Run, do not walk to your LQS, and tell them you are looking for this FABULOUS fabric called "I Dream in Color," and you cannot live without it. I will be forever indebted. I do not want to be a loser fabric designer.

Good news, I am now down to only needing $380 (thanks to the generosity of some BFF's) to meet my requirement for the Susan G Komen 3-Day walk. Remember, I am preparing for the 60 Mile Walk for Susan G Komen. If you get tired of hearing me talk about it, just get me to my donation goal, quickly, and all I will do after that is give you an occasional "HEAD'S UP." . We will not be allowed to walk unless we raise the funds. So, again, please, if you can find it in your hearts to help out, please copy and paste this address http://www.the3day.org/site/TR/Events/General?fr_id=1430&pg=pfind into your search engine. Click on "make a donation," then, "find a participant," and then type in "Dianne Springer." A lot or a little, it all ads up. I will be reminding you until we reach our goal. Thanks, in advance for your help.