New Pretties in the Store!

My camera is now working (after a pretty good fashion -- won't do closeup photos and apparently the focus is not so hot sometimes -- I do apologize for the sometimes not-so-great quality of these photos!). I want you all to see the beautiful new goodies from Hoffman and Timeless Treasures ... and the passel of new books. :)

Here is a whole series of beautiful new batiks bolts that just came in today:

Also new are several great prints:

We have a large number of new books just in, too. My personal favorite new one is by Barbara Brackman and deals with quilts about and made by slaves. Unfortunately, I cannot show a photo as we have sold off all the first round copies we got in -- more will be in stock next week, I hope. ;)

Also in are the following (some of which are really, really great):

This is the time of year that we tend to get all wound up in our daily rush. Remember that you can find a little island of calm color support here at Seminole. Do drop in and see us when you are out and about! Until I see you again, Keep Stitching and Remember To Breathe!! :)

Sharing Art Around

I just finished reading my friend Lynn Bunis' blog (http://highlandline.blogspot.com) (about the Clootie Tree in Scotland) and Marion's blog (http://artmixter.blogspot.com) (she recently visited the tree) -- she is doing a pass it on challenge and I think I'll play. :) The first five folks who leave a comment here will get a small piece of art work made by me. The catch is that you also have to list the source in your blog -- pass it on and pass it forward is the key to this game. (big smiles)

The weather started out lovely today -- 60's and sunny --- but has gotten colder and heavily gray. I think it will rain soon (haven't checked the radar to see for sure, yet:).

I spent my day at the store with various busy-ness -- writing the instructions for my Make&Take class (3D ornaments) so Patty can assemble the kits ... canceling some fabric orders ... checking out Kaufman fabrics online with Robbyn and putting together an order (19 bolts) ... making phone calls ... and getting phone calls ... reading the new American Patchwork and Quilting magazine ... thumbing through two new books, one about Feed Sack Quilts and their history, the other called Birds Of A Feather (applique quilts in a sort of 'folk art' style with birds and flowers) ... shaking my head over how many math errors I have made getting the rest of the Quilters Quest block kits finished (major sighes over that isssue!)... What a day!

Tomorrow I am off. I am hoping to go out and buy a new digital camera ... and, with any luck, a new vacuum cleaner for our house. (crossing my fingers)

Happy Days!

We had a lovely Thanksgiving, chez Schiffer. It was my birthday, too, so I got to stay totally out of the kitchen. (hooray!!) :) Skip and Hugh worked up the very nice meal I ordered from Peapod (massively more food than we could ever eat in a week, as it turned out:). Turkey, redskin potatoes, green bean casserole, gravy, rolls, real cranberry sauce ... delicious!

I spent my day happily sleeping then eating then watching a movie than doing it all over again. (grin) I watched Lupin III Hanimao and The Saint (both fun). Took a nice afternoon nap. (happy smiles and sighes).

Friday I worked on the sales floor -- there were no deliveries of goods (I guess the UPS folks got the day off, eh?). We had some very happy customers. Thursday was cold and rainy outside but Friday the sun came back and it got warm (in the 60's). I was surprised how many people came in to shop (we had a pretty good day, revenue-wise, especially for a week day) -- I expected most everyone to be at the Malls and big box stores. :P

Saturday I had the day off. I spent most of it alternately doing housework and watching Firefly episodes. I liked that show -- I'm really sorry that it got canceled. (shrug)

Today I had to work in the store (as is usual on Sundays). I had two goals in mind for the day and I _actually_ managed to get both tasks done. I finished putting the borders on my Great Blue Heron sample (photo as soon as I can). I also did the December work schedule for the store (takes me a couple of hours once a month). Since we have a new employee (Sharon), I had one more variable to work in than usual. (smile)

The weather was still nice today and the customer turnout was very low. I guess yard work and shopping is winning. (sigh) Hope this week is better than the first day!

Silly Crazy

What a strange and interesting day today was!! I've been struggling with my sleeping again -- I got a new mask for my cpap machine, but I don't think it is the correct size. (sigh) Skip tells me that I am snoring at night (which won't happen if the mask fits correctly). That means I'm not getting enough air, which means I'm not getting proper sleep -- which is why I am oversleeping and waking up like a zombie. No, really, brainless. :P

I managed to get to the store around 10:30 this morning. There was a class in session (Lois Smith), my FiberLectic group was meeting, AND our Moda sales rep was there. Talk about pandemonioum! I got to sit briefly with FL (didn't know Richard the Moda guy was there) ... Mary Ison was showing off a new-to-her method for collaging small fabric treasures on a piece (used an organza stabilizer to compose on top of, arranged, covered with Solvy, stitched to hold together, then melted the Solvy). I want to try this technique _soon_. Later, LeeAnna Paylor showed me the abstract piece she is working on -- I quite liked it. And I know how difficult the process has been for LeeAnna -- she likes representational art much more.

Off I went to see Richard (with Robbyn and Libbie). We sat out on the sales floor at the side table (where the kids' toys live). What a LOT of stuff he had to show us! Especially considering that we had seen him just before Quilt Market, too. Moda is doing a lot of attractive fabrics this coming spring. We got to see the new April Cornell fabric (I quite liked some of it)...and ordered a number of lovely bolts... a soft blue and yellow floral with coordinating stripe, some yarn-dyed ticking, a bunch of very pretty batiks...and plenty of other stuff that I can't bring before my tired eyes right at this moment. (sigh) Oh, we decided to tip our toes a tiny ways into the 'younger crowd' prints and bought a couple of semi-retro things that weren't totally ugly (I'm sorry, I lived through the 60's and 70's ... not eager to go there again).

I spent the afternoon in Lois Smith's advanced sampler class. There were only four of us today. Lois taught us how to make beautiful fabric flowers (reminiscent of magnolias) -- she learned last week at a sewing expo in Minnesota where she taught. I also got to see a couple of nice block collections that Carol Jean is working on and a breath-taking Judy Neimeyer design that T'ree is making.

After class, I spent a couple of hours correcting and downloading the mailing list for our newsletter mailing. Also writing and packaging and labeling and stamping to mail 24 letters to folks who bought Ellie's new applique book from us -- we got an erratta sheet from C&T and I thought we should send it to the customers who bought the book. Dropped those off at the post office on my way home tonight.

Managed to sneak in a movie this evening (Inside Man) and hope to get some reading done before bed (new National Geographic). Gotta go find my old mask and put that back into service until I can get hold of the pharmacy folks on the phone. (frustrated sighs) Still no time to buy a new camera.

Happy Ending

Some days have better closings than openings -- like today, for one. :) I overslept this morning by quite a lot (um, two and half hours) ... which meant that I missed my annual exam appointment. It was so gray and nasty out, I wanted to go right back to bed -- was another couple of hours before I was properly awake. :P

The weather was wet and blowing but fairly warm when I drove to the store -- maybe in the 60's. As the day went on, more and more rain came down. Then, around 2 or 3, the sky got very, very dark. The weather folk started to send out tornado watch warnings. :P

Miraculously, around 4:30, the rain stopped and the sun came out. And with it came a beautiful, enormous rainbow!! The full arc filled the sky in front of the store -- I could even see the purple band in the rainbow, which I usually cannot. How utterly glorious! :)

We had one class this evening and so I got home late. That rainbow is still glowing behind my eyes, though -- it has been a considerable while since I have seen so much beauty. :)

Quiet Sunshine

I have today off from the store. The sun is shining and the leaves are pretty colors -- my front yard is covered in wet leaves like a jeweled mosaic. Pretty (but tough on the grass, I guess:)

Here is a photo I want to share -- Alice made up some pretty packets of the four military branch memorial fabrics we have in stock. I think she did a nice job!

I've got a little bit of housework to do and I'm going to spend some time working on the newsletter for the winter classes (Jan - Mar '07). Maybe I'll curl up with a good book and some chocolate -- seems like that kind of day. :)

Roses in November

What a long day today has been! I just got home from the store (it is 10:43 pm, EST). (whew) This morning I got up and drove to Gaithersburg (about 1 hour and 15 minutes) to Capital Quilts for a meeting of the Quest owners committee. We drew the winners for this year's Quest (no, I'm not telling:) and recapped the weekend. Also showed each of our shops' quilts -- some wonderful versions got made this year! I found it quite inspiring. :)

Then I had to drive to the shop (1 hour 30minutes!). I was supposed to have a private student today at 3 but she didn't come (I expect she forgot -- will have to call her tomorrow). Everyone at the store was pretty much exhausted when I got there as Grad Class had just cleared out -- fifty or so excited, happy applique people fill the place with Quilt Joy. :)

The weather today was drizzly cold again -- made driving somewhat more nerve-wracking than usual -- I dislike driving in the Rockville/Gaithersburg area. It is extremely congested, especially by comparison to my usual haunts (Columbia and Catonsville). My reflexes (well, to be utterly truthful, my staying-alert attention) are not what they could be and there are way too many close calls when there are so many cars in such tight spaces on the local roads. (sigh)

When I got in the PT Cruiser to drive home, the gas light dinged, so I drove home down route 1 to stop at one of my favorite gas stations to refill (a Shell on rt1 in Elkridge which is usually cheaper than the competition -- tonight regular gas was $2.13.9 a gallon). There was a bright pink rose bush happily blooming in the station's tiny median strip garden. What a tough but beautiful bush! Covered with blossoms and sturdily tolerating the wind, chill, and traffic backwash. Would that I could be that tough and beautiful at the same time. (smile)

No Happy Medium

I have been crazy, crazy busy this week. There never seems to be any happy medium in my life's activity levels -- I'm either sitting on my hands, trying to decide which lower-order-priority task to tackle next or I'm so busy I can't figure out what I'm doing. (grin)

The past four days has been the Quilters Quest shop hop -- we have had an entire _good_ week's worth of customers and busy-ness in four days (really in three days as today was quite mild). The weather was glorious this year (at least until today) -- wonderful Indian Summer fall days. Today was cold and wet and windy -- quite an abrubt change (in Maryland's finest style). (brrrr!)

I got to talk to my daughter tonight -- my fondest hope is that we will be able to move nearer to her some day. I miss her more often than I can to think about. It's a good thing my 'nest' is not totally empty (Hugh still lives at home) -- it would be way too quiet around here.

We're still pondering what to do about renovations -- all 2 and a half of our bathrooms need to be rebuilt from the studs out ... the carpet needs replacing ... the kitchen needs rebuilding. If I had the energy to house hunt, I'd move and sell it to some deserving young family with the energy to put some sweat equity into the place. (smile)

Now that I have finished the Quest work (well, almost -- have to go to Gaithersburg tomorrow for the prize drawing and we will have to make 90 more block kits whenever RJR sees fit to send the fabric we ordered) ... I want to start thinking about our block of the month for the coming year. The patterns have all been drafted, I just need to assemble kits for each block to hand out to the staff to make ... and decide what fabrics to use for the backgrounds.

I really want to think about Christmas gifts, too. Never any end of things that want doing, eh? (smile)

I'm really, really missing my camera -- have to get to the repair shop this week and see whether it can be fixed (fingers crossed!). Wish me luck.

Hello, Sunshine!

We are enjoying a day or two of genuine Indian Summer here in Maryland -- the sun is bright, the weather is mild (60's) and the wind is sweet with the smell of autumn. (happy smiles)

It was perfect weather for Halloween and Trick or Treating last night. Our neighborhood is 'aging' (meaning the majority of the kids in our court and street are about the age of mine -- early 20's -- and no longer going out; they are slowly being replaced by younger residents, but we have nowhere near the number of Treaters as we did when my kids were young) ... so there were fewer Treaters than usual. All that nice chocolate going to waste (yeah, right!:). (grin)

We got a beautiful stack of new bolts of Kona Bay Asian prints in the shop yesterday. Unfortunately I only managed to take photos of about half of them before Chaos struck -- I dropped my (new!) digital camera and the poor baby fell right on its nose (lens). (real tears!) Now I have to get it repaired (fingers crossed).

Here are the photos I _did_ get to share with you:

The other bolts we got are at least as beautiful as these (if not moreso!).

Today is All Saints Day -- welcome home to all our 'gone-befores' and special folk. Celebrate the good that is in our past and resolve to do good in the future!