Me, a Flower?

I just followed a link from another blog (for Gabrielle Swain) and got this result to the question, what kind of flower are you?

***You Are A Lily***


You are a nurturer and all around natural therapist.
People see you as their rock. And they are able to depend on you.
You are a soothing influence. You can make people feel better with a few words.
Your caring has more of an impact than even you realize.


What Flower Are You?
http://ynr.blogthings.com/whatflowerareyouquiz/

Goodbye

I have finally decided to look for some other site for posting my blogs. It appears that this place is not going to solve my photo posting problem any time soon and I'd like for that process to be a bit easier.

:) Linda

Goodbye

I have finally decided to look for some other site for posting my blogs. It appears that this place is not going to solve my photo posting problem any time soon and I'd like for that process to be a bit easier.

:) Linda

Fall Tuesday

I am beginning to feel very frustrated with my uploading problem here. I keep getting a message that just says 'your image upload failed'. Sigh! I have read my way through all the faq's and online help files I can find. I worked through all the suggestions that the Help Desk folks sent me -- but so far, no success. I guess I will have to try an alternative method (maybe put up my files in an ftp directory?)

The weather is definitely fall-ish here in Columbia -- damp, chilly, windy today. Now that the temperature is in the mid-60's when I am coming and going to the store, I guess I'll have to give in an wear a jacket. Every year I go through this internal reluctance to give in and admit that summer is over. Kind of silly, considering how much I dislike the heat! Grin. I just don't want the days to get so short and so dark. :P

I worked hard all day today at the store. I am attempting to make a small quilt (maybe 65" square, or so) using the blocks made by all the quilt shops in the Quilters Quest. The hop is scheduled for the Veteran's Day weekend -- time to get this thing done! I like the setting design I came up with, but my sewing brain is offplanet somewhere. I keep making stupid mistakes and cutting things wrong. I definitely have too much on my mind -- other than the project at hand! :P

My back is starting to feel better -- made it through the day without my cane today! Now if only I could catch up on my work.

Linda

Damp Days

The skies were apparently blue for some part of today (at least, according to the occasional glance outside that I managed), but all I experienced was cold and gray. Fall is definitely here! I wore my jacket home this evening - it has been hangning on the back of my office chair since the last time I wore it in to the store (March?). It is a bright and cheery patchwork sweater-weight jacket I made a number of years ago (note to self -- time to start working on a new 'spring' colored jacket). I love the weight and drape of it (made on a sweatshirt base) and the color combo is one of my continuing favorites (hot pink, tangerine orange and lemon yellow:).

Speaking of color, I managed to cut out the pieces for the first star block on my new quilt. The design is called Southern Star -- is a fairly simple Mariner's Compass type of star. I chose batiks in dark green, magenta, purple (grape) and a kanji print in a mix of these colors. I am eager see how it works out (I did get the time, in between customers, to sew a few pieces together). The batiks are more densely woven than common quilting cottons -- I can tell fall damp is setting in because my hands were achy after sewing a few pieces together (batiks offer more needle resistance). Maybe I'll have to machine piece the rest?

Business was reasonable today, especially given that it was not a very nice day. Our big batting sale started today (40% off -- whatever possessed me?!) and that attracted some traffic. It will be interesting to see how it goes tomorrow.

Sandy S was working with me today. I always enjoy working with her -- she's very sweet natured, easy to talk to, and wiser than one might think. She's the kind of quiet person whose opinion I value -- I know she won't make any comments that aren't heart-felt. :)

I am going to try to finish gluing up the final pages for my technique round robin tonight -- I really would like to get them in the mail tomorrow.

Skip is off tomorrow (it's a government holiday). I always enjoy having him home and I expect he'll come to the store with me for at least part of the day.

:) Linda

PS The D&D movie wasn't half bad -- still not great art, but not camp, either. Dragons sure are scary monsters -- I"m glad they are imaginary!!

Rainy Saturday

Mother Nature decided to be generous with us here in Maryland -- she is giving us all the rain she forgot to send this summer in one weekend. Wet, wet, and wetter is how the weather is here. Smile. Not too cold, just breezy and wet!

I had to work on the sales floor at my store today. My back is still giving me fits (I cannot bend and can only sit for a short time then I have to move around a bit) -- I guess it was a good thing there was heavy rain. We only had 33 customers during the day so I didn't have to work too hard. Grin.

Robbyn and I managed to choose fabrics for a new quilt I've designed (I'm calling it Wandering Stars). Took us about two hours to come up with something we both liked! I get to use a lot of the batiks I love and Robbyn gets to use up some of the fabric we ordered too much of, thinking to sell it as backgrounds to the Baltimore Album class students. Since this quilt will (once I finish making it) be the basis for a year-long class, she is hoping to sell the excess bolts (three? four?) that we have piled up in back.

I've been drawn to circular complex star patchwork patterns for some time -- I finally sat down and made a design for one that I like. It has nine different blocks on a contemporary type background. I tried to pass it off as a block of the month promotion pattern ... but several customers blanched when I showed it off -- way, way too hard for them to tackle, I guess. Grin. I am eager to begin working on it. Maybe I'll be tired of these complex patchwork patterns by the time I'm finished with this one. Shrug.

The new Dungeons and Dragons movie is on the SciFi network tonight. Hugh and I are going to watch it together. I sure hope it is better than the last one!

:) Linda

Still Searching

Never did find a cartridge for my Xyron 1200 on Tuesday. It appears that the company has invested in cheaper, smaller machines and local distributors are carrying same. Sigh. I think I will have to buy my refill online. Haven't made up my mind, yet.

Last night I used the iPhotos I took at Pat and Tauna's wedding to make a tiny (3" square) photo album. Sure had fun doing that. :) Unfortunately, I cannot figure out how to upload photos here, yet, so am waiting for a response from the Help folks.

Today was a very looooong day at my store (uh, I own a large quilt store in Catonsville, Maryland) -- saw a fabric manufacturor's representative (Rep) from 10:30 a.m. until 3:30 pm. It's nice to see so many beautiful new fabric swatches for about two hours ... after that, it's real work to wade through them all and keep making decisions. whew! By the time we were done (including a nice break to eat pizza for lunch, courtesy of the rep) I was cross eyed and almost brain dead.

One of the things that arrived via UPS this afternoon was a set of quilt hanging racks we ordered a while back -- handmade by Amish carpenters in Bird In Hand, PA. Unfortunately, they did not send any wood screws to assemble the nice stand to hold all the hangers so I had to run off to the nearest Home Depot to get some.

***WARNING: RANT FOLLOWS***
I positively DESPISE those 'self checkout' aisles at stores. I like people, I enjoy talking to the checkout clerks as they are ringing up my purchases. When I first saw stores putting in 'self checkout' aisles, I thought -- 'aha, this is a way that the big boxes have figured out to lower their expenses. Are they going to take 10% off my total 'cause I'm saving them labor charges? No, of course not, Just wait, soon there will be no clerk lines.'

Sure enough, there were no human clerks at the Home Depot checkout aisles -- only self service.

I consider myself a truly pleasant person, laid back, reasonably kind and nice (one of my managers calls me 'Polly Anna' to my face:). Stupid machines had me cursing in under twenty seconds. grrr

If you are listening, corporate America, please give me a clerk back -- I'd rather see a real human being have a job than deal with stupid machines. (You don't want to know what I think about the ever-present computerized receptionist machines!)
*****END OF RANT***

Put me in such a grumpy mood it took me a half hour to cheer up after I got back to my store. Thursdays we are open late (until 8 pm) and a friend comes so we can sew together in the back. I always look forward to Thursday evenings. :) Tonight we also had a class in session (there are two classrooms in the back of my store) -- I enjoy darting in to admire the students' work. :) I was so off kilter from spending all my brains on ordering, I could only sew a couple of seams before I gave up. sigh. I am trying to sew up the Quest Quilt:

Our shop is one of 14 that host a Shop Hop in November (near Veteran's Day) every year. I have to assemble the quilt for this year's theme, Childhood Memories, so I can start advertising the Hop shortly by hanging the quilt (every shop gives one of the block patterns out during the Quest; if you visit all the shops, you get all the patterns for free). Of course, I can't just make a simple quilt -- block, block, block, with sashing between them -- I have to design my own setting for this quilt. What can I say, designing is what I do best. :) I've chosen some light bright fabrics for the setting, I think it will work nicely (will show it off, too, when it is done).

Thought I might do some art work tonight but I didn't get home until 10 pm -- with negative brain power. :P Oh, well, I'm off tomorrow; maybe then?

:) Linda

Quiet Tuesday

I have chosen to stay at home today rather than go to work at my store in Catonsville. It is a pretty day outside but I am remarkably listless and cannot seem to get going. I do have a task to finish here at home today (but am going to have to get my behind in gear and go out to accomplish it) -- I have to finish assembling my pages for a Fat Book round robin I am participating in with the theme of 'Techniques'. I chose to do embroidery on paper and made four originals (each page is only 4" square; it was a challenge for me to work so small). I've photocopied them (81 pages total!) and written a backing statement (how did I do it). Now I have to paste the front, cardstock page, and back together for each one. Gotta get them in the mail to the organizer (who is generously collating all these pages into books and spiral coil binding them for something like 80 participants!!).

Problem is, I've run all my glue sticks dry -- after exhausting my supply of permanent adhesive in the Xyron. So, gotta go out and buy another 'sticky' cartridge for the Xyron. As it is, this means I have to shower, dress, and drive to the local Michaels. Not to far, just lots of inertia to shove into gear.

When I get the scanner hooked up, I"ll post a photo of my pages here. I wouldn't call what I've done 'Great Art' ... and it certainly could be improved ... but I like them.

:) Linda