"Market"

A high-light at the International Quilt Market, first thing in the morning, was meeting Jay McCarroll from Project Runway fame.

He has designed a new line of fabric for Free Spirit. Fierce, fierce creatures from the woodlands! Scary bunnies and manic deer. Not for the faint of heart or terribly young children. Can you imagine the moment little Betty snuggles down to a nap and looks into the eyes of one of these characters!? Nightmares!

But for anyone over the age of 10, they're a riot. And the "friends" in the collections are great: mushrooms, strawberries, zigzags. All in bright bold colors.

And Jay himself was so approachable and enthusiastic about this new venture. He was happy to visit with us and offerred up photos, "Would you a signed picture????" What a question. "Clearly!"


Just as the market was closing for the day at 6:00pm and the PA system was booming for the rabble to head to the nearest exit, I ran like a spawning salmon in the opposite direction in hopes of getting a photo of the two of us. He was still there, ignoring the Big Voice and carrying on with the adoring crowd. A real trooper and I wish him great succcess.

The Supervisor- Keeping Seams Straight for 5 Years

Don't you wish YOU had a supervisor?

This rascal came from a shelter in North Texas and has acclimated well to SE Louisiana. As a kitten, Q went to college with my eldest only to be discovered by the Dorm's RA and swiftly booted out in my general direction. After falling out of a pinetree and tearing ligaments off her entire back leg (don't ask what that cost to put back) the doctor patched her back as well as possible and she still makes tracks up trees! For a while, I called her our little Frankencat.

Then she was bitten by a moccasin snake and I thought we were going to lose her but she pulled through. I said I guess she'll stay away from snakes now and the good doctor said, "No,(shaking his head slowly and thoughtfully) I don't think so. She sure has a wonderful personality though!" Perhaps, but at this rate, she's blasting though her allotted lives.

She occasionally falls into a deep sleep and behaves strangely for several days but always perks up and plays her favorites games with us.

She hangs out in the sewing room while I quilt and curls up nearby to watch. Or sleep if I bore her. The ironing board is the usual perch as it tends to be warm. This makes for more difficult pressing, however.



And she never knows when someone may usurp her spot in her absence. This makes for interesting moments.



Notice how Shasta pretends to ignore Q. Oh, she knew she had company alright. Just after I snapped the moment, a fight broke out.

Squabbles don't last long but one cat usually walks away with wounded pride. Shasta is the more sulky of the two. She just wants to be left alone.

Shoulda named her Garbo.

Something New

I attended my first International Quilt Market this past week and learned about writing a blog (among many other things....). Now, I've been reading them for several years and thought about writing one but this lecture made it seem fairly simple and straight-forward.

Why did I hesitate to join this circus up til now? One Simple Reason: Because commenters can be both very supportive and/or terribly abusive and why bother putting yourself in that awkward position, I ask you?

Well, here's what I figure: Quilters and cat-lovers for the most part are wonderful people and I think I might take the risk.

Hey, if it doesn't work out, I can always just pitch the whole experiment out into the solar system graveyard of abandoned blogs and get on with Life As I Know It.