Happy Friday

It seems like it's been a very long week.
Went and picked up Lil Man (3 yr old grandson) yesterday afternoon. Lisa is sick (stress I think) so I offered to keep the little terrorist for a couple days. He has been such a joy to have. He has been helping me around the house, cooking, cleaning and being my little gofer.

Tomorrow I get to go to M and L in Buena Park. For anyone that isn't familiar with M and L, it's a discount fabric store that is in an old grocery store. The most expensive fabric they have is only 7.99. Moda has gone up to 3.98 from 2.69 and all flatfolds (stacked 6' high) are 1.69 from 1.50. Batiks are all 3.69. I only get to go once a year so I really stock up every time.

I had a big surprise the other day. I got an email from my youngest brother, Mark. I hadn't heard from him for about 22 years. There were 7 of us kids and there is only me, Mark and my younger brother Ed left. I really miss having family so it was the thrill of a lifetime hearing from him. Now if I can just find the other one! Everyone needs someone they can call family.

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend.

AND THE WINNER IS::

This one was hard because 2 people came up with it so I'm choosing both. Michelle and Sammi for "Xcellent"
Michelle, if you will pm me I will finish drafting this up and get it to you.
This quilt finishes at 56" square.
Congratulaltions to both of you.

Hopping Mad!!

I joined an online quilt group because a member said it was a fantastic group. Well I found out today that they aren't.
Someone posted about seeing a quilt or a pattern and copying it......is this ok or stealing? IT'S STEALING!!! No matter how you look at it, it's theft! All but one person told her "sure go ahead and do whatever you want. Once it's out for the public to see, you can do whatever you want" BULL!!
Even quilt magazines, and I'm sure other craft mags are the same, there is a blurp in the front that states that the patterns belong to them. You may make a quilt for yourself, a friend or a gift....that's it.
Patterns all tell you up front that they are an original design and not to be copied without written permission from the designer.
If you see a quilt at a show, or whatever, you can not copy it!!!
And to think that I put my ORIGINAL patterns out there, either on my blog or on an internet group.......how many people are actually honest and abide by the rules?? I can honestly say that all my patterns are original or I change the heck out of something before I call it mine. Just changing the fabric does not make it "your original".
How many magazines or books do we open and see an old tried and true pattern made up (new fabric) and it says "designed by so and so"? A lot!
It just makes me so angry that people just don't care if they take money right out of someone elses pocket. As designers, we have to pay to print the patterns, market them, pay taxes etc not to mention the money spent on the fabric, batting, backing, time involved to make the quilt or whatever and the time to draft it out and everything else that goes into it.
Ok I'll step off my soapbox but you can bet your bottom dollar that I dropped out of that group and deleted everything I did or said.

Quilty name

http://www.thequiltingpost.com/QuiltyNames.htm

Mine is Tsarina, Quilt Shop Explorer.

John left for his 11 day hunting trip yesterday morning. I am so enjoying all the peace and quiet.
Working on a really large oriental quilt right now. I really hate working with black. It tends to attract anything floating in the air. And it's hard on these poor old eyes to see black on black.
Here is a small sampling.

I drew out several ideas inbetween the arcs but settled on feathers. I got a new chalk at Joann's and love it. It was in the quilting section and comes with a holder, several white very thin white chalks and several colored chalks. I am loving it. Easy to see and easy to remove. It's called Dritz Chalk Cartridge Set.

Well, Mari is at Ft. Benning Georgia today trying to get all her paper work done and get signed up for housing. Then she goes home for the weekend and pick up her 13 yr old then back to Georgia on Monday. I hope things go smoothly for her.

Have a great weekend.

Another idea

I doodled on my vacation. This is one idea I came up with so stopped by the quilt shop Saturday and picked up a Jelly Roll with Moda batiks and a couple pieces for borders and sashing.
I think I will hold a contest for this one. Anyone that comes up with a name will get the pattern. How does that sound?

Have a great week everyone.

Sign up

And pass the word to all women you know.
armyofwomen.com
They are looking for one million to join. It's for research to find out what causes breast cancer. Why do healthy women get it, what causes some women to get it if they have a family history and some not. Did you know that men get it too.....my nephew had it when he was in his early 30's.
Please sign up........I think it's worth our time if we can keep one more woman from this.

Flag

I decided to quilt this up for Mari and put the Army caduceas in the blue. I printed out the pic from the front of my shirt and enlarged it for this. I used gold Arc thread on the top and gold Maxi loc in the bottom.