Sewing machines are like baseball cards to me.  You get one and enjoy it till another one you want comes along, then trade it.  So my featherweight goes off to her new home tomorrow and my embroidery machine came home yesterday.

I think this design will be my new quilt logo.

Over the years I can proudly say I have taught 19 people to quilt.  Most have gone on to continue quilting and hopefully enjoying it.   None brought me greater joy than to begin teaching my sister Jill.  To see her find something that brings not only creativity but happiness into her life is just so heartwarming to me.  I can’t wait to see all  the great things she creates.

I almost burst waiting to give her the early Christmas present.  I thought if she had a small, lightweight machine maybe we could encourage her to get out and try some quilt classes, meet some quilters.  We all know most quilters are amazing people.  So, since we celebrate Christmas when we meet, I gifted Jill a 1950 Featherweight.  I understand she has been named Queenie.

I couldn’t believe how quickly she picked up the process.  I took along a quilt kit and with just 2 days of sewing during vacation, she had all the blocks made for her top and took it home ready to be pieced together.  It’s always fun to see quilters learn but it was a joy to watch her begin.   Not only has she finished her top but she is now working on quilting it herself.  I didn’t have the nerve to try that for at least a year.  I am always so impressed by not only her ambition but her joy and zest for every day life.  I wish I wasn’t to old to grow up just like her.

I wish I’d gotten a picture of Mark with his new sheet music and watch.  Well I should say vintage.  Hope he enjoys his Fender watch.  It’s what every guitar player should own.

I was able to get the binding on these 2 during our peaceful vacation.  The heart was sent off to Hazel in Minnesota and the fans went home with Jill.  It’s wonderful to know they will both be used, not packed away out of site.

We met for our annual Georgia vacation last month and had such an amazing time.  I will admit the road in and out was enough to give you a heart attack but the company was so awesome you forget all about it.

I just love these two and can’t imagine what my life would be like if they hadn’t found me.  Talk about an awesome blessing.   We had some small trips into to town and Jill treated me to an amazing day at the spa.  Facials, massages, body scrubs, manicures, pedicures.  It was wonderful but I really loved the quiet times we got to spend just enjoying being together.  I such wish they lived closer.   I believe next trip planned is Texas or Alabama

Each year for the last 4 or 5 years, I raffle one or two quilts and donate 100% of the proceeds to a family that I hear about struggling with a lot of medical bills.   The raffles aren’t big, just word of mouth through Facebook.   We usually raise $4-700 or so but I feel any amount helps.

Well for 2018 I decided to disclose the name of the family as our dear friend Linda passed away very suddenly and I wanted to hold this year’s raffle to help her family with her final expenses.  Our raffle ended April 30 and I was so pleased to tell her family that we raised a whopping $1,305.

I so wish these fabrics showed up better in pictures.  They are Robert Kaufman’s vintage Christmas line.   It really is much prettier than the photos that make it look dull.

My second favorite patter, Magic Tile.  This so will be gifted next Saturday to Glenda.  She studies and does our devotional each month at the craft group.  Hope she likes it.

One for the ladies at church, Della, goes out of her way each month during our craft group meeting and arrives early to set up,  makes tea for everyone, brings us donuts and stays till we all leave to lock up.  I decided one day I’d make her a quilt to say thank you.

All she requested was pink, anything pink.  Well pink is hard as I rarely use it so I went back to my favorite pattern, Carpenter Star.  It’s the only pattern I know you can complete it with 8 fat quarters and some background.  It gave me a chance to use some Kaffe Fasset fat quarters I been meaning to try.   Originally I hated his fabrics but some of them are growing on me.   I think she liked it.  Can’t wait to finish the round table topper I’m making her mom.

 

I hope these quilts brought at least a tiny blessing to 2 young girls.  The church asked me to teach a beginner quilt class once a month at our Creation Station.    A few weeks in advance I was able to talk to the ladies via text and email about what they needed to bring and was thrilled to speak with a very nice lady named Erica.   She seemed so excited to learn and I agreed to pick out fabric for her first quilt.   One week before the first class, Erica was struck by a car while jogging and killed.  I’m sorry I never got to meet her but one of the ladies that joined the class was her best friend.

I learned she had 2 barely teenage daughters so I took the fat quarters we choose, added some white and make them memory quilts from mom.   Her friend Melissa was kind enough to delivery them for me.  They are just slightly different fabrics from the same color line.

I am completely over the tip jar thing.  I have always over tipped servers as I agree they are unpaid and I used to be one.  But that tip jar thing is out of control.  I tip my hairdresser and my nail lady and I guess that’s fair because they go above and beyond to make sure I’m happy with their work but the rest needs to stop.

First it was the dry cleaners.  Seriously?  I paid you to clean a shirt, you did, so what am I tipping you for?  Dunkin donuts, Starbucks – really?  You poured coffee in a cup, handed it to me and I need to tip you?  Isn’t your entire paycheck payment for pouring coffee in a cup and handing it to me?

Saturday I went to the farm in Plant City to pick strawberries.  You pull in, they hand you a cardboard quart box.  You go pick all the berries you like, drive back up front, return the box and pay.  And guess what?  Here’s a tip jar.  What exactly is that tip for?   Being open?  Being available to take my money?

Last night I finally decided to ask.  I stopped at the drive thru store. She handed me a loaf of bread, I paid and she stood next to the tip jar and asked did I want the change?  So I finally had to ask. I said what’s the tip jar for exactly?  Of course she had no idea what I was asking and said what do you mean.  I said, I’m not sure what I’d be tipping for since you’re a store and I just came in to buy something.  She said, “oh I don’t know, every place has one so we put it out and people like to tip”.

So the question has really been answered.  The tip jars exist simply because people put money in them if you put them on the counter.  Or more accurately, people feel obligated to put money in them if they are sitting out.  No more.  I’m putting my foot down.  I draw the line.  I don’t feel I need to tip where you already paid to do the job I’m tipping you for.

Want to tip the people that really serve you?  Every holiday, I give each of the 3 guys that pick up my trash, gift cards for lunch at a local place. They go above and beyond and clean up after us.   They always put my cans back and lay the lid neatly on top.  They pick up someone else’s mess every day and never put out a tip jar.   Buy lunch for a police officer or firemen.  Next time you’re eating and see a serviceman, buy them a meal.

I guess the new excuse is mental illness.  I heard 2 news stories this morning on 970 talk.  One a police officer was shot several times serving a warrant and the other was a mother and child that was involved in a shooting and a house fire.   The news guy immediately pops up “well untreated mental illness is rampant in the US”.

So how did he come to that conclusion?  Why are we always looking to blame someone or something?  Part of the problem is we are so busy making excuses for evil people.  Like the school shooting in Florida.   All we heard for the first 3 days was he had mental illness issues.  Who determined that?  Under Hippa laws even if he did those records would wouldn’t be released and certainly not in 2 days.  No one started screaming mental illness until it was claimed by his lawyer.  Who also hadn’t met him before that day and couldn’t possibly know that.

It’s the same with bullying.  It’s an excuse for grown people that are just plain evil.  Kids have been bullied since the dawn of time.  It happened when I was in school and no one went home and got a gun.  No one killed innocent people cause they were bullied when I was in school.  We need to look at what we are teaching kids.    We are raising a society of weak, complaining, entitled adults.

The bottom line is, stop making excuses.  Accept that some people are just evil.  Some people are just cruel, heartless, unfeeling, etc.  Name it what you will but it’s not an excuse.  There is nothing and no one to blame but the person that did it.