DONNA POSTER NEWSLETTER
OCT. ‘05
ELIAD
He’s here! Our little Eliad has finally arrived! Thank you all so much for your congratulations and best wishes on our first grandson. So many of you have asked for news about the little guy and, as a first time Grandma, I can hardly wait to tell you.
He’s now eleven months old and a happy guy. Having spent his first ten months in an orphanage, he seems to view the whole world as a great adventure. Which means he isn’t too happy about giving that up for sleep--and he’s got an incredible set of lungs!! He’s a hopeless flirt, a great eater, can’t wait to walk and loves to give his Grandma and Grandpa big smooches!!
The stories I could tell are hilarious! Just use your imagination on the following scenes.
Zoe, the adopting daughter, received the call from the adoption agency to go to Russia much sooner than expected so the family was assigned to set up a nursery while she was gone. So, there we are, in the baby store; my sister (her youngest grandchild is ten) a friend (his youngest child is twenty-eight), Mr. Donna and me (our youngest is forty-seven)! And the mother is in Russia. The four of us are trying to choose from 30 cribs, 40 strollers, 15 high chairs---and where are the playpens? And what the heck is this thing? Oh, look, they have things that go jiggle & rock automatically. Ooops. Says only up to 28 pounds. Anyone knows what he weighs? Etc. etc, etc. It was a riot.
This next scene takes place in Moscow. Our youngest daughter, Laura, arrived in Russia the day before Zoe was to pick up the little one at the orphanage. She came to help during the week’s stay in Moscow and on the trip home. Our daughters are very creative, thank goodness, because in their late forties neither has ever fed or diapered a baby!!! And there they are, in a hotel room, in a foreign country with a little guy who is about to kick up a fuss---and they don’t know why. So, as intelligent modern day females, they run for the instructions!! (They had asked the orphanage to write down his schedule and they followed it like a bible) Then they discovered that babies eat a lot! And poop a lot! And are messy! They went through his entire wardrobe in the first twenty-four hours. and the only laundry facility was the bathtub. Their solution was, eventually, to feed him naked in the bathtub! He loved it.
The stories are endless! They did get to see a lot of Moscow, though, as Eliad loved his stroller and they had a wonderful interpreter with them. Zoe was required to spend a number of weeks there previous to the adoption and stayed in an apartment. Having a lot of free time she came to know the Russian culture in ways that tourists never do. An incredible experience.
My one request was to bring back a Russian dress pattern but Zoe couldn’t find any fabric stores. What she did find were shops where the customer picks out a picture and fabric. Using this information and the customer’s measurements, someone in the store cuts out the garment and the customer takes the pieces home and sews them together! She did bring back a newsstand magazine with pictures of garments and a huge center section of the patterns for these garments. But the patterns are all superimposed on each other with each pattern being defined by a different series of lines & dots. She never found anything at all about quilts!! Hey, we need to get something going in Russia.
Click onto the following link to see what all the fuss is about.
SCISSORS
What a wonderful response to my question about counting the number of scissors you own!! I was amazed to find that most of us have at least one pair that has great sentimental value. It also made me much more aware of the scissors I use. I’d never even noticed that my fifty year old pair of dress shears, bought in college, is now rusty and hanging in the tool shed to cut twine. Oh, my. I love reading all the emails and next month I’ll put some in the newsletter. Thanks, and keep them coming.
HGTV-SIMPLY QUILTS
Checkerdist.com is a good website to see the month’s programming of HGTV-Simply Quilts. There is a link on the Home Page. Checkers is one of the main distributors in the quilt and sewing industries selling to retail shops. They usually have the new month’s programs on the site by the third of each month.
ABOUT THOSE FREE PROJECTS
On occasion, someone will contact me for the instructions for the free projects. These projects are just that--projects, not patterns. They are used in addition to the projects contained in each Foldy Stuff pattern and you need to have the basic pattern to do the project. If you have problems printing the projects or you do not have a color printer just let me know and I will be glad to send a copy.
CHANGE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS?
If you change your email address for any reason and want to remain on the newsletter list just go to the home page of---donnaposter.com----and resubscribe using the new address. You will get a conformation and your old address will just drop out the next time the letter is sent. If you are using two addresses and want to delete one let me know and I will have it deleted.
Q & A
Marge Asks: I am doing the Fussy Cat free project. Why does it call for an extra piece of muslin under the center when there is already a muslin printed lining?
Answer: Boy, oh boy, oh boy!!! Fussy “Cat” was spelled Fussy “Cut” when it went out. However, it goes through several other folks before it gets on the site and we didn’t catch it. I do, however, have to admit to being rather lazy about chasing down and correcting these kinds of errors It calls for a piece of muslin under the center square because you need a bit of extra weight added in areas that don’t have pleats. Otherwise, that area is kind of “floppy.”
GUILD LECTURES AND WORKSHOPS
You have no idea how this hurts but several months ago I decided not to visit guilds anymore. The only ones I’m doing are those I committed to more than six months ago.
It hurts to say no, after all these years, because I really enjoy the guild experiences---you gals are always so much fun---but something just had to come off the schedule. I will still be teaching at local stores plus doing five or six major shows around the country. I’ll keep a listing on the website and perhaps we will meet at one of them. The reason I had to find more time--besides Eliad--is I have so many ideas for new patterns and free projects. It won’t happen fast because they take a lot of time, but I’m working on some neat ones right now!!
HINTS
Great idea! One of my students had her machine tilted forward, but instead of a gadget made for that purpose, she just used two rubber doorstops under the back of the machine. Inexpensive and easy to carry to a class.
Most of us have a huge fabric stash of pieces too small to use but too big to throw out. That’s fine with me because I absolutely adore scrap quilts! You don’t need special books or patterns either, because any quilt can be made as a scrap quilt. You can vary the looks by the way you use the scraps. My personal favorite is to use darks and medium darks with very light fabrics, creating a sort of two color look. Some quilters like to just reach into a paper bag and use whatever they pull out next, resulting in a truly scrappy, fun quilt. Fabric scraps are the most fun!
I recently saw two quilts that really intrigued me. The basic design element was cut from fabric created from selvage edges. The quilter had overlapped strips cut from selvages (cut edges underneath) and stitched them together, forming a piece of fabric. She then used this to cut out diamonds and triangles to use in the quilt. I took note that her strips were of varying width, most were light in color and many contained the manufacturer’s information on it. They were very interesting and quite adorable!
Gotta go---have a whole pile of new flannel fabric to make a little quilt for Eliad!!
There’s a nip in the air these nights so the leaves should be turning soon. Our mountain is extra beautiful then. Hope you’re all having a gorgeous autumn.
Your quilting buddy,
Donna