My Canon EOS Rebel T1i

Just purchased. A beautiful new 15.1 mpx SLR camera. I love it. I used to be good with my 35mm camera way back when, and I hope to get the "hang" of this beauty soon. It sure is 100 steps up from my "push here dummy" Sony 6mpx which I have been using for the last 4 years, so there is definitely much to learn. Already the quality of the pictures for my store has improved. I hear frequently that the extra pixels make no difference as one has to reduce the picture size to a manageable 1000x1000 to upload, be that as it may, perhaps if I have a better picture to start with, the reduction will be better as well? I have to admit I do not know much about photography, and I am sure I will never use this Camera to its full potential, but then......who knows?

Christmas came early this year

Oh boy, I just got my fabric order from Marshall Dry Goods, 216 yards of fabric, 110 yards of Kona Bay prints, 106 yards of tone on tone white and beige. Where in the world am I going to put it all? But I am so looking forward to the possibilities of making Quilts and mixing these fabrics with my existing fabric stash. So exciting!

New Website up and running

I was extremely lucky recently to learn of a very talented lady by the name of Pam Cole. She designed a web page for our Quiltsy Team on Etsy, titled "Quilts 4 Sale", featuring many of our members Quilts. When I asked her to design a web page for my machine quilting business, she came up with a wonderful design, totally representing my clean and uncluttered style. Her price was very fair, communication excellent and always with a smile. Check out my new website, and if you are looking for a Website designer, contact her through http://www.pamspatchwork.etsy.com you won't be disappointed!

FREE SHIPPING now on all my Quilts

I have recently amended all my Quilt listings and now offer FREE SHIPPING on all QuiltLover Quilts to Canadian and US Customers. A substantial savings of $17.00 - $35.00 depending on the size of the Quilt. I will gladly work out a discount for my Overseas Customers. Enjoy.

I hope to be able to get back to regular posts on my Blog soon. I would like to share this link http://www.martingale-pub.com. src="./images/smilies/wink.gif" style="border:none" alt=";)" />
for those of you on Facebook. If you become a Fan of the Martingale Company, you can download a free book which you can then print out. I received "Batik Beauties" 112 pages of gorgeous Quilt patterns and information. Again...Enjoy

There needs to be two of me!

Do you ever get the feeling that there needs to be two of you to keep up with it all? Between my Etsy Store, my fabric Store, 2 Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Soopse, my Dogs, the House, the yard, a husband, and ......my longarm quilting business, Etsy Quiltsy Team Forum, APQS Forum, well you get my drift. I find myself becoming more and more anti social and just hermitizing in my home concentrating on all the above. I do get somer fishing in occassionally when my hubby drags me by the hair into the boat and I love him for it. It keeps me young (I think) and focused and I love my life.

I recently made some gorgeous Quilts, one I decided to keep for myself, but make another to custom order, it was purchased yesterday, called Flowershow. The quilting is just excellent, the fabric and colors second to none. I used a bamboo/cotton blend batting, washed the Quilt in hot water after completion, and it shrunk and shrivelled into the nicest Quilt. I am in love!

Apart from my usual scrappy Quilts I branched out and made a more daring design using a collection of Bali Batik Strips called Strawberry. I used black for a sashing, and earthtone Batiks for borders. The Quilt turned out to be 100" x 100", a nice queen size. It racked up record views and hearts and sold yesterday after being listed only 3 days.

DO I NEED INTERVENTION?

I desperately needed to re organize my fabric closet. My hubby made me a quick shelf and the rest is history. I cannot believe I have that much Fabric! I am definately addicted. My Studio is currently in the Master Bedroom and the little closet houses my fabric and the jetted tub in the ensuite holds pillow forms, mailing supplies, prepackaged batting. I cannot wait to move into my new Studio, hopefully this Fall.

THIS OLE HOUSE OF MINE & LIZ' VERANDAH PICS

This old House, oh boy, what an undertaking! We live on a beautiful peaceful acreage and behind our home is the old original homestead built circa 1940. It was a one room house, about 14' x 20' solid wood construction and woodchip insulated. I cannot imagine how drafty that must have been in the winter. My hubby and I thought it might make a great studio for me, get all my machines, fabric and dust out of our home. A place I can go and when done, close the door without having to worry about cleaning up. So this past week he started removing the boards one at the time as they are absolutely salvageable, good dry wood, that will make nice sheving for my fabrics and whatnots. It doesn't look pretty, but then what construction job does, especially in the removal stage, which is always the worst. I have decided to document the different stages and it will be interesting to see how it comes along. Plans have been drawn, windows and doors are bought, new rafters are coming soon, just need time and plenty of elbow grease.

A project we just completed was to put a roof over our deck which has a south exposure and gets so hot from morning till the sun goes down that we could not use it. My industrious constructonator built an awesome cover, complete with metal roof. We have breakfeast, lunch and supper outside now and lounge around whenever the fancy strikes us. Nice to be kind of semi retired! My friend Liz in Australia wanted to see what it looks like, so these pictures are for you Liz. Just imagine us sitting here in the middle of the day with our red bikinis on drinking fuzzy Navels. What a picture! If you look close you cans see my couch potatoe Phayzer laying on the back of the sofa thru the living room window.

RECESSION?

Times are tough, I hear it all the time. Money is tight, the consumer isn't spending, nobody is buying things like Quilt, that is a luxury item!

I have been absent from my blog because I am just about sold out of Quilts! As fast as I make them they sell! Quilts might be the next hot commodity the way they are disappearing from my store. I list one, an hour later it is sold. This is definately the year of QuiltLover!

I added a couple new Quilt pictures to my Customer Quilt Gallery on LUV2QUILT4YOU, forgot to take pictures of all the ones I quilted in the last 2 weeks, getting old I guess. I have, as of this date, 4 more to quilt, then I can concentrate on quilting for my store again.

I closed www.quiltlover.artfire.com . The views were pitiful and I just don't have the time to promote it anymore than I did. I try to concentrate my efforts on Etsy, it seems to want to pay the bills.

It is still pretty chilly in our part of the world, the flowers even seem to shrink into themselves when the north wind blows. But, we don't have hail, tornadoes, hurricans, floods or even excessive crime, so chilly is a small price to pay for peace of mind.

My hubby is home for the next month or so and has started tearing the old house apart. It will be my studio in good time and I must take pictures as the work progresses. It will be interesting to see if the old house, a one room shack built circa 1940, can be fixed.

TWO YEARS OF ONLINE COMMERCE

On May 14th, 2009 I celebrate my second anniversary of Online commerce. I opened shop on Etsy on the 14th and made my first sale 2 days later.

It has been a roller coaster of a ride. I learned so much, I lost some money on shipping, I gained several friends and a bunch of wonderful repeat customers. My feedback is impeccable, and compliments are received almost daily. As of this writing I count 1383 shop hearts. It was just before Christmas when I was sitting at 987 ande not really all that long ago when I had my first hearts and I was all excited. My darling husband still recalls that moment with a big smile on his face and a shake of the head. I have learned how to ship the most efficient way so that my customers get their Quilt quickly and at the most economical cost possible, Quilts are shipped overseas in space saver bags, all the air is sucked out and I can almost ship Express for half of what it would have cost to ship regular mail.

I have a friend in Australia who just bought the most gorgeous Quilt from me, and I know she will have a fright when she sees her package. It is rock hard and about 18" x 14" x 8" and contains a queen size Quilt. I would love to see her face when she opens it!

I have put together a slideshow of the Quilts I have sent all over Canada, The United States, Japan, Germany, Australia. It has been a wonderful 2 years and I look forward to continued business growth, making more friends, and amazing peoples all over the world with my quilting.

Thank you all for your confidence and trust in QuiltLover Quilts and other beautiful Things.

SOMETHING TO CROW ABOUT

Friday May 8th, 2009 has been an awesome day. I woke this morning to find an e-mail from April Cornell, one of my favorite fabric designers for Moda, on my computer.

Quote:

Hi there,I'll introduce myself. I am April Cornell and you may realize that I designed the fabric you used in this beautiful quilt. I'm wondering if you'd allow me to post a shot of the quilt and a link to your Etsy store on my April Cornell Facebook fan page. I'd also like to Tweet to it and share the link. I enjoy showing what beautiful items talented artists are creating with the fabric line.Kindest regards,April Cornell

End of Quote.

I realize of course that I am not unique in getting this e-mail, but I am very flattered for the recognition. She was referring to http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24050299

and here is a picture

This Sunday is Mother's Day and I wish all Moms a wonderful, relaxing day. My Daughter sent me a card with the phrase " Bubbles or bath salts? May this be the toughest decision of your day.

Happy Mother's Day to all.