2009 September 18 — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

September 18, 2009 · by JudyL

I’m not sharing a lot of details because I don’t have a lot of details but when I do, I’ll ask for permission to post those details here.

Just a little over a year ago, Hurricane Ike devastated southeast Texas. Because I’m from Lake Charles, LA, which is the very southwest corner of Louisiana, southeast Texas will always be my neighbor. Well, they weren’t always my neighbor because for a couple of years I lived in southeast Texas and then southwest Louisiana was my neighbor. Why can’t I just say what I need to say without getting off track? You should try carrying on a real life conversation with me. It isn’t easy.

So . . Hurricane Ike hit and did terrible damage. A fellow blogger lives in the area. We’ve never met but that’s her fault because you know that nothing is ever my fault! Once I was in Lake Charles and attended a quilt show. My internet friend . . let’s call her Bonnie (because that’s her real name! ) was going to come to Lake Charles for the show and call me when she got there but then she got nervous about calling me and didn’t! Don’t you agree it’s not my fault we’ve never met?

Oh, goodness . . I’m off track again. I’ll do better . . maybe!

There was a library in the devastated area that was just wiped out and had to be rebuilt and re-stocked. I offered to donate a quilt to be raffled or sold or auctioned or whatever . . to help them raise money. They are just now getting to the point where they can deal with the quilt. I got out three quilts and sent pictures and they can decide which, if any, of these three they would like.

Though your vote doesn’t really count (kinda sounds like real life sometimes, huh?), which one of these three would you think would be best for a library fund raiser in a small town in southeast Texas?

Quilt #1

Quilt No. 1 is 78″ x 96″, probably has Quilters Dream poly batting . . it’s very soft! Is quilted with a panto.

Quilt #2

This quilt is big and I really like it and was tempted not to give it away but heck, there are more quilts here than I’ll ever use. I had taken this one with me to work on in 2005 when my friend and I had gone to the Nashville APQS Expo and planned to stay a few days and sew and I had to have kidney stone surgery while there. This quilt reminds me of kidney stones so I should probably hope they choose it. It’s 84″ x 102″ and quilted with Baptist Fans and probably Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 batting.

Quilt #3

This quilt is kinda small and could be used as a wall hanging. It already has a hanging sleeve. It is custom quilted. Lots of feathers. It is 58″ x 74″. This pattern was in American Quilter in 2005 with a pieced border but the version without a pieced border is online for everyone here.

So . . which one do you think . . #1, #2 or #3?

Burning the Midnight Oil

September 18, 2009 · by JudyL

To start my Thursday, I woke up at 3:30 in the morning. I’m so scared of the dark. OK . . I’m scared of everything . . bridges, the dark, my husband on the day the credit card bill comes. Not really about the husband. I have a new strategy on that credit card bill. I used to always stick it in his pile of mail without opening it. He pays all the bills. But . . smart girl that I am . . I decided I would open the bill and when he walks in the door, I give him a taste of his own medicine. That man can outspend me 10 to 1 so then I start questioning him . . Why were there three charges at Wal-Mart on one day when I was out of town? What did you order from here or there? I can’t believe we pay this much for satellite TV . . do we really need TV? So far, for two months, it’s worked and he hasn’t said a word about the amount I spent. Why did it take me 12 years to figure that out?

OK . . how did I get so off track here? I woke up at 3:30 yesterday morning because I heard something. A burglar no doubt . . probably an ax murderer. (Don’t get excited . . I hear something every night!) I tried to be real still but you know you can’t be still when you try to be still. I didn’t want to wake Vince so I tiptoed out of the bedroom and turned on all the lights. I figured any burglar would leave if I turned on all the lights. Then I went back to bed but then I kept thinking that if Vince got up and saw all the lights were on, he wasn’t going to be too happy about that so I decided just to get up and go sew but I was too scared to go downstairs by myself and since Jazz, the visiting dog is still here, and he’s downstairs, I was afraid he’d want to go outside if I woke him up and I surely wasn’t going to go outside at 3:30 a.m. by myself. Well, by now it was probably edging up on close to 4 a.m.

So, I grabbed my Kindle and Speck and went and got in the other bed upstairs, thinking I’d read for a few minutes and fall back asleep but then a really noisy car went down the road and I started wondering why a really noisy car was on our little road at 4:15 a.m. and I got myself scared again. He was probably the driver who had dropped off the ax murderer and was coming back to see if he had done his job. I never did go back to sleep and the burglar/ax murderer didn’t get me either (obviously!) but I was tired and looking forward to going to bed early Thursday night. Didn’t happen because I’m actually writing this blog post at almost midnight on Thursday.

You see . . the first edit of my book, Weekend Quilts, has to be sent back on Friday (today). I’m confusing myself about today and tomorrow since it’s almost tomorrow but it’s still Thursday but will be Friday when this gets posted.

The manuscript arrived Monday and I’ve spent a little time each day going over it but it’s so hard to say “done” and stop. I keep re-checking and re-reading. The quilts on the table . . they’re not quilts from the new book; they’re quilts for my lecture next week.

And dang it . . we so rarely use the dining room that I’d forgotten I still had those blue chair pads from my last house. They don’t go at all in this house and they’ve been here going on 3 years. Maybe soon I’ll order some new pads that match, or maybe soon I’ll go to a city with a store that has chair pads and I can get them there.

I can’t believe it’s already Friday. Where did this week go?