Wow! Quilt festival is here. I'm so thankful I live in Houston. I get to go every year. Over 50,000 visitors will pass through the doors of the George R. Brown Convention Center. First time visitors stop instantly when they enter and simply gape. It is sensory overload to the max.
There are well over 1,000 quilts on display, all with perfect stitches and color combinations to stun even the choosiest of quilters.
Oh but the vendors! Everything you have ever seen for sale or advertised in a quilt magazine... yup, it's there! Imagine a football field cram packed full of goodies for sale and quilts to see.
And so YES, I am going again this year. I can't wait. On Nov 2, I get to take my friend who is attending her first festival. This is always fun. That facial expression... priceless. I usually open my guest room for a friend from out of town, but this year there were no takers. I asked everyone I knew, but for one reason or another all were unable to come. So now I look to next year, where I have promises of visits.
On Nov 3 is annual pow wow in Austin TX. Thankfully my daughter lives in San Marcos and that is where I will stay for the night. Pow wow is held the first Saturday of November every year. Sadly, this is usually when quilt festival is also held. So I have to hotfoot it over to Austin either Friday night or in the wee hours of Saturday to get a decent seat. Again, a friend will be attending with me. Not her first pow wow, but her first Austin pow wow. Being Native is finally "in" and I am proud to say I am "in".... a member of the Sault Ste Marie Band of Chippewa Indians. My people are not usually represented at this pow wow, though all tribes are invited.
If you have never been to a pow wow you should attend one sometime. You might be surprised at what you see there. Not to mention the vendors of course.
And needless to say, everyone in the world should attend quilt festival at least once in a lifetime, just to see the wonderful workmanship of quilters around the world.
Maybe I'll see you there?
Kathygirl
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Sunday, October 14, 2007
OOOH THAT NEW PFAFF!
I will be dining on my own words, I know. I made a big mistake. I went and looked at the new Pfaff sewing/embroidery machine. To say it is very nice would be an understatement!
I made this reckless statement a few years ago: I said I wouldn't buy another home embroidery machine. That if I was going to get another machine, it would be an industrial 15 needle job.
So here I sit, salivating every time I think of that new Pfaff. Man, this thing is just everything! I love my Janome 10,001... yes it's a real workhorse with never ever a missed stitch. I love Janome! They introduced the first home embroidery machine to the world.. the 8000. The other companies scrambled to get theirs out too. So I always knew I'd stick with the Janome.
WRONG! The new Janome, the 11,000... has an 8"x8" hoop. I love the embroidery arm and the way you don't have a big heavy embroidery module to move around. But this feature sadly limits the hoop size. And we know that size is everything these days.
The Pfaff.. now there's a world in its own. First of all, it has a 9 mm spread instead of the standard 7 mm the other machines have. This extra 2 mm makes an incredible difference when you are stitching a decorative stitch or a satin stitch combination... because anyone who sews can instantly see it's bigger, richer than others.
But the hoops! Oh my, the hoops! Now I am not a paid spokesman for Pfaff, alright? But I think the hoop is something like 7.5"x14"... and right there it eliminates rehooping galore! There is a mega hoop you can buy for it too... wouldn't you think this huge hoop would already be the mega hoop? But no! There's a bigger one! Wow!
Okay. What's the cost. Sit down, please! This baby is retailing for about $9,000 US. Yuh. A new car. Two Yugos. And just think, you have to buy thread and stabilizer for life.
But fortunately for me, my sewing machine source is one of the best in the country, so his price is considerably less. And I mean considerably! So when my friend saves enough to buy my Janome, I will be trotting down there to that very shop and getting my Pfaff! How? With a loan from the credit union, of course!
Sew on,
Kathygirl
I made this reckless statement a few years ago: I said I wouldn't buy another home embroidery machine. That if I was going to get another machine, it would be an industrial 15 needle job.
So here I sit, salivating every time I think of that new Pfaff. Man, this thing is just everything! I love my Janome 10,001... yes it's a real workhorse with never ever a missed stitch. I love Janome! They introduced the first home embroidery machine to the world.. the 8000. The other companies scrambled to get theirs out too. So I always knew I'd stick with the Janome.
WRONG! The new Janome, the 11,000... has an 8"x8" hoop. I love the embroidery arm and the way you don't have a big heavy embroidery module to move around. But this feature sadly limits the hoop size. And we know that size is everything these days.
The Pfaff.. now there's a world in its own. First of all, it has a 9 mm spread instead of the standard 7 mm the other machines have. This extra 2 mm makes an incredible difference when you are stitching a decorative stitch or a satin stitch combination... because anyone who sews can instantly see it's bigger, richer than others.
But the hoops! Oh my, the hoops! Now I am not a paid spokesman for Pfaff, alright? But I think the hoop is something like 7.5"x14"... and right there it eliminates rehooping galore! There is a mega hoop you can buy for it too... wouldn't you think this huge hoop would already be the mega hoop? But no! There's a bigger one! Wow!
Okay. What's the cost. Sit down, please! This baby is retailing for about $9,000 US. Yuh. A new car. Two Yugos. And just think, you have to buy thread and stabilizer for life.
But fortunately for me, my sewing machine source is one of the best in the country, so his price is considerably less. And I mean considerably! So when my friend saves enough to buy my Janome, I will be trotting down there to that very shop and getting my Pfaff! How? With a loan from the credit union, of course!
Sew on,
Kathygirl
Thursday, September 20, 2007
College Anyone?
When I was a kid, back in the "olden days," if you wanted to go to school, you had to PAY. Imagine that. We PAID. Needless to say, I didn't get to go.
Oh, there were scholarships, of course. From the Lions Club, Knights of Columbus, things like that. In my graduating class, two people got full scholarships. They had straight A average of course, which today translates to 4.0... and they took things like Latin, Trig, and no fun stuff like Art or Homemaking.
Today all of this has changed. ANYONE CAN GO TO COLLEGE AND FOR FREE (or nearly free)! Yet the majority of Americans still think they have to PAY.
I see I have your attention now, after reminiscing about the olden days, getting to the heart of the matter.
I wish I'd known this when I was a single mother of seven, who had no hopes of college for any of us.
I've found a truly wonderful resource made available by a couple who have their four children attending college at no cost, plus the fifth preparing to go, free of course. Because so many people wanted to know how in the world this has happened, they've put it on a CD for the public.
Now, this isn't free. (Only the college education is..well practically, anyway) No, for this you have to PAY. But you will SMILE when you see the cost of this remarkable tool.
So scurry on over to their website and take a look http://www.hewittsbooks.com/
Here's to our best friend, Education
Kathygirl
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Goodbye Humberto, we never knew you
There was a big hoopla yesterday that the tropical storm Humberto would arrive in my little Houston town. He was strolling around at 6 mph, 70 miles from Galveston. This was not especially good news to me. I was not in the mood for a TS, having experienced TS Allison back in 2001.
Allison came ashore, went back out to gather strength and came in again. We were saturated that week, and when she did go out that second time and threatened to come back a third time, all Christians said "Please God, NO!"
My little apartment took 22" that night. But what happened in the Texas Medical Center was much worse. The heart of Hermann Hospital is in one of the basements, and of course they flooded along with every other TMC hospital, the museum district, the art district, it was all hit and hit hard. Freeways washed out and cars were under water. It was awful.
At that time, I was working at a small, laid back community hospital, and we took as many patients as we could. All the hospitals did, and Houston has more than its share of hospitals. So all of the patients in the TMC had a bed to go to. My patient that I remember was a wonderful gentleman in his 70's who had just undergone open heart surgery the day before. He was moved by backboard down SEVEN FLIGHTS OF STAIRS IN THE DARK. Can you imagine this? He was trached, so someone moved along beside him, bagging him as they went. This still brings tears to my eyes, six years later. It always will.
I learned a lot of things from Allison. I learned that all my possessions are just STUFF. I lost a lot of STUFF. But no one in my family lost their lives. Praise the Lord. I learned that if your apartment take 22" of water and you clean it out within 24 hours, blisters will form on your fingers from the broom. That a half inch of water throughout your apartment will reappear while you are sweeping. I learned that if you don't spray every wall with bleach/water, mold will appear. I learned that even if it is less than 24 hours of flood, doors and cabinets will buckle and warp. I learned that vcr tapes can be saved, thanks to a Mexican National who took my box of tapes from outside my door, only to return them a few days later, all cleaned and ready to view.
Yes, I learned a lot from Allison. But the biggest thing I learned is that I don't want to have to go through it again. I'm in a house now, and this house has never been flooded. The water was nigh to the doorstep during Allison, but the house was spared. Nevertheless, I would not look forward to a test of that.
So Humberto, I'm glad you just skedaddled along and left me and mine alone, this time.
Lord, thank you for the sunshine today, the gentle breeze, and the dry pavement.
Kathygirl
Allison came ashore, went back out to gather strength and came in again. We were saturated that week, and when she did go out that second time and threatened to come back a third time, all Christians said "Please God, NO!"
My little apartment took 22" that night. But what happened in the Texas Medical Center was much worse. The heart of Hermann Hospital is in one of the basements, and of course they flooded along with every other TMC hospital, the museum district, the art district, it was all hit and hit hard. Freeways washed out and cars were under water. It was awful.
At that time, I was working at a small, laid back community hospital, and we took as many patients as we could. All the hospitals did, and Houston has more than its share of hospitals. So all of the patients in the TMC had a bed to go to. My patient that I remember was a wonderful gentleman in his 70's who had just undergone open heart surgery the day before. He was moved by backboard down SEVEN FLIGHTS OF STAIRS IN THE DARK. Can you imagine this? He was trached, so someone moved along beside him, bagging him as they went. This still brings tears to my eyes, six years later. It always will.
I learned a lot of things from Allison. I learned that all my possessions are just STUFF. I lost a lot of STUFF. But no one in my family lost their lives. Praise the Lord. I learned that if your apartment take 22" of water and you clean it out within 24 hours, blisters will form on your fingers from the broom. That a half inch of water throughout your apartment will reappear while you are sweeping. I learned that if you don't spray every wall with bleach/water, mold will appear. I learned that even if it is less than 24 hours of flood, doors and cabinets will buckle and warp. I learned that vcr tapes can be saved, thanks to a Mexican National who took my box of tapes from outside my door, only to return them a few days later, all cleaned and ready to view.
Yes, I learned a lot from Allison. But the biggest thing I learned is that I don't want to have to go through it again. I'm in a house now, and this house has never been flooded. The water was nigh to the doorstep during Allison, but the house was spared. Nevertheless, I would not look forward to a test of that.
So Humberto, I'm glad you just skedaddled along and left me and mine alone, this time.
Lord, thank you for the sunshine today, the gentle breeze, and the dry pavement.
Kathygirl
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Are you out of your gourd?
When I moved, I lost track of my friend Joanie.
I found her this week, she is a patient in our hospital.
I'm very excited for her, because she has started a new business.
Joanie is so creative and has so many ideas spinning around in her head. She has started working with gourds. Take a look at this beauty.
If you'd like to see more of her work, you'll find her at http://www.vaaardvark.com/ down at the bottom of the index. It's a website she shares with a friend.
Her gourds are one of a kind. Joanie has perfected her skills in gourd decorating, and believe me.. if you think this looks good, you should see it in person.
It's drop dead gorgeous.
It's like this. You think of a price and then when you see it, you don't care what the price is! But her prices are quite reasonable, especially when you think of the hours she has spent creating each one.
I hope you will at least go take a look, and thanks!
Later guys,
Kathygirl
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