visit with Diane, year end stash report

I left at 8:15 AM Saturday morning (1/5), almost before Michael had even finished his traditional golfing breakfast.  I was headed to Diane’s house….I first met Diane when we both owned JUKI long arms.  Diane traded hers in for an INNOVA several years ago and a teeny, tiny, minuscule part of me is considering getting a new long arm, so I headed over to her house to find out all about it.  

Diane and her honey Mike

We talked for almost 5 solid hours (!!) and I didn’t get home until after 2 PM!!!!  We had so much to get caught up on and she showed me everything with her long arm and answered all of my questions and fed me lunch and showed me lots of cute quilts….it just couldn’t have been a better day!  

how simple and how pretty....right?

and another one she had on the frame

a sample of another to come

and these fabrics go together as well

I’ll see her again Wednesday night when we go to the Charlotte Guild meeting together.  

I have to tell you one more thing about Diane.  She is a lifelong reader of SOUTHERN LIVING and many, many years ago when she was living in New Jersey, SOUTHERN LIVING traveled to her home (the furthest north they have EVER come for a story) and did an article on Diane's unique Christmas Cookie Exchange.  

The writer said that she argued with her employer for an entire year before getting the go ahead, as the boss in charge refused to go above the Mason/Dixon line!!!  Diane told me all about it and it was just fabulous!

Anyway, my getting a new long arm is predicated on several things, not the least of which is selling my old one….so if you know of anyone that is looking…please send them my way :~).  By then my honey came home from golf, covered in mud!  He took a spill and it has been so rainy here lately that he was very sore and his clothes were a mess.  He spent some time in the whirlpool tub and said that was wonderful and we finally had some snacks for dinner (we were both still kind of full from our respective lunches) and watched TV in the evening.  I had finished braiding yet another necklace, and so spent the evening beginning to string a new one.

STASH REPORT - The year end and new year are a time for summing up.  I hope to do that over the next couple of days, starting with my December Stash Report and year end stash report.

Although I ended the year in the red, December is the reason for it and I am not entirely sad about that.  I need a range of colors for a special project I will be doing this year and to find that fabric I paid a visit to Corinne for her 5 dollar batiks.  Even though I probably only need 1/2 to 1 yard of all of the colors I bought, the rule at Corinne’s is that you buy the entire piece, regardless of how much fabric there is.  Most of her fabric pieces are 2 yard pieces, so in order to get the range of colors I wanted, I bought much more fabric than I needed….so for December I bought 39 yards of fabric (all at Corinne’s) and only used 6-1/4 yards on other projects.  So, for the entire year I am 26 yards in the hole, BUT…..BUT… I used/cut/sewed up 201 yards of fabric for 2018!!!!  That number is just unbelievable to me…it represents a goodly number of quilts going out into the world and I am thrilled about that.  I don’t know that I can improve on that number, but I am certainly going to try to come close to it by the end of this year  :~).