NO!

I feel so much less stress these days due to the fact that I know how to use the word "no'' now. For the last 2 years or so, I have really nailed it down. Learning how to say it is not easy at first, but you are not doing anyone any favors (especially yourself) by letting others take advantage of you; whether they know that they are doing it or not. Don't get me wrong...it is completely fine to say 'yes'. Just make sure that you are saying yes to things that you really want to do. In the past, I have been exposed to all kinds of people that ask for assistance of one form or another. Some of them are your normal, run of the mill, kind of folk that are just looking for a quick answer or advice. Maybe they want me to show them how to sew a button on...you know, the normal ones. But, a few years ago, I have been asked to do all kinds of things in the most humorous ways...

''I will LET you make me a quilt." This one absolutely kills me. It is hard to keep a straight face sometimes. ''Really!? Me? How did I get so lucky to earn the honor of making you a quilt?''

My favorite one of all really has to be this one: "I have about 20 quilt tops that my grandmother made that I would like for you to hand quilt. How much would you charge for that?'' ''Um, how about you just pay off the national debt instead?'' I am quite sure that there is someone out there that would love to do this for you, I just simply am not that person.

I guess how I look at it is this: There are too damn many people in the world that think that money can buy you anything (unfortunately, most of the time these people are right). Then there are others that just want everybody else to do their 'dirty' work. Sometimes these folks are one in the same. Michelangelo was famous for making sure that people paid him what he was worth as an artist. He believed that if artists always did jobs for little or nothing, that is all that art would be look at as...little or nothing. So, I do tell people what I charge. That usually gets rid of them; but at least they leave a little more enlightened, and realize that quilters should be praised for their abilities and never taken advantage of. And when someone gives you the vibe of ''I'm too important of a person to do unimportant things'' tell them that you are working very hard to finish quilts for the people that deserve your quilts the most...your family.