Positive Thinking Pessimist

I learned today that I am a pessimist. I used to deny this fact with all of my worth and power. How could I be? I am a happy person. I look to the future with all the hope of rainbows, bright sunshiny skies, and half priced sales at the local quilt shop. I love seeing my goals, knowing that I CAN reach them.

What made me delve into this bizarre form of self observation? I don't have the foggiest. I just was thinking about a quote that I read the other day about how a textbook case optimist would think after falling the first 50 floors off of the empire state building "well, so far, so good!"

You see, people often (almost always) confuse optimism with the word positive, and pessimism with the word negative. BIG MISTAKE, people. Optimists will many times fail to see obstructions, kinks in plans, and wrenches in gears during their visions of success. They make the worst CEOs on the planet.

A pessimist will say "well, what is the worst that can happen? Can I deal with that?" A pessimist is a person who pulls all of their stock and throws it into bonds in August 2008 (thank you, thank you, thank you my wonderful husband). A pessimist is a person who shoots for the achievable, and then enjoys all of the wonderful gravy should there be any 'extra'. A pessimist keeps their 2003 Honda Civic yet another year because it is paid off instead of buying the 2010 Chevy Equinox that they have had visions of, just in case the economy isn't looking as rosy as all of the optimists are saying.

My life may not be exciting because of my positive pessimism, but I think that it will last a lot longer because of how I see my future. I see myself 98 years old, in a quaint home that is paid off with tons of cast-off scraps of fabric from other ladies projects. Is that something I can deal with? Oh, yes.

I really need to finish more quilts...

I just got a call yesterday from a lady who professionally machine quilted a baby quilt for my daughter (to be born January 20th). It reminded me that I have yet to post quilts to my blog that I have finished this last year; not to mention a few quilt tops and other projects that have been getting done in the process of life. The above picture is of a quilt that I made last summer for a friends baby. I am hoping to get more pics up asap.

I Think I See Light at the End of the Tunnel

This is another 'thing' that I have finished. Again, many of you have seen this, too. What can I say, my friends are everywhere on this computer. This is a block from the book 'Artful Applique' by Jane Townswick. Once I get caught up on a few projects that people are waiting on, I will go back to doing more of these. Sometimes just getting a block done when you have 256 different projects going on can be very satisfying. I am close to being back on track with my '4 projects' plan, which helps me get sooooo much done. Like digging yourself out of a hole filled with sand.

Another One Out of My Sewing Room

I posted this one on one of my other accounts, so some of you have already seen this one. It was made to go to my sister to give away at the hospital where she works. I get these scrap blocks sometimes that I can't bear to throw away, so I just add a bunch of other 'to get rid of' fabrics to make a little give-away quilt. This particular one has a bunch of cotton-poly (which I don't put into my own quilts) so I was surprised at how soft it was when I was finished with it. It is a bit busy and bright, but I think that some little girl would love this as her play quilt.

Finished With That One

While I was A.W.O.L. from my blog a while ago, I did finish that quilt with the churn dash for a friends little boy. It does not have intricate quilting, but I figured that it was going to get drug around, so as long as it holds together, no use putting hand quilted feathers in it or anything. The cute thing that I did, was a while before their baby was born, I asked the dad if he had any old plaid shirts that I could use for 'a project' that I was working on. His shirt ended up being the fussy-cut cornerstones in the quilt. I put an awesome label on the back and named it '...and One of Daddy's Shirts".

I will have to post some of the other things that I have gotten done in the last few months. Talk to you all tomorrow.

Thank You, Kathy

You can learn so much from fellow quilters. But have you ever said 'Thank You' to any of those sweet gals that helped you when it looked like your quilt was heading for the thrift store? I think that every now and then, I will be giving credit where credit is due by posting one of my friends, then telling you what I have learned from them.

Just so you are all aware, great quilters are not born, they are taught. (Well, some are born. But they are not allowed to be mentioned in my blog...standards, you know) So when you meet one of those ladies that has perfect binding; she learned that from another genius quilter. Most of the quilting knowledge that I have was obtained by trial and error (lots of it), well written quilt books and magazines, or by friends. My favorite lessons by far are from friends. I think it is so funny that they really don't realize how much they are impacting your life as a quilter with these little tidbits of information.

Let me tell you about Kathy. She taught me the 'flipper' border. It is a border that is attached to the quilt, but is 3-dimensional. These are great when you realize too late that a quilt needs a punch of red between the quilts main body and the border and you don't want to do all of that mathematical readjusting of the outer border dimensions. (If you are nice to her, she just may teach you how to do it on her blog.) I also learned to use glue to baste when doing applique. I knew to do it, I just needed to watch it in action first. Another thing she taught me was doing a binding with Elmer's school glue, which she learned on an Internet video. Come to think of it, it just may be the fact that she is around glue fumes so much that makes me love her fabulous personality. Thank you, Kathy. I hope to return the favor someday soon...If I can only come up with a technique involving margaritas.

Fabric From Heaven

Rhonda, a friend of mine, posts her favorite fabrics on 'Favorite Fabric Monday' on her blog (go check it out by clicking on her name) I thought it was such a great idea that I would steal it this one(?) time so that you could see for once what kind of fabric makes my toes curl. I really, really, love yellow. Especially if it is combined with black and red; and even that splash of green makes it just right. I absolutely love the kitchy look, too. anything from the 40's and 50's is always welcome in my fabric stash. (although, what kind of quilter would turn down fabric of any nature, as long as it is not double-knit polyester?)