Beth Ferrier’s Blog

While I was off working and playing in Florida I was tagged, twice! Now that I’m home, and recovering from the nasty bug that followed us home from the south, I’m ready to play.

So the rules are:

1. When tagged, place the name of the person and URL on your blog.

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Write 7 things about yourself.

4. Name 7 of your favorite bloggers.

5. Send an e-mail letting those bloggers know they have been tagged.

I was tagged by Karen Combs and Pam Holland, two of my favorite people!

Now, the seven things.

1. I am the oldest of six girls and the mother of four sons. I don’t care what you say, boys are different from girls.

2. I am pathologically curious.

3. I wrote my first serialized story while in 7th grade. I read the next chapter in the adventure to my buddies on the school bus ride home each day.

4. Don’t fall out of your chair laughing, but I’m basically a shy person. Approaching people I don’t know is really hard for me, still.

5. I love china! I’ve had shelves put into two coat closets (okay, and another shelf unit put up in the basement) to make room for my dishes. And I still don’t think I have enough. Hey, we have a big family!

6. I love to garden but I hate snakes! We have garter snakes, and yes I know they are harmless and beneficial, but they make my hair stand on end. I make Kent stomp through the garden to scare them away before I start work.

7. I am married to the greatest guy in the universe. He’d be perfect if he didn’t tease me mercilessly while he scared away the snakes.

Now, my favorite bloggers:

Karen Boutte (she is also my best bud!), Mickie Dupree, Annie Smith, Anne Sutton, Laura Cater-Woods, Joan Hawley,  and last but certainly not least, the fine folks at The Quilt Show.

I’m so far behind I’m about to lap myself. My perfectionism has kept me from updating the blog. I have a serious case of but-first disease: I want to blog about the fabric, but first I should blog about Easter,but first I should blog about the cruise, but first I should blog about the Florida guilds.

It’s been a grueling month. Four guilds, 180 kits, Easter, spring break and the cruise (which was so much fun and a welcome break, but still time away from home). In the next few days I’ll do my best to catch up on all the lovely details, but for now, at least I’m writing.

 The Florida guilds (all four of them!) were a delight to teach for. It’s alway such a joy to teach
people who are open to new ideas. I was a real chump about taking pictures. I had a camera right there, but I was so involved in teaching that I forgot all about snapping the shutter. I did take some pictures of the area, though, and I’ll post those in the next few days.

Kent and I both brought home a nasty virus as a souvenir of our travels. Instead of jumping right back to work we each spent a couple of days in bed, seriously considering cutting off our noses. He’s about three days ahead of me and rebounded pretty quickly, so I have high hopes of being back to my old self tomorrow or the next day. At least we weren’t the sickest at the same time, allowing us to take care of the other when we needed it the most.

When we decided to offer kits for the new block of the month I never dreamed that we would have this kind of response. It’s been a huge challenge to keep up with orders, especially while I’ve been out of town for such a long time. We’ve just sent out another slew of kits, about thirty or so. One more group will go out in a couple more days.

We are sneaking up on the end to the kits so we are processing orders more slowly. We don’t want to promise a kit and then find that we don’t have enough.

My new fabric line has arrived at the warehouse. My sample yardage should arrive next week. I’ll be pedal to the metal getting samples done before Quilt Market. I can’t wait to see it! Okay, enough whining. It’s back to work, designing those quilts because next week I get to sew my very own fabric!

All my bags are packed, waiting by the door. Files have been moved from desktop to laptop. Cell phone and minicamera are charged. All of the agony of deciding what goes and what gets left behind is done.

Packing for a teaching trip is the hardest part. We are limited to two suitcases (and the airlines want to change that too!), which must weigh less than fifty pounds. I’m getting pretty good at 49 1/2 pounds!

I have to weigh (pun intended) my choices for clothing, the more I pack the fewer quilts I can bring. Of course I must also pack my face. Instead of being in a jar by the door, mine rests in a spiffy clear vinyl ditty bag in my suitcase. The older I get, the more it weighs.

 Then there’s the teaching kits, demo material, swap outs, step samples. And the digital projector, camera and tripod, and all the crazy wires, cords and plugs. I pack these things knowing full well that I will be unpacking them so that the TSA can admire them at the airport.

 The day is coming when I’ll tip over into doing a power point presentation and bring fewer quilts. But I know the truth. You don’t want to see me, you want to see the quilts. Having a great face for radio, I’m right there with you on that.

 For the next seventeen days I’ll be away from home. Tomorrow it’s a visit with the Quilter’s Guild of the Villages. On Thursday and Friday, I’ll be playing with The Quilting Sisters in Leesburg. On Saturday, I’m hanging out with The Busy Bee Quilters in Belleview, Florida. Let’s just say there’s going to be a whole lot of sneaky piecing going on.

Now here is where I’m going to lose your sympathy. Kent will be flying down next Saturday to join me for an anniversary cruise! Seven days of lounging on a really big boat, floating around the Carribean. Oh, yeah. In thirty-one years of marriage, this will be our first trip away since our honeymoon where neither on of us is working.

To end the trip, I’ll be teaching for the Southwest Florida Quilt Guild in Ft. Myers, FL. And then I’m home in time for Easter and grandbaby nuzzling.

Truthfully, I am laughing right now. If I think about it too hard, I’ll cry. But it’s so silly a mistake to make that I can’t help but smile.

I have been noticing that some of the seams on the pieced blocks were breaking. What on earth? I figured I must have had a bad needle, or perhaps the machine wasn’t threaded correctly, or maybe even the timing was off. The problem seemed to be in small areas, so I just appliqued them down.

I was really excited this morning to finally finish the applique. The quilt is nearly done! The last step to finish the applique involves a wet towel to make removing the paper easy.

 Oh, no! What’s happening? Is it possible? Why, yes, I used a bobbin filled with water-soluble thread for the piecing. Kent is calling it “gag piecing”. The only good thing is that I won’t be ripping out stitches. I guess it won’t be going to Florida with me.