DONNA POSTER NEWSLETTER
                                       DEC. 2008


Hi!

I can’t believe the holidays are upon us. 

The Houston Quilt Festival was grand, as usual, but I didn’t get to see much of it as I ended up in the Houston hospital with an amnesia attack.  I’m told I even taught a class for an hour before anyone realized something was wrong.  Got the best of care from everyone, including everyone at the quilt show.  The good news is it was just a migrating embolism which eventually broke up and seldom happens again.

The manuscript for my new book is finally ready for AQS.  Mr. Donna was reading it and thought I should send you the preface.  I think it’s especially fitting at this time of year.  Here is what I wrote:

Why in the world do we quilters like to cut up perfectly good fabric into little pieces then spend hours sewing it back together?  There are people who consider this close to insanity. 

My own answer to this question is very clear.  My mother.

Mama hated housework.  She was a reluctant cook and when the mop and broom came out my sister and I knew  it was not going to be a good day.
But when mama picked up a needle --- ah, life was glorious.  The sun shone brighter, the birds sang sweeter and my mother smiled and laughed.  As a toddler I loved to watch as she made a bird or flower come alive with her pretty colored stitching.  I was five when I embroidered a little apron and today it hangs on the wall in my studio.

Mama and I had an agreement that I could listen to the radio if my hands were busy.  By the age of eight I was making hand worked buttonholes while Batman and Robin saved Gotham City.  I darned piles of socks to the sound of clopping hooves and Hi Yo Silver.  It was fun and I loved the praise for my fine workmanship.

My reputation as a patient teacher comes from her gentle way of showing me the finer points of stitching

Over the years I’ve been a Home Ec teacher, a needlework store owner, an author of quilt books, a quilt teacher and  lecturer.  I found in the needle a hobby, a career and a lifetime of pleasure.

Thank you, mama.
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Right now I’m going to stop everything and start enjoying Christmas!  We picked up our tree and this year Eliad helped us trim it!

Have a wonderful holiday.  May all your quilted gifts be done in time and turn out gorgeous!  I’ll write again in January.

Your friend in quilting,
Donna