DONNA POSTER NEWSLETTER
                                                                            AUG. ‘09


It’s August already --- good grief, where has the summer gone?  Well, OK, let’s look at the bright side.  The nicest, prettiest part of the year is just around the corner.  The flowers in Mr. Donna’s garden are gorgeous.  The deer haven’t eaten the hostas yet and we’re gonna have pizza and wine on the deck tonight.  Life is good!


Eliad is so much fun these days!  Growing so fast you can almost see it.  And “all boy”!  I had two little girls so this “boy” stuff is new to me.  Last week I emptied my button jars for us to play with.  He dutifully matched three sets of buttons then announced, “Grandma, this isn’t any fun.”  If it doesn’t have wheels or water it’s useless!  So these days I’m the one who’s learning new ways to have fun --- boy style!


Been finding a lot of great tips these days --- here are some of my favorites:
   Instead of folding a quilt parallel to the edges and getting those nasty creases, try folding it on the bias in the same way you would fold a large piece of fabric to cut bias strips. Next fold the ends in and keep folding it this way till you have a square or rectangle.  No hard creases!
   Theresa writes:  I was told by a fabric conservationist that you should NEVER dry clean cotton. The fibers are easily weakened by the solvents and will cause deterioration of the fabric. That is why you should NEVER dry clean a quilt of any age. Just thought I'd pass that along!
   Sometimes it’s hard to see which fabrics will stand out in an assortment of prints.  Layer them, side by side, and print them out in black and white.  The contrast will be very obvious!
   Keep your glue sticks in the refrigerator to keep them firmer.  They’ll last a lot longer.


Our son-in-law to be and Mr. Donna have started a “let’s have some fun” web page and have imbedded it within our quilting website, http://Quiltwithdonna.com.  You can get there by typing foldystuff.com/WWHH,html (the URL is case sensitive) into your browser.  Or, go to the  first page after entering our website,  just over the humming bird in the box at the top, are the letters “WWHH”  click on that link.


WWHH means World Wide Happy Hour which grew out of the practice of these guys having a martini at 5:00PM each day.  Go there, and tell all your friends.  It’s a great piece of fluff.


Did you know that Mr. Donna came up with some of the first rulers and notions in the quilt market?  As an engineer, he could see what was needed and how to manufacture it.  But one of these notions has a very funny story.

Years ago, when the rotary cutter was a new gizmo, someone came in the store with a beer can handle that she’d stuck on her ruler to help hold it down while she cut her fabric.  She’d bought at the local beer barn.   It was meant to stick on a beer can so guys could drink in a genteel manner. Needless to say, as a beer can handle it "bombed" --- big time! Mr. Donna found the source of these handles and started importing and selling them in the quilt market.  We used to chuckle as the importer tried, many times, to find out why he was the only person who could sell these things!  This ruler handle is still being sold to quilters.


I’m starting to see AQS ads for my new book, Block Beauty.  Exciting!  They put my favorite quilt on the front cover!  Look for it this fall.


I am looking forward to getting back to teaching again.  The health problems of the last year have put a real crimp in my schedule but it turned out to be allergies which I’ve evidently struggled with for a long time and didn’t know it.   I haven’t felt this good in years!  As I start up classes again, I’ll post them on my website.


Mr. Donna here: OK, tomato season is upon us and that means---what?----chili of course.    The recipe is in the Aug/Sept 2006 edition of this newsletter.  Click onto “Newsletters” at the first page that comes up when you enter this site.


We are lucky to have a farmer who lives about 1 mile from us; last year he was selling these big 1 1/2# perfect tomatoes for  $.50 each.  And, the chili was great.


Gotta go now --- I’m getting another book proposal ready to send to AQS!  Hope you’re all well and enjoying the summer. 


Happy quilting,
Donna