DONNA POSTER QUILTING NEWSLETTER
                                    JUNE 2010



Oh dear --- I can’t believe it’s been six months since I’ve written to you!!  Things have been a bit crazy here and wait till you hear why --- we’re moving to California!  No kidding.  We’ve been trying to get there for decades and the price of housing always stopped us.  But now, with a daughter and son-in-law in San Diego and the housing more affordable, we’re gonna do it.  Right now it looks like we will end up in either Temecula or Murrieta.


We made the decision around Christmas and it’s taken us this long to clean out fifty-plus years of stuff we’ve collected.  We put aside the stuff we’re taking, then called in the family to take whatever they wanted (my girls took over twenty quilts!) and they had a ball. Then we started doing “yard sales”, donating, and just plain tossing out--- that hurt!  We can’t believe what our garbage men were willing to grind up --- even an overstuffed chair!
Now I had to face the job I dreaded most --- cleaning out my 400 square foot studio. I never expected to have to do this.  It was going to be my daughters’ job when I left this life. They have, at times, expressed their opinion about this job and I told them to just contact all the guilds in the area and let the ladies “have at it”!!  And that’s exactly what I did.  I had a collections of antique irons and sewing paraphernalia,  also, ten treadle sewing machines, all in perfect working condition, eight Featherweights, nine hand cranks and six toy sewing machines.  Tin cans, salt cellars, paperweights, etc.  Books and fabric from as far back as thirty years ago.  Every issue ever printed of Quilters Newsletter --- all the way back to the 1970’s --- plus every copy of the eight quilt magazines I subscribe to!!!  Notions --- I’m a notion freak!!  I don’t actually use most of them, but I just have to have them.  Kits I’ve never even opened (bought for the day I retire and need something to do), UFOs up the wazoo, seven stuffed file drawers, a serger (unused!), a gorgeous 4’ x 8’ table (polished as smooth as a baby’s butt) set on top of six wire drawer units, four folding tables, bookcases, a Big Board ironing board --- are you getting the picture?


The most fun was with the fabric.  I spread blankets and quilts all over the floor in the living room and dumped out crates of fabric.  I’d scarfed grocery bags from the supermarket and they got whatever they could stuff into one of those bags for five dollars.  They loved it!!  We did this three times, totaling sixteen crates in all.  It’s all over now and my daughters are breathing a huge sigh of relief.


Now we just have to sell the house.  Wanna buy our house?  Seriously, we must sell this one before we can move and, boy, it’s got a great sewing room!!


We’re going to miss our Eliad, but his mom is planning on moving from the area within a year so we’d miss him anyway.  We’re all in the process of trying to get our Skype units working --- not as easy as it sounds.  Right now we’re seeing him as much as we can and having a lot of fun.  He’s about the best little five and a half year old boy I’ve ever seen (yeah, yeah, I know --- I’m his granma)  We went to Target yesterday and as we passed the “girlie” aisle I pointed to a pink tutu and suggested we buy that for him.  The ultimate boy, he grinned and said, “Nooo!”  Later, enjoying the humor of it, he picked up a little pink bathing suit and suggested we buy that for him.  But this time I agreed --- yes, we should get that, he’d look adorable in it and  I put it in the cart!  He’s howling, “No! No! Granma, no!!!  No-o-o-o-o-o!!!”  He had a half grin, knowing I was joking, but, still, he couldn’t be sure --- granma is known to do some really strange stuff!!  (Mr. Donna here:  I’ll buy that last statement). We have a lot of fun together!


My newest book, Block Beauty, came out four months ago and it’s really great.  It has five basic quilts in it and four versions of each, totaling twenty quilts.  So, once you become very familiar with a technique (and they’re easy ones) you can use what you’ve learned to make three more which look altogether different from the first one!  Fun!  You can buy the book from our website <http://Quiltwithdonna.com/> or, if you’re a member of AQS, you can order from them and get a discount.


Mr. Donna, that mysterious Mr. Donna, can now be seen in living color, toasting you with his five o’clock happy hour martini.  Just go to the website and scroll down below the “Enter Button” on the page that comes up.  There, at last, is the man himself, along with other family members,
Corky and Mickey.


I had a wonderful time teaching at the new AQS show in Lancaster, PA.  It was a super show and I sure hope they’ll fly me back from California to teach there again!  By the way, if anyone at that show found a camera with pictures of ladies crawling around the floor stuffing fabric in bags --- that’s MY camera, I lost it at the show.


For now, life has settled down a bit and I’m back at the drawing board again.  And, no, I’m not retiring.  Like Betty White (my new role model!) I’m enjoying myself too much to ever stop doing this.  I told you what I got rid of, but you should see what I’m taking with me.  Southern California is loaded with quilt shops so I’m looking forward to teaching there.  I’ll try to do better on the newsletters --- a few hints on quilting and maybe a new recipe or two from Mr. Donna again.


Hope all is well with you and all your quilting enjoyable,

Donna 

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