Dog In Charge

Mom’s busy writing the newsletter today, so she put me in charge of the blog.  She said I should put together a BIG SALE of something I really like. So, I picked her “Dog-Yeared” calendar quilt pattern. Paws down, it is my favorite of all her patterns because, well,  it’s all about dogs!

There is a dog for every month, and they are all adorable, and they look like the month they are supposed to be. You can machine applique them or applique them by hand/paw.

The “Dog-Yeared” calendar quilt pattern comes with full-size patterns and lots of pictures and words to tell you what to do and when to do it. Everything is on a CD which is cool. You can print off only what you need.

You even get a free pattern on the CD for the back of your quilt. (It’s a fire hydrant!)

I look a little consternated in this photograph. The back of Mom’s quilt was on the disign wall, and it was so life-like, and we dogs have …urges… Should I? Shouldn’t I? Don’t worry; I didn’t.

Since we haven’t gotten to January yet, now would be a really good time to start your “Dog-Yeared” quilt. If you want to take advantage of a very special offer (even BETTER than 2-for-1) you have to order before midnight Thursday (9/3/09) or before we run out of CDs.

Don’t wait! Supplies are limited! Order now!

Plus, all orders get a free applique pattern (line drawing) for a block that looks remarkably like me! (It will be emailed to you.) After you read the directions on the CD you can take the line drawing and make a Madison Block.

And, if you’re one of the first 100 people to order Mom says I can give you a chunk of fabric from MY stash.

AND, everyone who buys a “Dog-Yeared” calendar quilt pattern gets a chance to win this “October” block that Mom sewed. Stick it in your quilt! (One down, 11 to go!)

Because I’m helping pack orders this month (part of the deal) please don’t expect our usual speedy delivery. While we will process orders all this week, they won’t ship out until next week, after the holiday. We will email and let you know when your order ships.

Please tell your friends about this special offer and I’ll get more kibble at dinner.

Love,
Madison

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Great Plates!

Readers of my last blog post have started sharing their “quilty” license plates. Hope you enjoy the selection.  They certainly are colorful and creative. (Please don’t email me any more, I’ve got to move on to other things!)

Enjoy!

 

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Quilty License Plates

Way back when Jennie was a toddler (she’s now almost 26) I saw the first vanity license plate that made any sense to me. It simply said QUILTS.  I got it. And I wanted one. Badly. I wanted the one that said QUILTS and belonged to the lady I almost rear-ended as I appreciated her license plate, first from afar, and then from dangerously up close. But, I was willing to settle for something close as waiting for her to die probably wasnt’ necessary.

I let my desires be known, casually mentioning it to Steve.  Once. That is the Simms way, something I still don’t fully understand. If he wants me to get the hint, I need significantly more repetitions, preferably in writing, with a calendar so that I remember when holiday gift giving occurs. It always sneaks up on me.

As usual, I forgot about the vanity plate until late in October. I thought I should have had a quilt-appropriate word above my bumbper by then, so I took it upon myself to dial up the department of motor vehicles. (The lady with QUILTS was still alive.) After much thought I settled on  QUILT. My message to anybody driving behind me, or in front of me (at that time plates in the front were required too), would be to go forth and …. QUILT! I love to boss people around. I asked if QUILT was available.

The lady at the DMV said QUILT was taken. I was crestfallen. “Are you sure,” I whined?

“Yes,” she said. “Someone in Genesee County has it.”

“No WAY!” said I. “I drive all over Genesee Country and I’ve never seen a car with a QUILT plate.”

“WAY!” she said.

“Can you tell me who it is?” I begged.

She said, “No, that’s against the rules. All I can tell you is it’s registered to some guy in Flint.”

That did it! Somebody in Flint driving around with MY plate on HIS rear end? I think not. I knew all the male quilters in Flint. And it wasn’t any of them. The nerve of people I don’t know absconding with MY plate.

I consoled myself with trips to every fabric shop in Genesee Country. I checked the parking lots just to hunt down the owner of my plate, but mostly I bought fabric and felt better.

Several weeks later, when my birthday rolled around and it was time to get legal with the state again, Steve presented me with my very own vanity license plates! He was the guy in Flint!  And I have been driving around telling everyone behind me to QUILT for at least two decades now.  And we’ve been paying exorbitant amounts of money annually for the privilege. But to not do so would be like giving back the sweetest birthday present ever. No way! 

Do you have a quilty license plate? Want to share? Email me a photo of your quilted license plate by the end of August. (AmiSimms@aol.com) Let’s see how creative you are. Email ONE photo, so make it a good one. Shoot it straight on.  I’ll crop out the background, size it, put it in an attractive collage and post it here on the blog. No fair shooting pictures of cars not belonging to you, I don’t care how great the plate. Quilty plates only. Tell your friends…

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Panty Party Is Sincerest Form of Flattery

Friends and fellow members of the Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild in Wellsboro, PA were inspired by the Yo-Yo Sisterhood of the Traveling Panties and did their own dye job. When I questioned their relative cleanliness in the photo I was assured by ganggroup leader Peggi Yacovissi that they wore a considerable amount of dye on their hands, arms, and toes during the event but they removed the plastic gloves and washed well before being photographed for posterity. The red and purple on their arms is hidden by their “panty pose”
.

Left to right they are Rita Pyatt, Susan McConnell, Anya Tyson, Nancy Cooledge, and Mary Fahsbender. Peggi is hiding behind the camera.

Well done, ladies!

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August “Small Quilt” Auction Ends Tonight

Monday, August 10 at 10:01 p.m. EDT the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative’s “Slow & Silent” on-line auction will be history. Don’t miss a chance to win a beautiful little quilt for you or for a friend as you  help raise money for Alzheimer’s research.

Great quilts! Good deeds! What could be better?!

Bid here: http://www.alzquilts.org/quiltauction.html

Please tell all your friends.

Thank you for your help!
Ami :)

Who Are The Best 182 Quilters In The World?

I”m looking for the top quilters on the planet? And by quilter I’m very limited  in my request for information. For my devious purposes I am NOT interested in piecing or applique skills nor color or design,  just the quilting part.  Hand or machine. I’m interested in just THE STITCH.

Who does it the best? Who is inspired? Magical? Unbelievably talented? Professional or amateur. World famous, or unknown. Domestic machine or long arm. Left-handed or right-handed. I don’t care how they do it, they just have to be phenomenal quilters!

Why? I want to hit them up to quilt a top for the AAQI’s next traveling exhibit— ”Alzheimer’s Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope.”

I have (or soon will have) 182 quilt tops emblazened with the names of 10,000 people who have or had Alzheimer’s. Friends and family have written their names to honor and remember them. The people whose names appear on these quilts represent the 5.3 million Americans (26 million worldwide) who have Alzheimer’s. They simply deserve our best effort.

These incredibly talented quilters you’re going to tell me about would only have to quilt one top, six inches wide and about seven feet long. They can quilt it any way they want. They won’t even have to do the binding. And they’ve got lots of time in which to do it. This is a totally volunteer effort; nobody gets paid. They don’t get to keep the quilt either. The quilt they stitch on will travel around the country helping to raise awareness about Alzheimer’s, and then it will be auctioned or sold outright when the exhibit is retired. All profits from the sale will fund Alzheimer’s research.

So, who should we ask?

Write down the names of quilters I should ask in the comment section. Give me their full name and contact information if you know it. If somebody already “nominated” who you were going to suggest, you can second the motion. Everybody get’s their say. Don’t just stop with one name either; we’ve got 182 quilt tops!

To make this work, I need you to tell every single quilter you know to come to this page and leave a comment sharing who they feel should be asked to quilt a top for the AAQI. I want thousands of comments. The more comments, the harder it will be for these special quilters to say ‘no.’  (Sneaky, huh?)

There’s another way you can help, and that’s by collecting names of people who have/had Alzheimer’s. Click here.  And if you want to create a quilt for “Alzheimer’s Illustrated: From Heartbreak To Hope,” click here.

Thank you for your help!
Pass it on!
Ami Simms

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Subversive Stitchers

Today I am guest blogging at Subersive Stitchers. I answered questions about the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative.

Enjoy,
Ami

Last Day For the “Two-For-One” Sale

I went a little nuts with a special offer in my newsletter on Saturday. In case you aren’t signed up to get my newsletter, it went something like this. Well, it actually went EXACTLY like this, except without the pictures. And the  few extra thoughts I just added this morning…

MY ODD LITTLE BOOK

I bet that 25% of people who buy How NOT To Make A Prize-Winning Quiltbuy it again a second time. That’s truly an odd statistic, but that’s what people tell me. Lots of people. They originally buy the book for themselves, give it to a friend to read, and never get it back! Of all the quilting books I’ve ever heard of my little acid green tome is the one most often read aloud on bus trips to Paducah. I’m just telling you what an honor that is—both the buying the book two times and the public readings.

How NOT To Make A Prize-Winning Quilt is the only book I’ve written that I periodically re-read. I’m pretty much done with the others as soon as they’re published. I already know “how to” whatever the books were about and I don’t need to read them again. But I do read the little funny book, because it still makes me laugh. I probably shouldn’t admit that, but it’s true. I have even giggled out loud. Pathetic.

My favorite chapter? I think it’s a tie between “If It Doesn’t Fit, Pull On It Or Cut It Off” and “Only Sissies Machine Quilt.”

My favorite photo? The one showing the label from one of the twin size sheets I used for backing that got sandwiched in and quilted. By hand no less. I never noticed it was in there until I started photographing this quilt for the book.  Hey, at least I picked out the hem and the piping!

Since everybody needs a laugh or two, I’ve cooked up a special deal, but you need to act quickly. Until midnight on Monday (August 3rd—that would be TONIGHT!) get TWO copies of How NOT To Make A Prize-Winning Quilt for the price of one. (Notice the built-in “loaner” book you can actually GIVE away from the start?)

I’ll autograph books this time and I’ll inscribe them, too. First names only, please. If you want it dated you have to say so in the comment section because I normally don’t do that. To be very specific about the dating, if the book is inscribed (“For Susie”) and you want it dated you get the day, the month, and the year. If the book is not inscribed and you just want it autographed (that would be just my name) and you want it dated, then you get just the year. Unless you tell me otherwise. (Madison, reading over my shoulder, asked if that meant I go “all the way” on the first date. Everybody’s a comedian.)

AND, I’ll give you a free pattern. I’ll email you the pattern for my Sinking Sailboat quilt. You have my permission to print it off so that you and your friend can each make my funniest quilt ever.

But wait, there’s more! (I love saying that.) There’s a little gift I mention in the back of How NOT To Make A Prize-Winning Quilt that you can send away for, except that you have to send in a self-addressed stamped envelope. If you’re one of the first 100 people who order, I’m going to save you the trouble, and the $.44 in postage each way. You AND the recipient of the “extra” book each get the little gift with the book. (You just can’t send away for a second one because there probably won’t be any more!)

Deal? Stop reading  now and go here to ORDER so you don’t miss out! And tell all your friends.

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Dog Celebrates Birthday!

Madison T. Dog here. I hope you missed me.

It was my birthday on July 14th. I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t want anybody to go to a lot of trouble. A little trouble would have been OK, just not a lot of trouble.

I was happy to let the day pass sitting out under the tree in the back yard sniffing  things or rolling in bunny presents, but Mom and Dad had other ideas.

They took me on a car trip!

We do this every summer because it’s so much fun to be near me 24/7.   I had a pre-trip bath and everything. Daddy took out BOTH middle seats in the van so that I could have all the room I could possibly want. The van was born the same year as I was, 2001. I have gray hair; the van has rust. It also rattles. To my knowledge I do not rattle, although my toes occasionally click against the kitchen floor. I find this quite melodious. Mom does not. Dad doesn’t mind. Dad and I do lots of things to please Mom.

I don’t remember exactly where we went or how long it took to get there because I like to sleep in the car, but the picture of me and Mom’s leg was taken at the Virginia Barbeque Company which, by my calculations, could be in Virginia. Mom and Dad enjoyed eating at one of the outdoor tables as we all watched the traffic go by. (I don’t eat barbeque or other people food except ice.)

We stayed the night at a very nice pet-friendly B & B in Mt. Joy, PA on the first night. B & B stands for Bed & Breakfast, unless you’re a dog and in which case it means Floor & Kibble. And Mom brings the kibble.

Mom and I had several very nice walks around town. It’s a very old town and the houses and shops come right up to the road. There was just enough for us. Mom thought the planters downtown were very quilty, so instead of any good pictures of me, we have pictures of the dumb planters.

The next day we went walking around the neighborhoods. I am standing in front of my favorite house. The people must not like washing dishes. After dinner they stick them out in the flowerbeds.  We thought that was way cool. Doesn’t my foot look nice? Mom trims my nails and all the toe fur in between. I know, TMI.

After our walk, we continued in whatever direction we were driving because Daddy had a great big surprise for us. He likes to do that. 

Here’s a hint of what we did next, can you figure it out from the picture?

OK, I’ll tell you. We went to Lancaster County to sniff Amish things! It was fabulous! They have very large dogs, called horses which I am mostly terrified of, except they smell SO-O-O delicious. Mom said that even if their presents were in the middle of the road, they were OFF LIMITS.  We had a great time looking at farms and fields and then we took a buggy ride! (That’s where the wheel over there came from.)

Mom and Dad saw lots of interesting things out the windows of the buggy. Mostly I slept. We went down some very busy streets and out in the country too. Our Amish driver told us about the area and we saw people working in the fields, laundry hanging on the line, things growing, a lady pushing a lawnmower, and other fun things. If you ever get a chance to take a buggy ride, you should do it. I give it four paws up.

After Lancaster (pronounced LANG-kuh-ster) County we hopped back in the car for more excitement, like battlefields and colonial settlements. Those were all in Virginia. I am allowed in National Parks as long as I don’t go in any buildings and stay on my leash. Well, not ON it literally. My leash just has to be attached at one end to my collar and at the other end to somebody who wants to walk me around. That would be everybody. I make friends easily.

Our next stop was Washington, D.C. and I met more dogs there than any place else. We stayed at the very swanky Hotel Monaco a few blocks from the Mall. (Not the shopping kind, the other kind with grass and big buildings and monuments.) When I arrived they gave me a paper sack with my name on it, which I carried inside myself. there was a water bottle, pretty green poop bags (hint, hint), treats, and a toy in the bag. The bell person brought up a tray just for me with a food dish on it. He put it right on the floor. (Please don’t tell them I had a little drink out of the ice bucket; I just couldn’t wait. Mom washed it out real good.)  I also got my own doggie newspaper with my name on it.

They wrote my name on the digital picture frame in the lobby and took my picture so the humans knew the names of all the dogs staying at the hotel while we were there. They even put a food dish and a water dish just for dogs and I was invited to have whatever I wanted, whenever. I was also invited to Happy Hour. Everyone fell in love with me. Here’s Mom and I on the red carpet at Hotel Monaco. We traded off who carried the umbrella and who carried the water bottle. (It was really sunny and hot. You’re supposed to stand under the umbrella and drink the water.)

Here we are in front of the White House!

 

Here we are stopped for a second in the middle of the crosswalk so you could see the Capitol Building behind us. See how long my tongue is? It was really hot outside. After I had a drink of water Mom poured some on my head to cool me off. (That was pre-crosswalk.)

 

We walked over to the Washington Monument and it is very tall, especially if you don’t clear 3 feet with your ears perked. 

 

We also looked for the Madison Monument, for obvious reasons. No luck.

 

Hope you’re having as good a time as I am this summer.

Love,

Madison

 

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Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilt Challenge

Jannett Caldwell and her daughter Sandy Powers came up with one of the best ways I’ve seen to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative. Not only did they challenge their guild, the Ladybug Quilters of Newark, DE, to create Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts for us, but at the guild meeting I attended last month they displayed the quilts pinned to a clothesline at the front of the room. They didn’t stop there. They wanted to award a Viewer’s Choice for the best quilt donated. Guild members voted with dollar bills (and some higher denominations too)!

You’ll notice that there is a small paper lunch sack clothes pinned behind each Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilt. Guild members stuffed dollar bills into these clever “ballot bags” and raised a tidy sum for the AAQI.

Thank you for the beautiful quilts (some not shown in photograph),  for the additional funds you raised for Alzheimer’s research, and for this great idea!