Ami's AfterChat Newsletter

October 1997

AND WHAT HAPPENED TO SEPTEMBER?!
Did you miss me? If you didn't notice that there wasn't a September AfterChat, then I should probably should have kept my mouth shut.... If you did notice and were wondering what happened, well my life sort of got away from me. I've got a much better handle on things now, so unless you request to be removed from my list, you're gonna keep getting these things!

REMINDER
My next official 4th Thursday chat on AOL will be January 22, 1998. That's kind of a long way off, but the deal has always been that I can host them as long as I'm not out teaching somewhere. (Actually, I've managed to do that chat from the road a couple of times too, but let's not get picky.)

Anyway, this month (Oct. 23) I'll be in Houston at Quilt Festival, and after a full day in my booth, there's no way I will be able to speak coherently, let a lone type two words in sequence and have them make sense. Besides, I'm bringing so much I don't have room for a spare tooth pick. The lap top stays home. More on that later. November's chat falls on Thanksgiving, and although I won't have an official chat, there's a good chance I'll just pop in the Chat room for a few hellos if I'm not in a Food Coma. December's chat falls on Christmas, and I really didn't plan that, folks. So, we'll be back on schedule in January. I hope the powers that be don't ask for my AOL lapel pin back.

HOUSTON QUILT FESTIVAL
All y'all who are going to be in the Houston area this week are invited to come and visit me at Quilt Festival at the George Brown Convention Center from October 22 to 26. I'll be in Booth #1166 which, according to the way I'm reading my map, is all the way at the end of the 1100 row near the food. Of course, the way I read maps it could be over in the corner by the men's room too---another fine location. Maybe you should read YOUR map. It'll be easier to find me. Come on over and say HEY!

I'll have my photo transfer quilts there with me, and Photos-To-Fabric™ transfer paper, and this huge banner of my new logo. That is if I finish sewing the stupid thing. Otherwise, you can come by and stare at my huge white wall.

FORT WASHINGTON
I was a guest in David Small's booth at the Ft. Washington Show in Pennsylvania back in September and had a blast. Thanks so much for all the AfterChatters who came by and introduced yourselves. It's so nice to see the faces behind your screen names. I got a chance to have quite a few of you in class, too.

I just got a call from Peter Mancuso who has invited me back for next year. I'll be coming a day late because of prior teaching commitments, but staying through Sunday. So mark up your 1998 calendars.

THE QUILTERS' HOLIDAY IN ITALY
Less than a week after returning from Pennsylvania, I led a group of quilters to Italy. (That's kind of my excuse for not writing the last AfterChat.) We hit the ground running and didn't stop for 10 days. It was a terrific trip. I can't believe all the cool things we got to see and do. And our luck held out as well.

We were two days away from visiting Assisi when the earthquake struck so we were safe and sound. Felt a tremor or two afterwards, but that just added to the excitement of the trip. Among the other exciting adventures we had was getting the opportunity to see the Usella quilt at the Bargello Museum in Florence. We got a special audience with the quilt and were allowed to touch it through white gloves. It is one of the oldest surviving quilts in the world, made in 1395. It was amazing.

We also were the guests of honor at Rome's first quilt show, held in a little hill top town outside of the city. They pulled out all the stops. We were wined and dined, and experienced a quilting day few of us will ever forget. We may not have had a common language, but the thread of quilting bound us all together. We had a blast.

GARAGE SALE
While I was gone, my husband had a garage sale. He sold our garage to our neighbor across the street! Actually, I think he GAVE it to him. When I got home, two men and a bunch of trucks were in my driveway bracing the garage. They cut the foundation pinnings, jacked it up about a foot and a half, plopped it on a flat bed truck, and drove it over the lawn, through the empty lot next door, over the curb, and down the street. I was a little jet-lagged at the time, but in reviewing the photographs I took, that's apparently what they did. Took them a couple of days to get it all ready and then only about 45 minutes to drive it over. The best part of the move was when the garage was half in and half out of the street. The school bus came down the street and they had left just enough room for it to pass by. The look on the kid's faces, pressed up against the bus windows was priceless. Wish I had gotten a good picture of that!

If I ever get lonely, I can look at the garage from my office window. Strange sight. Steve made me give up my garage door opener. He said that was part of the deal. Darn.

WE'RE ADDING ON
Why would we want to get rid of a perfectly good garage? And store all it's former contents on our deck?! (Trust me, THAT is not a pretty sight!) We're building an addition on the house and rather than pay someone to demolish it, we let someone else haul it away. Pretty smart, huh? Yes and no. Anyone who has ever had work done on their house knows the fun we're about to have. The day before I leave for Houston (ah, that would be TOMORROW!!) we meet for the last time with the builder/designer before we officially break ground. I am told they start by moving in a dumpster the size of a small train car into our front yard. Then they bring in a porta-potty, which I fully intend on decorating with Christmas tree lights, as they are expecting to be here through the holidays and into the new year. Then, they start getting in the way.

Right now my house is a disaster and they haven't even started yet. Those of you who have ever visited here know that I am not June Cleaver. On a good day I can get the major pieces of one or two rooms picked up off the floor. I have not had a good day in months. My house looks as if one of those little old ladies with a paper fetish lives here. You know, the kind who has saved every newspaper, paper grocery sack and empty cardboard box for the last fifty years and has it neatly stacked in piles in every room in the house. We have piles. Giant, huge, man-eating piles, of boxes, and suitcases, and transfer paper, and batting, and fabric..... We have lost half the square footage of the house. It's like walking through a maze to get from one room to another. Now I know how a rat lives. (Possibly if I had picked up a bit more we wouldn't have felt the need to add on to the house!) The only space free of debris appears to be the concrete slab where the garage used to be. I find myself going out there just to find a place I can stick both arms straight out and not hit anything. I imagine things will only get worse.

The addition is to be a place for my Mom to come and live with us.

AMI'S NEW SEWING ROOM
Steve offered the living room for my quilting space since it was being used as a really wide hallway from the Family Room to the rest of the house. I grabbed it and forced the pre-construction crew to build me a 72 inch long ironing board out of three 24 inch wide bathroom cabinets. Then I made them stick five tall kitchen pantry cupboards against one wall for fabric storage. I always hated that brick wall. The design wall will effectively eliminate the fire place, unless I want to use it to store batting. Charcoal colored batting, of course. After that I had them throw five kitchen base cabinets on a 48 by 72 inch piece of plywood in a lovely arrangement and put wheels on the bottom for my new cutting table. Dragged in the sewing machine last night and I'm just about ready to Rock 'N Roll! Throw a few piles of chopped up fabric around, stick a few pins in the carpet for those family members who insist on running around without shoes to find, and I've got myself a sewing studio. Viola! That's French for "There Went The Living Room!"

I'll keep you posted as we make other changes, and you can all come on over when it's finished!

MEANWHILE
Three days after I get back from Houston, my friend Robyn is coming from Australia to spend a few days. If I can manage to keep the new cutting table clear, she can sleep on that. Otherwise, I'll have to beg back the garage door opener!

Mid November will take me back to Texas again to spend some time with the Brazos Blue Bonnet Quilters, and during the first part of December I'll be with the Tidewater Quilters in Virginia Beach, Virginia. If I'm visiting your neck of the woods, please introduce yourself!

COOL WEB PAGE
Thanks to Pat Knox who has put up one of the most helpful web pages. She'll help you find all those great fabrics you have just ran out of now that they don't make it any more. Great job, Pat! Tune in at http://www.knoxgroup.com/missingfabrics

ACzompo let me know that Proctor & Gamble may be withdrawing Orvus soap from the market. If you'd like to urge them to continue making the stuff you can contact them at:

Mr. Brian McRedmond
Brand Manager
Procter & Gamble, CPG Division
#2 Proctor & Gamble Plaza
Cincinnati, OH 45202

FUNNY
Thanks to Linda Puchon for this funny....

A duck walks into a feed store and asks: "Got any duck feed?" The clerk tells him, "No, we don't have a market for it so we don't carry it." The duck says, "Okay" and leaves.

The next day, the duck walks in to the feed store and asks, "Got any duck feed?" Again the clerk says no and the duck leaves.

Next day, the duck walks in, and asks, "Got any duck feed?" The clerk says, "I've told you twice before, we don't have duck feed, we've never had duck feed and we never will have duck feed. If you ask me again, I'll nail your feet to the floor." The duck leaves.

The next day, the duck walks in and asks, "Got any nails?" "No!"

"Got any duck feed?"

Make it a great day and happy quilting,

Ami Simms
amisimm@aol.com
http://quilt.com/amisimms
1-800-278-4824

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