Life Changes

I had a preliminary hearing at the Workers Comp Board today. We are going to continue everything the way it is. I'm going to keep up with the physical therapy and going to the doctors.
I hired an attorney on just about everyone's advice so that I couldn't be railroaded.

But now I have to make a decision. The company policy is that we are allowed 60 work days medical leave. If we go over that, we lose our seniority. I missed 45 days in the spring so I only have until September 26th to go back. I don't know if I'll be ready by then. The surgeon has me out until November 5th, so I'll definitely lose my seniority. Even if I do go back, it'll only be 2 days a week so I can quilt full time. Otherwise, Mike wants me to guarantee that I'll double my quilting income and I won't have to drive at all. With all the ups and downs of this business, how can I guarantee anything?

Sure, I have plenty of quilts now, but the phone isn't ringing very much. August is a very slow month for me every year. I have to figure out what I'm going to do on my art quilts, and I have a double wedding ring to quilt for my new DIL.

Do I have the courage to go for it? I can always go back to the bus. There's not a line out the door for people willing to do my job. This is very hard for me. I'll talk more when I've made a decision. Or not.

I'm in Love!!!

I am officially in love with King Tut thread by Superior. I used it on a quilt this morning and had only one thread break in the whole quilt. I used a cone of "Temple", it looks like natural by PermaCore. I didn't have a lot of lint either. I can see a lot of this in my future. For 7 years, I've been afraid of using anything other than my old favorites. But now I'm FREE!!!!! Ahhh......what a rush!

What to do?

A very good friend told me today that her husband has been drinking. He was involuntarily retired in December from the ANG because he turned 60. He actually ended up in the hospital a few months ago with alcohol induced hepatitis. She's an RN and has tried to tell him what can happen to him, but he just doesn't seem to listen/understand.
I'm at such a loss. They're both friends and I hate to see her hurting like this. He's so unhappy being retired. He does have a part time job-every other Saturday-but I don't think it's enough. He has to feel like he has a purpose in life.
She says he needs rehab but she hasn't got the guts to do it. I just wish there was something I could do.

Creative Quiz

Well, this makes me feel a little better.

***You Are 79% Creative***
You are beyond creative. You are a true artist - even if it's not in the conventional sense of the word.You love creating for its own sake, and you find yourself quite inspired at times.
How Creative Are You?http://www.blogthings.com/howcreativeareyouquiz/

I'm not completely out in left field when I think and visualize.

Vacation!!!

I'm going to Williamsburg, VA for a week. I never did get the pics of the other quilt up, but I will when I get back. Our Boy Scout troop band is playing tomorrow in Colonial Williamsburg, and I'm going to visit Bob and Carol Lyons. They're a quilting couple that we met a few years ago and I'm in awe of them and what they've done with their business.
I'm hoping a week away will stoke my quilting fires. I don't know if we'll have internet so it may be very quiet around here for a while.

How should I quilt this?

This is the quilt top I completed in my art quilt class. It's a pattern by Esterita Austin. How should I quilt it? I want to do it justice, after all it came out really good, IMHO.

My daughter says I should do a meander, but that doesn't seem right to me at all.

I've been working on my still life also. I've got most of the primary pieces fused together, but I'm having a problem with the background. It's suppose to be some stuff sitting on a table. I want to create the illusion of a corner of walls-two walls meeting behind the table, and I have some fabric that looks like wood but I can't seem to get the angle right. Should it be straight head on or should it be at an angle? I'm stumped.

Hopefully, inspiration will come. I'll try to get a picture later today. Maybe seeing it through the view finder will help.

Art quilting

I took a class at MQX with Robbi Joy Eklow this year. I still haven't finished the class project, but I will. It's a still life in great colors.

A friend and I took a class with Esterita Austin in May. I actually finished the quilt top but I have no idea how to quilt it. The picture shows our classroom at the 1889 Greenville Inn in upstate NY-it was a converted carriage house. It was a 3 day class, with gourmet meals. We're going back next year for a landscape quilt class. Can't wait. I'll post a pic and maybe seeing it online will help me decide what I want to do.

I have so many ideas crashing into each other in my head. It's just hard to get them out, ya know? I've got to find out how other people fit inspiration into their days. They all seem so productive.

I have a goal-the still life will be fused onto it's background this week!! So there.

Hi Again

It always seems to be a long time between posts. I'll try to do better, I promise. I tend to write in a stream of consciousness, but right now, I feel unconscious. I found out last week that I've been scammed. I feel so stupid!! I'm in the process of going into the t-shirt quilt business to supplement the longarm so I don't have to go back on the bus. So, last November, I was surfing the web looking for companies where I could build my own website, and lo and behold, one called me! I fell for it like a ton of bricks. I had to QUALIFY in order to be taken on by them. They got me to authorize monthly payments for 4 years in a non-cancellable lease for credit card equipment and all I got was a 256K laptop. I did the training, and now that it's time to build my site, they're nowhere to be found.
The Dallas BBB revoked their membership because of them not answering inquiries and taking care of business.
So now I've filed reports with Ripoff Report. com, the FTC, and my state attorney general. I went to the bank and put a hold on my account.
I'm royally p@##@%!!!!
Stay tuned for developments.
On the quilty side, I haven't accomplished a dang thing. My brain is fried with all of the other stuff going on.
I'm going to VA at the end of this week so I have a lot of customer quilts to finish. I'll try to post some pics later in the week.