The most expensive lady yet......#33!

A week or so ago, a wonderful lady from Portugal, Ana, contacted me to do a fabric portrait of her dear friend from Brazil.  She and I discussed price, as is normal, and she asked that I send it registered so that she could track it with a number it once it was finished.  She said she'd pay the extra postage.  In all my ladies, and sending quilts all over the world, I have never had this request, so I was flabbergasted when I got to the post office and was informed that the package had to be in a brown box, or wrapped in brown paper, or brown tape in order to go registered.  E-gads...............what?  I buy boxes specifically to ship my "ladies" and they're white!  I write the address with a Sharpie so that it is permanent, and will not run, and I tape with clear tape over it so that it has no way to get lost.  (At least so far nothing has gotten lost.......knock on wood!  lol)  So.......now I'm standing there in the post office with a line behind me, wondering what to do. So the clerk informs me that I can send it EXPRESS and the white box will be fine and a number will be assigned.............so I'm happy as a clam until I hear the price...............$45.45.  (And this is for something that normally would be sent for about $15 BEFORE the rates went up this week.)  So I look behind me, see all the people staring at me to hurry up and agree to the exorbitant cost.

So when I got home, I immediately e-mailed Ana and tell her of my plight (and ignorance of the brown wrapping) and she (such a sweetie that she is) Paypal-ed me the extra $30.45.  The only good thing is that the package would arrive in 3-5 business days.  So we wait!  And we wait!  And we wait some more!  Now, it's well over a week and finally Ana hears that it made it to Lisbon ..........BUT.........it is hung up in customs.  (And the number that we were supposed to use to track it, only went as far as the US border!!!????  Hello!!!)  E-gads.....what's next?  So, poor Ana, contacts customs so that they don't wreck the quilt (since I pack it in such a way not to crease it), and we are both worried to death! Finally I hear from Ana that she has the quilt, but that customs demanded an additional 23% cost besides the cost I declared on the custom form even though I told them it was a gift.  This costs Ana approximately an additional $20 USD.  By now she is just ready to get the darn thing home, I'm sure!

So..........please let me introduce, Lady #33 (who has seen herself, but doesn't have it in hand yet), the lovely Silmara:







You can see her work on her blog:  http://quilters-studio.blogspot.com.br

I did get a picture of Maria with herself from last time that she wanted me to show you:



So that's it for today!  I wanted to mention that if you have questions about me doing a portrait of you or friend, please contact me through my e-mail address on my side bar, and not by your comments.  Many of you have no-reply blogger addresses and I can't get back to you.  I go into your blog, but you have no e-mail address listed either and I don't want you to think I am ignoring you.  More on costs next time.  I am working on #34 and #35 now and they are international.  I haven't mailed since the costs went up last week, so I'll let you know what I find out.  Until then, have a super weekend!

Meet Maria - #31

The ladies are beginning to reach their destinations so I can breathe!  I always worry that someone might get lost on their way home.  lol  (Knock on wood though, so far, everyone has found their way......and hopefully that will continue!!  I have one still traveling some distance so keep your fingers crossed for me, please?)

I'd like to introduce you to Lady #31 - Maria from Australia.  You might recall that I already named one of my first imaginary ladies, Maria.......but she was from my craziness, and this one is very real!  As always, first the drawing, then her eyes, and then the final quilt.

And, here is the real Maria from Australia.  At first I wasn't quite sure I could capture Maria correctly, but then she gave me permission to make her hair a bit more wild and wonderful, so I was in business.  You can reach Maria at her website here.

Besides answering a whole mess of your inquiries as to having your own portraits done, I also finished another 12 1/2" block for the Flickr friend's group quilt project.

THEN...............drum roll here please...............I made my very first zippered pouch.  Yes, I did!  Hello!!  You would have thought this would be a slam/dunk for me, huh?  After all, I made kids clothes for years......but believe it or not, I always used buttons.  NEVER zippers!  Zippers are no-no's on smocked little girl dresses, doncha know???  So here it is.  I copied a mug rug that I did last year and made two so both sides of the pouch are identical.

And my special touch for the bottom........a few kisses:

So, that's the latest!  I have one or two projects to go and then I start on the ladies again.  Stay tuned!

Just a few things.......

Heavenly days......you'd think I was just sitting around here lately doing nothin'!  My get up and go has gotten up and went, I think.  It seems to take forever to do anything anymore.  I'm hoping that it's the weather.  Right now, it is a whole rip-roaring 6 below zero F.  That is COLD!!!  Thankfully, the wind isn't blowing and the sun is out.  I went to the grocery store and my car didn't unlock by itself when I got back to it, like it's supposed to do.  I had to dig in my purse and then undo the key fob thingy and manually unlock the door to let myself in.  Horrors!!!  And guess who didn't wear gloves??  Hello!!!  Duh!  That should teach me!!  At least I'm home again now.........in the nice warm house!!

Yesterday I made a Valentine's mug rug.  Who knows why?  Just cause, I guess:



Then, as long as I had my already fused fabrics out.........making a heck of a mess:



I decided to fulfill my promise to make a 12 1/2 inch block as my contribution towards a group quilt we are making for a Flickr friend in need.  I thought it was time to get out the "bird" again:



Then, this morning I heard from Lady #30 that "she" arrived so I can reveal her to you now.  Please meet, Cathy from Australia.  As usual, the drawing, her pretty eyes, and the entire quilt.







Since I didn't get permission from Cathy to show you the photo she sent to me to use to make her quilt, please visit her blog (highland quilter.blogspot) to see her in real.  She is one pretty lady!!

So, that's it for today!  It's almost time for lunch and then I might even take a nap.  Who knows?  lol

Until next time, my friends...........

2012 Recap

I've been so busy finishing up my recent ladies that I forgot that you were here waiting to see what I all made during last year.  While some bloggers make up a mosaic, I have much too much to even attempt that!  I will show you some of my favorites though after I list my achievements:

1 set of potholders
17 mini abstracts
21 mug rugs
6 crayon quilts
19 bitty block sets (3.5" blocks-12 in a set) plus 3 sets of polaroids
36 pincushions which included 20 Christmas mice
9 lady quilts
4 placemats
25 doll sized quilts
1 lap size quilt
4 baby quilts

And some of my favorites.......remember that you can click on any of these pictures to see them bigger:











And a few mug rugs:









Now some bigger doll size quilts:







And bigger yet:





Whew!  I hope I didn't bore you.  There were more favorites than I thought!  Some of them I did so early last year that I almost forgot about them.  Which is your favorite?

Now I better get to work!  I'm completely out of stuff that I can show you until February......I guess I work too far ahead sometimes!  Tomorrow I need to work on my bitty block set....the theme for February is monsters and MINE is adorable!  Just wait until you see him!!!  Such fun I have here all by myself!  lol  Until later, my friends.........

The "ladies" of 2012

The other day I decided to make a list of everything I sewed in 2012 and I was overwhelmed!  No wonder I never had time to even read a book!  I did have my favorites and in another post I'll recap some of those, but for now I must recap my marvelous bunch of 2012 ladies.  I enjoy making them sooo much that if I could, I would do this all the time and make nothing else...........(I'm thinking that it might get boring after awhile though, huh????)  No matter!  For now I am having a ball and for all of you who have employed my services for a fabric portrait, I thank you tons!!  Each one of you is very special to me!!!  XXXOOO!!!!  So.......bring on the drumroll......here are my 2012 ladies......numbers #20 through #29.



Presently, I am working on #30, #31, #32 and #33 (if you can believe???) and I am having a ball!  Believe it or not, one of them is not a sewer but had specific requests on what she wanted as embellishments on her quilt.  Just wait until you see it!!!  Such fun!  Just this week, I mailed out #30 and #31 and since they are outside of the US, it might be awhile until I can reveal them.  All in due time!

So, for now, I must get back to my "ladies".  I sure hope you enjoy them as much as I do.  If any of you are interested in commissioning a portrait for yourself, e-mail me at the address on my sideboard and we can talk.  I'd LOVE to add you to my 2013 group!

Australian ladies #28 and #29

E-gads, I thought I'd never get back to normal....really!  I was without e-mail for close to 9 days!  My computer geek came and went with my $100 and a working system to have the whole thing crash about 1 hour after he left.  Finally, yesterday I put DH on the problem and after talking to the Apple support people 3 times, he finally hooked up with an expert who really knew his stuff.  Yeah!!!  I am back in business.........except it seems I lost most of my pop-up e-mail addresses during the down time.  I noticed daily that I was losing more and more.  Bummer!  Hopefully, you all will write to me and I'll get back to normal in no time.

Now for the big reveal.  I LOVE these ladies!!!!  Sarah wrote to me right after Thanksgiving and asked if I possibly could get a fabric portrait done for her mom (she said, "mum" actually since they live in Australia) before Christmas.  She wanted one for herself too, but said there was no rush.  I thought it might be fun to have them open them together so I hurried like a crazy lady to get them in the mail as soon as possible since I KNOW it takes approximately 4 weeks from here to there.  Believe it or not, Sarah's (#29) arrived the day before Christmas.  So here they are.  First the "MUM", Gail (#28):







And Gail with herself:



Then we have the lovely and most generous, Sarah (#29):







And again, Sarah with herself:



BUT, my most favoritest picture of all is this one where they're "all" together looking so happy!!



How fun, huh???  Hopefully these two ladies are okay.  Lately, Tasmania, Australia has had horrid wildfires resulting in the loss of over 100 homes.   Let's pray that they are safe!!

Until next time, my friends..............                                                                

RIP - MAC 2/7/06 - 12/29/12

Yup, it finally happened, my almost 7 year old Macbook died right after I did my last blogpost.  At first, I thought maybe it was just the battery like last time, but NO!  The screen was black and not a sound was heard!  Poor thing!

In hindsight I guess it was pretty smart of me to have my son-in-law order me a refurbished MacAir a week before Christmas.  Perhaps I had an inkling of things to come????  (Actually, I really liked his and figured it was time to upgrade anyway!!  I mean mine only weighed about 20 lbs or so and really looked like an antique.)

During the almost 2 day "down time" I even had to resort to my iPad where, until then, I had only accomplished Angry Birds!  Problem with that was that I couldn't e-mail and couldn't order any apps for some reason.   At least, though, I could look at Flickr and Pinterest, although since we don't have a "cloud" compatible printer, I couldn't print.  I'm telling you, it was NOT a fun weekend around here!!  Thank heaven for telephones!  I called all my friends instead of e-mailing them.  lol
 
Thankfully, on Sunday afternoon, the genius' at the Apple store were able to transfer my data from the dead Mac to the new one, except for the email.  It's still not working!  I can't install Flash Player and I am still not connected to our lazar printer either.  I could scream!!  You know what a patient person I am!!  lol

BUT.........HELP is on the way....I HOPE!!  We have a computer dude who has been our life saver many times in the past who is scheduled to be here at 3pm this afternoon.  Say a prayer, please???  This craziness is driving me batty!!  I HATE it when stuff doesn't work:  Tv's, cars, men, computers, etc.  E-gads!!!

So, here's the deal..........if you e-mail me (not before 7pm please CST since he's often late) and have a reply blogger address, I will reply and you'll know that I'm back in business.  If not, UGH!!!  I'm doomed!!  And....if you have a no-reply blogger and you'll know it if I'm back in business and you don't hear from me, then FIX it so we can chat in the future!!   lol

So....until next time (unless another disaster occurs) I will finally reveal my sweet mother and daughter duo from Australia.  You will love them!