conspicuous consumtion and orphans

This is a REALLY bad pic of the fabric I ordered from Hancocks for my son's quilt. Sorry you can't see the spider mum fabric on the left and next to it the dragon, the leaves and watery Kanji. It's really great fabric and I'll take more pics of progress where you can see the actual details. This morning I was searching for something to post on WIP Wed, I came up with a number of things I had completely forgotten. I think that's so much fun.Like fabric archaeology. For a while, when I first started quilting I tried a number of things to see what I liked. I did a lot of paper piecing and I still do. A fascination with houses led me to make a number of quilts like that and I also tried applique. Most of the applique was done as gifts for children. Happily I found out about fusing and since my eyes are not as good as they once were-that will be the method I would use for any future applique. Anyway..here are some more houses I made while on "the great HOUSE jag. They are just so graphic and fun I couldn't stop myself. There are more houses, unfinished and found this morning. They will appear eventually. I also found 9 log cabin blocks made from the first Moda fabric I ever got. Once you go Moda-there's no going back. I really love working with that stuff. Along with all that there were a bunch of orphan blocks, some PP sailboat blocks, a few mini log cabins, a pp sunbonnet sue, some long ago abandoned pp Christmas ornaments and last but not least, a couple of tops that I had folded and put away probably for lack of batting or backing.. Lots to do....Yesterday was so gloomy and the rain and wind kept me inside instead of going to the JoAnn's sale to use my coupons. I know I will regret having to let those coupons expire because I need wonder under, backing, batting, thread and such. I spent a lazy day watching dvds and doing laundry and ironing. The best part was that the guys took pity and got take-out both days. How lucky am I??? Saturday was Chinese and Sunday was Greek. Yumm.
Yesterday I talked to my friend Trisha regarding the quilt that unfortunately went along with Max to the great beyond. She's going to make another one and I, for one, am thrilled and will post a picture when it's done. It was a reminder to take pictures of your finished work before something unfortuante happens-like being buried with a relative...scroll down and see the entry about Max if you don't know what I mean and care to.
I have to get along to the Food Pantry to pick up my mail and deposit checks and such. It's a busy time right now-everyone remembers the needy at the holidays which is very wonderful but for me it means keeping up with the thank you letters right away, lest I find myself with hundreds rather than just half that. Everyone who gives a donation get a personal thank you from me. Be it grocery food drives or checks or even kids and money from lemonade selling in the summer(very cute) It's something I have done for a while and we could (and soon may have to) print out form letters but I really hate to do that. In the past I only had to write 20-25 letters a month but now it has become a popular charity in our community and people even send memorial donations when someone dies. That requires two letters-one to thank the donor and one to the family of the deceased in acknowledgement. It has become a big job. I just finished a pile of letters last week. Often lately, I make up a letter for money and one for grocery donations and just change the name and addresses on each one, as well as, any pertinent info such as the dollar amt. I became discouraged last year when I made an error on the dollar amount and recieved a really snarky letter from the person who made the donation. He suggested that I was a moron for getting the amount wrong. Since I do this as a volunteer and I pay all postage and cost of this operation, I suggested to that person in a follow-up letter that perhaps they would like to take over my job, as volunteers are few and far between and...mistakes happen and can easily be corrected. It's very discouraging to be a volunteer and have your a__ chewed out because you did some small thing wrong. A that time we went through our records and it turned out that in nearly 1700 letters, I had made two mistakes. Figures I would get the one hump in the crowd. Further proof that no good deed goes unpunished. Have a great day-and thanks to everyone who left comments. It's a really nice surprise and fun getting to know new blogging friends.