Daily Blog

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Well 2008 is history for TQS. Here are some of our more memorable blogs from the past year. Enjoy the trip down memory lane. What was your favorite part of TQS this year? Blogs? Forums? Friends? Quilts? A particular show? - ...and what did you learn?

January
Alex plays a prank on Ricky
Ricky responds to Alex's prank.

February
Ruth Goodwin joins the TQS team.
Alex is selected for Silver Star award.

March
Three Sisters visit LaVeta and TQS watches as they make a quilt. Part 1 of 7
Ricky is featured on CBS News Sunday Morning
John Anderson takes operations and director position at TQS

April
Western day on the TQS set
Alex and Ricky visit Caryl Bryer Fallert in Paducah, KY - part 1, part 2.

May
Take a sneek peek into the first TQS Road Trip

June
Capt'n John gives us a quilt tour of Alex's Armoire - part 1 of 18

July
TQS member DLQuilter shares a quilt

August
Alex and John take a cruise - and the Block Challenge is a HUGE success! Part 1 of several.

September
Pirate Day on the TQS set

October
The TQS World of Beauty Award at Houston goes to The Three Sisters.

November
Alex receives Silver Star Award in Houston - TQS Members comment.

December
Jinny Beyer is the TQS 2008 Quilt Legend
Ricky shares Christmas in a Small Town concert.

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Now that the face of the quilt is wrinkle free (wouldn't that be nice if it were just as easy as that? LOL) - it is time to pin it to the wall. In steps Elena to get it just right - as right as right can be.

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My family eats black-eyed peas. I've done this every new year's day of my life. They are meant to bring prosperity. A few years back I was in Canada on New Year's day for a quilt gig and my hostess (actually Susan Purney-Mark - see her in Episode 309 with Daphne Greig) managed to find a can of 'salad beans' in a Canadian supermarket and I picked out the black-eyed peas so I wouldn't break tradition. There must be plenty of other New Year's Day traditions in our world quilt community - so tell us about your traditions - especially let us hear from those of you outside of the US.

But did you know...

Black-eyed peas are traditionally eaten on New Year's Day in the American South and in some other parts of the U.S. In some areas, they are served as a starchy side dish, cooked with or without sidemeat, bacon, ham bones, fatback or another pork product and/or diced onion, and often served with a hot chili sauce or a pepper-flavored vinegar. In other areas, they are served in a traditional dish called "Hoppin' John" made of black-eyed peas cooked with rice, sometimes pork (such as hog jowls, ham hock, sidemeat or fatback), and seasonings.

The traditional meal also features collard or mustard greens or cabbage. This is supposed to bring good luck and financial enrichment. The peas stand for good luck, the greens symbolize paper money. Cornbread also often accompanies this meal.

The "good luck" traditions of eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day are recorded in the Babylonian Talmud. This custom is followed by Sepharadi and Israeli Jews to this day. The first Sepharadi Jews arrived in Georgia (U.S.) in the 1730s and have lived there continuously since. The Jewish practice was apparently adopted by non-Jews around the time of the Civil War.

These "good luck" traditions date back to the U.S. Civil War. Union troops, especially in areas targeted by General William Tecumseh Sherman, would typically strip the countryside of all stored food, crops, and livestock and destroy whatever they couldn't carry away. At that time, Northerners considered "field peas" and corn suitable only for animal fodder, and as a result didn't steal or destroy these humble foods. Many Southerners survived as a result of this mistake.

Additional information provided from Wikipedia.

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TQS 2008 Block of the month will be gone January 1st 2009 - if you haven't yet printed out the patterns do so TODAY! Also, if you are not an member and interested in getting the pattern join TODAY to print the pattern out. Besides all the benefits you receive being a TQS subscribing member, this pattern alone is an unbelievable value. To join today go here.

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It's not too late to make your Holiday special with Gammill Quilting Systems!  Gammill announces LIMITED TIME ONLY customer savings on ANY new Gammill or Statler Stitcher purchase.  You can save up to $1,000 on optional equipment!  WOW!!  But you must hurry...this offer expires at midnight January 5, 2009!!  Click here to learn more about how you can get yourself the gift you have always dreamed of...a new Gammill!

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Look what TQS member EllenG sent our way - although it is not quiltie oriented we can certainly all relate to the medium - The artist's name Deborah Sperber and her work is astonishing. To take a look at more of Deborah's work go here. Hey Ellen - thanks for passing this on to us!!!

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Despite the frightful weather, I made it to San Jose just fine. However, my quilt had folds in it EVERYWHERE!

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Gregory Case, TQS Photo Man, prides himself on excellence when it comes to getting your quilt perfectly reflected in digital imagery. I needed the wedding quilt professionally documented, and decided to bring the camera along for the ride. Just what does it take to get a quilt photo ready? You will be amazed at the painstaking detail Gregory goes to - it's very impressive.

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When the kids were little we would go to China Town in San Francisco with our best friends every holiday season. We would eat at the Far East Restaurant to feast in a private booth. Then the kids would each receive $1.00 to shop. It is AMAZING what you can find for a buck in China Town. As the kids grew older and went off to college all over the map, this tradition dwindled away. We realized this year that EVERYONE would be in the area - so guess where we went? CHINA TOWN! We no longer fit into the little booth - but some things still hold true - yes, you can get something for a dollar - try an ornament and a Chinese back scratcher...........as an aside, when we were leaving the resturant my friend Karan noticed a young family with babies under foot in one of the booths - she told them about our tradition and they couldn't believe that their babies would one day look like our adult babies! What are your holiday traditions? We want to know.

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Many of you have asked - did I make Joey and Shelly a wedding quilt? Up to now the answer was no - the Chuppah was very intense and required tons of hand work. However, in the back ground I started a quilt that would serve as their wedding quilt. Not only was it embriodered with their names and wedding date but also the bible verse, "I am my beloved and my beloved is mine" in English - this verse was hand embroidered on the Chuppah in Hebrew. This quilt was REALLY difficult for me as it was totally out of the box.- it got VERY mixed reactions when people saw it in progress - and may I add not good reactions. As the top drew to conclusion I was 100% stumped regarding how to quilt it. So last July, I tucked it away not knowing what to do, very discouraged.

FASTFORWARD: At this years retreat I brought it out and asked for a HONEST take on it - Paula Reid and others LOVED it - when I shared my distress regarding how to quilt it - Paula said, "I know exactly - please let me do it". When the quilt was finished and arrived back home, I got goose bumps when I saw it. Paula choose a tree of life for the quilting design and honestly, she did a spectacular job! To date this is perhaps the best quilt both she and I have collaborated on. Before giving it to the kids, I took it to Gregory Case/ our TQS Photo Man's house to get it photographed. I have to say that the measures he takes is extraordinary and fortunately I had my video camera to document the process. Soon I will share the process he goes to when snapping the pix of your quilt. It was quite an amazing process.  (We had to shrink the pictures to fit on the internet and they are not up to his standards.)

Oh yes - the kids love the quilt!