Down on the Lakadaisies Farm Blog # 23

Down on the Lakadaisies Farm Blog # 23

We are Back. Yes, we have been home for a few days. Just “catching up” feels great. It sure does feel really good to sleep in my own bed. I just have such a hard time sleeping anywhere else. Everything is so pretty and green, except for those wonderful bluebonnets.  John got up close and personal with this one.

We met so many nice people at the AQS Quilt Show in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  I would like to thank the AQS staff, especially Laurie and Bonnie, and all of you who came by the booth, for your support.

John has finally completed our schedule for the near future at least.  Still a few holes which he is going to try and fill.

Next up is the  Country Living Fair in Austin, Texas April 27-28-29.  It should be really good. The folks at Stella Shows (the producers) always do a bang up job.  Here is a picture of one of their advertisements.

 And, here is a link to their website  www.stellasshows.com   Anyway, it would be a great time to come visit our fair city.(We live just a Texas hop and skip -70 miles up the road).  I think that most of the show is inside in case it gets too hot/cold/wet/windy.  You never know in Texas.  As always there
are a lot of things to do in Austin.  It is after all, the self proclaimed “Live Music Capital of the World”  It seems like John is always sneaking off with one or more of our children to catch some band that I have never heard of.....  It does seem like he really enjoys it.

Then I guess it is “Kansas City Here I Come” for Wholesale Market (May 17-18-19-20). Oh, I nearly forgot, we are going to drop back by the Rabbits Lair , in Rogers Arkansas on May 15 for some more classes with our good friend Mary Elizabeth Schopp.  You can contact her at   www.therabbitslair.com  Sounds like fun and games for all.

June will be a very busy month for me.  We will be at the NQS Quilt Show in Columbus, Ohio on June 14-15-16.  Then we swing by the Common Threads Quilt Show at Witchita, Kansas on June 21-22-23.  I will post some links to them on my next blog. 

John is working on other dates for the rest of the year/next year.  I know that he wants to go all over the lower 48.  He said something about California and Iowa.  I overheard him talking to someone about getting passports (Canada, Alaska?)  I guess that he will tell me when I need to know.

Oh, I better get back to work (I hate it when he cracks that whip)... so I will say good bye for now and as always....
Enjoy Life
dolores Storm

Down on the Lakadaisies Farm Blog 22

Down on the Lakadaisies Farm Volume 22

Greetings from Lancaster Pennsylvania

The weather is great and the AQS Quilt Show has been FANTASTIC !!!!

But, that was today. Yesterday we went antiquing. I found some vintage lace and ticking. We were just about ready to call it a day when this old quilt top just wouldn’t leave my hand.     Yeah...yeah...yeah

Oh, and John found some HQV. I kept hearing him use that term with our oldest son and finally he let it slip out (high quality vinyl). Yes, they collect old record albums. I don’t know what he found but he was pretty excited.

Then, on the way to this great Amish Restaurant we saw this man plowing a field. John said that he was actualy sowing something. I don’t know, but I do know that we don’t do it that way in Texas, so I took a picture.

Oh, and here is a picture of our booth.

Well, John says that we have to go, so....

as always....enjoy life

dolores Storm

Down on the Lakadaisies Farm Blog # 21

Down on the Lakadaisies Farm Blog # 21

Sadness envelopes us at the farm. We laid our beloved Saint Bernard, Maggie to rest yesterday. She lost her battle with cancer, though she fought bravely to the end. Her last day was filled with her favorite pastimes, a pickup ride with dad and a walk. Her walks were getting shorter as the cancer took hold, but she enjoyed them so much we allowed her to go as far as she could go. She was the boss of our family for about 6½ years since she came to us at 6 weeks of age. She ruled with love and a stern hand. We will miss her dearly and hold her in our hearts. We will need your prayers to get through this tough time and focus on the coming months. John says that we should be happy that we were able to be in her company for at least a little while. I know that he misses her just as much or more than I do.... Well, I feel better now that I have got that "out".... Thanks for being such a good listener.

It will be hard to leave Quinn tomorrow as we head south to the valley for the RGVQG Quilt show in McAllen, Texas. Our daughter Ginny will spend the night with him Wednesday night and then our son David will take over. I don’t know how we could leave him alone. We would love to take him with us, but have no idea how to sneak a 185lb. puppy into our booth. Please let us know if you have some insight into this.

I have spent the last couple of weeks working on a new design. Seems like that work is the best way to keep my mind off of "things". It will be at the show and you can see a picture below. I haven’t quite finished the quilting, so don’t look too close.

We will have about a week between this show and a workshop in Rogers, Arkansas at the Rabbit’s Lair. Then we head to the AQS show in Lancaster, Pa. We will be gone about 10 days before we come back home. I am already getting "homesick" and I am still at home.



After that, I think we do the Country Living Festival in Austin and then John wants to do the Spring Wholesale Market in Kansas City in mid May. He hasn’t told me any thing else yet. I will share with you as soon as I know.

Well, I have miles to go before I sleep, so I better get going. Thanks for listening and all your support.

enjoy life




dolores Storm

Down on the Lakadaisies Farm Blog #20

Down on the Lakadaisies Blog # 20

We are back from the Jefferson quilt show. Life is returning to normal. We were greeted at the door Sunday night by two very happy Saints. Maggie is holding her own and is very happy to have Mom and Dad home. Quinn is overjoyed that Mom is home. The poor baby was starving. This new protein diet we have him on doesn’t get him very many cookies. It seems Mom is the only one with a soft heart. His brothers and sister kept him on the strict diet while we were gone. They don’t fall for that cute little " I really need a cookie speech", like his Mom.

They really were sweet to pitch in and take care of them though, if not for their combined efforts you would have seen only John at the quilt show. Speaking of the quilt show, it was great. I want to thank the ladies that host the show. They are not a guild and volunteer to do this show. They not only feed us, they politely listen to our input as to what they can do to improve the show each year. Jefferson is a great venue for the show, they have wonderful turn of the century homes, many of which are bed and breakfasts. We stayed at one along with several of our vendor friends. What fun.

I was anxious to see how my new quilts in our Hand Me Down series would be recieved and I was very pleased at the positive response. We visited with a lot of wonderful people and I enjoyed sharing my designs with them and hopefully inspiring them to incorporate their hand me downs into their quilts. It was hard to put a finger on their favorites, because they liked them all-but the "Pledge of Allegiance Quilt" seemed to be the biggest hit. I put a picture of it on Blog #17. I made a few kits and we sold them all. I am making more, but you might want to hurry. Not sure what will happen when I run out of the fabrics. We decided to sell the kits with the patterns not included. We thought that you might buy the pattern first and then decide to buy the kit, in which case you would have to buy the pattern twice.  John said something about offering some kind of incentive to buy them together. You will find them on our website under Kits stock # 1609. We did come across a couple of people who seemed to think that I changed the wording of the "Pledge" on my quilt. That is not the case. I decided to honor Francis Bellamy, who wrote it in 1892, by using his original version It was actually changed four times by our government. So, if you don’t like the changes, my question would be, "which one". I hope this clears everything up. It was not my intent to upset anyone by using the original version, only to honor the author. By the way, the rest of that story is fascinating--look it up.

A lot of our customers expressed interest in classes or workshops and I talked to them about our upcoming workshops in Rogers, Arkansas at the Rabbit’s Lair. Here are some pictures of the designs we will be working on.

I know that we will have a lot of fun and I hope to see you there. See my last Blog for information about that and Blog #15 for more information about the rest of my schedule. I am keeping my fingers crossed about the Country Living Fair in Austin, Texas. (April 27-29). I sent my deposit in and will let you know ASAP. Just call or email for more information. Who knows, you might even talk John into bringing me to your town. I don’t know what he has going on NEXT ...and now he has another saying " if you don’t want to go anymore-just stop". I don’t know where he comes up with them, but I guess I am not quite ready to stop so....Well, I have got to get back to those kits ....and there are some new designs just floating around up there...... ....waiting to be done.....gotta get them out... so I will say good bye for now and as always....

Enjoy Life

dolores Storm

ps   I am getting all of my stuff ready for the valley (our next show in McAllen Texas) let’s see now, suntan lotion, beach umbrella...hmmm....maybe I will let John run the booth while I enjoy that sand......sounds like a winner....

Down on the Lakadaisies Farm Blog #19

Down on the Lakadaisies Farm Blog # 19

My last blog was a little sad and I will try not to go there again. Now, I am going to focus on the positive. The swelling on Maggie’s leg has gone down. She is getting around pretty good-feeling no pain. We finally got the "special" medicine. We have radically changed her diet. Hopefully, her immune system will win. But, if it doesn’t, we got to share her life for a while. She is so full of love for us and we relish every minute of it.

I have been so busy, getting ready for the quilt show at Jefferson, Texas, this weekend (January 27, 28, and 29). We met so many truly nice people there last year. Plus the food was so good!!! I have a lot of new designs that I can’t wait to show off....I think that Brainiac has put most of them on the website.

And, I have been having a lot of fun getting all the kits ready for the workshops I am going to teach at The Rabbit’s Lair in Rogers, Arkansas (March 9, 10). So exciting...

Check out their website www.therabbitslair.com or call 479-636-3385 for more information.

I guess that there is always a tradeout. It seems that John scheduled us to vend at the American Quilters Society (AQS) Quilt Show in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and I will not be able to join my friend Susan Meyers (Silver Star Mercantile in Carrolton, Texas) in her booth at the Dallas Quilt Show this year. To make it up, John has promised her a life-size cardboard cutout of me.....that ought to be interesting. Seriously, Susan has most of my new designs in her shop and will have even more at the show. So, I will have to say "catch you later Dallas".

Well, looks like John has the bus all revved up and ready to go, and as he always says, "you are either on the bus or you are off"....he does have his moments-just not very many.

...got to go ......enjoy life......ds

PS We are planning on doing a lot more traveling this year and I really do enjoy speaking at guilds and teaching workshops/classes. I just might be in or at least close to your part of the world...Stay tuned to my blog or call/email for more information.

Down on the Lakadaisies Farm Blog 18

Down on the Lakadaisies Blog # 18
It has been over a month since my last blog, and for that I apologize.  The holidays took it out of me. First Christmas, then New Years, then putting every thing back in place......Whew.  Glad that is over.  Still I find it hard to believe that it is the 17th of January  2012. 

Maggie our Saint has been sick.  She has been sick quite a bit since October  with several trips to the vet.  Her last trip gave us news that every parent of child (or dog) never wants to hear....  CANCER ..... our sweet Maggie has bone cancer in her hind leg and has been in a great deal of pain.  We had noticed her limping a little, but put it down to playing with Quinn and arthritis.  We wish that were the case.  The vet says that probably the best option to prolong her life is to cut the leg off.  Notice I say prolong her life and not save it. Maggie is quite heavy and he is not sure about her being able to get around after.....

All the kids rallied round our Maggie this last weekend and we discussed our options. John poured through internet sites,  reading blogs and testimonials from people who had similar heart breaking news.  We have decided not to take off Maggie’s leg.  It seems selfish to me to prolong the pain and suffering just to keep her with us.  Right now we have her on pretty potent pain pills and she is as comfortable as possible and surrounded by love.

   

We are looking into several ways to boost her immune system so that she can fight the cancer.  We have tried ordering some medicine that was recommended, but the companies say they cannot ship to Texas.  We seem to be the only state in the union that will not allow this.  Looks like our best option is to ship it to an individual out of state that will ship it to us.  I guess we are just in the wrong place, we just didn’t know it until now.....

This is so frustating, but when your child is sick you will try anything.  We have decided to change their diets, so we have decided to cook their food from now on so that we can be assurred they get healthy cancer fighting vegetables(carrots etc.) and Omega 3's.  We know it will probably be too late to save our Maggie, but it might give us Quinn for many more years.

I am almost empty of tears and my heart is aching, but rest assured we will keep Maggie as pain free as possible as she struggles with this horrible disease.  I guess that we should continue to be happy to be a part of her life as long as we can, and cherish each moment. I guess that every once in a while we just need a little reminder. Maggie has always enjoyed her life and family.  Sometimes it is tough but I am trying and I encourage you to do this too. 

Dolores Storm

PS  Please feel free to email with any help/advice/support/etc. Our email address is lakadaisies@hotmail.com

Down on the Lakadaisies Farm Blog 17 or WHOO...WHOO

Down on the Lakadaisies Farm Volume 17 or WHOO....WHOO

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas, just not at  Lakadaisies. I have not decorated at all. I have been so busy playing with some new designs that I have neglected lots of things. Like housework and cooking and shopping, and going to see Breaking Dawn. I really miss seeing Breaking Dawn, but I cannot see it without Ginny. She is leaving for Ireland Thursday. She will be gone for 5 days and I keep telling myself that she will be fine. Of course she will. I really need to concentrate on ONLY worrying about things that I can change....!

I just received my Christmas Memory Quilt back from France, along with a copy of the new Quilt Mania magazine. Guess what? It is in the American version...I am just gonna blame it on the lack of translation ...actually, it looks so good......I am really okay with that....WHOO...WHOO... What a great Christmas Present for me. It should be on the news stands, or in your local quilt shops soon. The Nov/Dec. issue. So go check it out.

Remember when I said I was working on new designs? Well, I just finished two of them and I am letting you be the first to see them. Pictures will follow if I can talk John into posting them..As you know I am still computer challenged.....They will be my latest designs in our Hand Me Down series. I used vintage and recycled clothing, including some of my socks in making these quilts. Sometimes I wonder about me...Seriously, I actually cut up not one, but two different pairs of socks. I call my first design Robbie IraDell after my mother in law (Hand-Me-Down Series- Stock # 607). I wanted to use some of the vintage buttons and scraps of handmade eyelet that she left me. I hope you like it. It went really fast and I did it all by hand, no machine work.

and here is a close-up of the little girl

And my second  (Hand-Me-Down Series- Stock # 609), is dedicated to Frances Bellamy who wrote the original "Pledge of Allegiance" in 1892. I used recycled and vintage fabric with this quilt also. I did it by hand also.

I just love working with this technique of quilting. You get to use up what you have on hand and you can sit by the fire and watch television. Can’t get much better than that.

Anyway, back to Christmas. I am finding it hard to get in the spirit this year. Maybe I need to start on a new design and watch some Christmas movies and eat some Christmas cookies and drink some eggnog. You know what? I am getting right on that.....I will let you know if it works..

Enjoy Life

Dolores Storm