Butterfly Swap

Kath from Postcard Pizazz asked me to do a 1 to 1 swap with her using a butterfly theme. I made her an elegant fabric postcard, as she is quite the snazzy lady herself. I sent it to her on Saturday, so she should get it on Tuesday. I can't wait to get hers and see what she did with the butterfly theme. The butterfly that I made is machine embroidered. I used two layers of Vilene stabilizer in the hoop and then stitched on that. You then rinse off the Vilene and voila, you get a beautiful free standing lace design. I love it! The materials that I use are a beautiful butterfly fabric and pink fairy frost.

Funny enough, the postmistress is getting a kick out of stamping the stamp on my postcards, as she is fascinated at seeing each one that I make. She never saw postcards like these, and it is so nice to see her reaction.

First Success With Font Engine

I downloaded the password to Font Engine yesterday, and also one alphabet, and got it into Embird. How exciting! it was close to midnight when I did that, so I couldn't try it out till this morning. I was a bit apprehensive that I would not be able to figure it out. I had ordered the Carolyn Keeber tutorial manual too as an E book, so I had that, but i was still anxious about it. My goal was to make a label with the program , and that seemed straight forward enough. Well, there were tons of things that I had to do in Font Engine, which is now loaded into Embird. First, I had to choose a font that i wanted. I now have over 250 fonts which got downloaded from the Windows folder. Gee, if I knew that, I wouldn't have purchased that one font from Secrets of Embroidery. After I picked a font, I had to choose the fill for the text, then adjust the size of the letters and the spacing between the letters, and I chose the colours that I wanted to use. I had to click on the multi-text icon to do the three lines that I wanted to stitch out, and then put it into Editor to pick the hoop that it would fit in and to center it. Finally, I was able to take the saved design with all that I had done, and put it into the Janome 350 E via the flash drive. What fun to watch it stitch out...I used a medium blue for the stitching of the text and then a darker blue to finish off the edging and the three lines were stitched and centered successfully. This was my first attempt at using Font Engine, and boy was it fun. I will be learning all kind of fancy text layouts like putting the text into a wave or circular shape and then putting a design in the middle of the shape..There are lots of wonderful possibilities. I am going to get a card for the parents of baby Lochlann and tell them that for each child that is born, I will make a label for the quilt. How cool is that!

Now, I get to show the quilt and label to the quilting bee on Wednesday, and then Joe will mail it that afternoon, and they should get the quilt in Dublin by Friday. I talked to Mary, who is the grandmother of the newborn baby boy, and she loved the idea of having the quilt in the family for many years to come. That made me feel so special!

As to stabilizers, I used Madeira Stable to iron onto the back of the fairy frost label, and then put Madeira Soft Tearaway in the hoop. I adhered the label to the hoop with KK2000, and then used a basting stich prior to stitching the designs...It worked perfectly.

Finally, Joe surprised me again and purchased 10000 fonts and put them on a dvd. He got them for a ridiculous price. I am definitely set to go.

A Lovely Siggy From The Netherlands and a Postcard from SBS Friendship Group

I received a lovely siggy from a woman who lives in the Netherlands named Cuny. I really loved the fabric, but the center block was the highlight of the block. She said in a letter to me that "In the middle of the block there is the picture of time. That is something we all need very much to do all the things we like, but we also need time for each other. " I really like that. Yes, we never have enough time...the day seems to fly by, and I never have completed all that I planned to do. I do agree with Cuny that we need to make time for the ones whom we love.

She also gave me a paper piecing pattern for the "Droomdekentijes"(or Dreaming Blanket) project. She asked me to complete the block and send it into a charity, where a team of ladies make quilts from the blocks for disabled and chronically ill children. The site is in Dutch, but it is interesting to look at. Go to http://www.droomdekentjes.nl/ . I have included a copy of the pattern. It is a really worthy cause, as most of the quilts go to children who are terminally ill.

Anyway, it was a lovely block and I really appreicated her wonderful letter to me.

I also got a lovely postcard from Rhonda P. who is in my Sylvia Bridal Sampler Friendship Group. We are swapping postcards and this one was incredible! As you can see, it is a mini crazy quilt pattern...and the "M" was just so beautiful! It got me wanting to do a crazy quilt again. I haven't done one in such a long time. The stitching that Rhonda did was wonderful!
Of course, my favorite author on the topic of crazy qulting is Judith Baker Montano...I learned so much from her book. http://www.judithbakermontano.com/ I think that I will make a crazy quilt bag...there are great patterns in her book called The Crazy Quilt Handbook.

I have to admit that it is fun getting wonderful surprises in my mail from the swaps that I am involved in and also from the International Siggy Swap. It is like Christmas every day.

Mystery Solved

My surprise came at around 10:30 AM by courier...It was a new Dell desktop and a widescreen monitor. I was happily shocked! We had won the laptop, but I was still using our desktop in the computer room, and it was on its last legs. Joe has already got the internet up and will be working on the rest of what he has to do while I am at my quilting bee. It is so exciting!!
What a good day this is turning out to be!

PS : I never went to the quilting bee, as I was too excited with the new computer. Joe got everything loaded on it, and it is running very smoothly. What a beautiful computer!

A Loving Surprise

My husband Joe just told me that I am getting a surprise delivered by a courier this morning. He said that I was getting it as I was the best wife in the world....I know what you are thinking.... that is so sweet!!!!!!! I am waiting anxiously for the delivery, as I have gotten no clues as to what the present may be. I told you that I was the luckiest girl in the world when I met Joe...I will keep you posted as to what I got, but anything that I get that is so spontaneous and given with so much love will be cherished by me. I am dying to find out what it is.

Postcard and Siggy Surprise Delivery

I received a wonderful postcard from Allison in my Postcard Pizzazz Yahoo Group. It was a Happy Birthday postcard to our group. It was so bright and cheery. I especially liked it as it was done with machine embroidery, which I adore.

Then I got a siggy block from Marie-Louise....It was beautiful, and the letter accompanying the block was written in German. I told Joe that it was from Switzerland, as she had included her address and written Schweiz, but Joe said that it was from Germany. I decided to email a friend that I made in the International Siggy Group, who lives in Germany, named Claudia, and ask her to translate the letter for me. Anyway, there was a debate going on in the house about the origin of the country. A bit later, Claudia wrote that the siggy was indeed from Switzerland, and she translated the letter.She also offered to translate the letter that I write to Marie-Louise, which was so kind of her.
Well, the mystery solved, and I won't say that I was right, even though I was.LOL

Tipperary Rose is Rose of Tralee

Joe and I watched the Rose of Tralee for two days running, and since I mentioned it before, I decided to tell you who won. I was cheering for the Rose of New York. She was very inspirational, as she was battling cancer of the thyroid. She also had the best personality, was absolutely beautiful, and sang like an angel...a song from my favorite show "Phantom of the Opera." I was going to cheer for the Rose of Philadelphia, but she had nada personality. At the end of the show, they announced the winner. It was the Rose of Tipperary...one of our own. Her name is Aoife Kelly, and she is an occupational therapist who has travelled to South Africa to do voluntary work with the children suffering from HIV. She is gorgeous mind you, but I was disappointed. Next year, the Rose of Tralee show celebrates its 50 Anniversary, so if you are interested in seeing the south of Ireland, like Cork and Kerry, then you could attend the big event.

A Baby Quilt for Lochlann

Joe has been friends with Dara for over 30 years, and I got to know Dara and his lovely wife Mary when I first married Joe 12 years ago. Their daughter Niamh has recently given birth to a baby boy named Lochlann on July 23, 2008. This is Niamh's and Simon's first baby, so it is very exciting. I decided to make a baby quilt for them. I used five different fabrics and chose colours of different hues of blues and white. I finally finished the quilt today. Joe tried to capture the colours, but it was hard. We tried to take the photo with the quilt hanging on the curtain rod against the window, and then hanging on a bamboo stick over the door. Well, the pic that I have included was the best that we could do, but it is much more vibrant. You can't see it, but I have machine quilted designs in the borders, and stitched in the ditch around all of the squares, so there is a checkerboard pattern on the back in addition to the fancy design in the borders. I will have to use my Janome 350E and Font Engine from my Embird software to make a label, and that should be fun. Then it goes off to Dublin.

International Siggy Blocks

Today I received these wonderful siggy blocks. One is from the Netherlands. Inge lives in a small village called Zevenhuizen, and it is so exciting to receive a siggy all the way from the Netherlands. She made me the siggy with beautiful flowers in the center block.
The second siggy, which has lovely apple fabric, is also from the Netherlands, and Elise lives in the town of Tiel. She said that she started with the International Siggy Swap in 2006, and she has collected 350 siggies...My Goodness! I hope to get enough siggies for a quilt, but who knows, I may then continue with the swap, as I am bitten by the bug, and love it. Elise said that swapping siggies has given her a big extended quilting family from all over the world. That's exactly how I feel.

Fabulous Fabric

I just got a wonderful shipment of fabric from The Fat Quarter Shop.. It is my favorite online store! I am going to use a lot of the fabric for my International Siggy Swaps and for some projects that I am planning. I love the colours and patterns especially the batiks. I was very excited when they all arrived. Some of them are hand dyed batiks, some are Michael Miller Fairy Frost, and there is a Kaffee Fassett fabric in there...If you know him, you can't miss it. Now, I get my creative juices flowing and think of everything that I want to do with them.

I am expecting some wonderful Asian Artisan fabrics from Hancock, but they have not arrived yet. That will be for the kimono quilt that I will be doing.

Isn't fabric shopping fun?

USA Postcard

I got this USA postcard in the mail from a friend named Pat from our SBS Friendship Group....It really made me think of America. It is so patriotic and it definitely made me feel like a Yank when I was looking at it. This Philly girl is now becoming more and more like an Irish lass, and as I am getting a bit of the Irish lilt and losing my Philly accent, a wee reminder of my background is always nice.

Thanks for giving me a wonderful momento of America!

Arrival Of Siggies

I have received a wonderful collection of siggy blocks from all over the world, as I am a member of the International Siggy Swap. Most of the time, I get a lovely letter with the block where the person introduces herself to me. I have stayed in contact with some of them, and that is always so nice. As you can see, everyone has their own individual stamp, and it is so interesting to see what kind of stamp that they picked to represent themselves or their countries. The fabric is fabulous, and when I look at all of them together, I realize what a beautiful quilt I will have one day when I have collected many more. It is wonderful to receive a siggy block in the mail, sometimes on a daily basis, and it is so nice to sit in my comfortable lounge chair and read each and every letter and just look at the blocks. I am so glad that I found this group, and making friends from all over the world in this way in such a fun way! I just received two blocks on Friday and took their pics today. One of them collects thimble fabric and scissors, and that is portrayed in the block.

One woman wrote me that her daughter saw this swap as chit chatting through the mail...It sometimes does feel like that...I just enjoy meeting everyone through their letters and blocks.

Soulmates

A friend of mine read the story about Joe and I landing up in the newspaper and she said as she looked at the newspaper photo of us, "You two truly look like a match made in heaven." No truer words were written. I am the luckiest girl in the world to have found my Joe. I remember the first time we talked on the phone and he played the song "For the First Time " on the phone, and I heard Rod Stewart singing the most beautiful song ...It became our song. It is in my playlist, as I truly love it. That newspaper story concentrated on our walking, but in essence, we are together most of the time, except when I go to the quilting bee...We are inseperable, so that photo to me represents that we are never apart. Joe is always there for me, and I am for him. I enjoy every minute that I am with him.We have been married now 12 years, and my only regret is that we didn't meet many years earlier. I will stay with him forever and a day, and we will grow old together here in Donegal County...I wouldn't trade my life with anyone...How many people can say that?
It reminds me of the first time that we met...when our hands first touched...so many " first times" that mean the world to me. Joe is my soulmate and I truly love him!

Celebrities at Last

Well, I said that good luck comes in threes...First we won the laptop, and then today something else wonderful happened. Joe was walking Charlie, one of our dogs, and someone who lives in Dunfanaghy had a pic of us that was taken in the Irish News newspaper, which is printed in N. Ireland. He had walked to our house to give us a copy of the page.Wasn't that nice of him? The photo of the two of us was on page 24 of the newspaper that came out yesterday on August 21, 2008. Joe ran into the house and came to where I was, which again was in the computer room, and showed me the photo of us in the newspaper. As you can see, it was a candid shot taken by the photographer Brendan Murphy, and he called it " In Step in Dunfanaghy"....We were walking exactly in step with each other, right on the main street of the town. My goodness were we both shocked! The funny thing is that we are known all around the town for walking everywhere we go...That is unheard of here, as everyone goes in their cars, even if they live a block from the town. We are always stopped on the street and the comment always is, "You two always walk a lot, don't you?." Well, we decided not to get a car when we came back to Ireland, so we are really used to walking a great deal. When we need to go to another town, we take the bus, but generally around town, we walk. We have become celebrities at last...Our pic was plastered in the Irish News, and how exciting is that! We are ordering a glossed picture of the photo from Irish News, so I can frame it. I have to add this line, as Jeri reminded me of one of my favorite movies "The Quiet Man" where Maureen OHara said to John Wayne that 5 miles was "just a good stretch of the legs." Then in that Southern drawl, Jeri said, "Y'all take that little stretch of the legs everywhere." Well, that is so true. Joe and I love our walks through the hills of Donegal, as we can share the lovely scenery and just be together....doing what we always do...holding hands.

Well, we are now waiting for the third lucky thing to occur, and Joe said, "I hope that we win the lottery."

Winning the Grand Prize

Joe entered a contest a long time back, and we basically never gave it a thought. A lady at the local shop, named Annie, won a 100 euro on a scratch card. Joe asked to shake her hand as it would bring him good luck. Well, the next day, he got a telephone call saying that he had won first prize in the contest that he entered. He came to me in the computer room with the most shocked look on his face. Boy was he excited, and of course I was too...We had never won anything like that in our whole lives. Well, it arrived today, and it is a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop with Vista Premium...It is a beaut! Joe has been lovingly working on the laptop all day, and now he has the internet going, our email set up, and everything that he wanted to put on it. They say it comes in threes, so hopefully two more good things will happen. We both went to the local shop today, and we told Annie that she had brought us good luck. She was so happy for us! Today was indeed an incredible day!

Rose Of Tralee

The Rose of Tralee is one of Ireland's biggest events. It includes a Rose Ball, a Fashion Show, and a Rose Parade and it is in its 49th year.It is based on the selection of the Rose of Tralee, an international event, that encompasses women of Irish descent from all over the world . Miss New York was crowned last year, and it is always great craic(fun) to watch it. I am cheering for Miss Philadelphia this year, as I have seen all the photos of the entries and read their stories.You can go to http://www.roseoftralee.ie/ and see some of the events and information about it. I can't wait! It is held in Tralee in County Kerry. Tralee is such a lovely city. It is located way down south Ireland . You can learn more about Tralee at http://www.tralee.ie/ This is a great time of year to come to Ireland...We have a wonderful jazz festival coming up and lots of fun. I am so lucky to be living in a beautiful country like Ireland.

Very Eclectic

I guess that I am very eclectic in most things: music, clothes, furniture, etc. I just like a diverse amount of things.That is why I became a radio operator, because not too many women are into it. Even though I am mainly a quilter, machine embroiderer, and fibre artist, I do have to say that I am very much into gaming. That might surprise a lot of you, but I have been a gamer since I was a little girl. I have at one point had every game system that there was...some really unusual ones to the most common ones like: Nintendo, XBox, and Playstation...Since we moved back to Ireland to retire in Donegal County, I only have a Nintendo DS...and it is in my favorite colour pink. I have some really good games, and I am a member of GameStop in Letterkenny. At Gamestop, I am always trading in games for new ones and enjoying every minute of it. Currently, I am playing Indiana Jones, The Original Adventure, and Zelda, The Phantom Hourglass, and the best thing is that I can play the games sitting comfortably in my favorite lounge chair. What more can you ask for? I plan on getting a WII, and my first game that I will get with it is Mario Kart and of course get the accompanying wheel that comes with it. The good thing about a WII is that you get great excersie while playing it. Yes, I am a kid at heart. I have enjoyed for so many years, and I will never give it up. Picture me sitting in my little rocking chair, at a very golden age, and playing my DS game...very funny indeed...It will keep me very young at heart.

Going Bonkers

I know that I am working on the kimono quilt, but I couldn't resist this pattern. I found it in Patchwork and Quilting Magazine, and the pattern involves a pieced quilt featuring machine embroidery. They are suggesting birds and a birdhouse, but I will be utilizing a nautical theme, therefore, I decided that ships and a lighhouse design would be perfect for the machine embroidered designs that will be in each block. The center block will be a beautiful lighthouse design and the surrounding blocks will be the ship designs, as if the lighhouse was a beacon for the orbiting ships. I am varying the fabric a lot from the original pattern , and will be using some sea fabric that I have , as you can see pictured above. Some of the blocks including the center block are six and a half inches, but the squares on point are four and a half inches. I will be using lovely hand dyed batiks for the triangles surrounding the blocks and borders, and gorgeous sea fabric for the huge triangles surrounding the entire center unit. Yesterday, I chose the threads that I will use, and I did the necessary work using Embird software. I had to for instance rotate the, as the design was on its side, and changed some of the colours and the desity of the stitches in the design. I will stitch out the lighhouse this week and will post a pic. It is just a really beautiful pattern. I will include pics of each block that I machine embroider. I am using Michael Miller's Natural Fairy Frost for the blocks' background, so the designs pop, and will post all the hand dyed fabrics when they arrive, as I just ordered them....yes I was going bonkers again, and I was ordering, ordering fabric. I found a wonderful sale for the batik and hand dyed FQ bundles at Hancock's at Paducah at

http://www.hancocks-paducah.com/ This is going to be a fun project.

Online Quilting Shows

I live way up in the northwestern part of Donegal...we do have a quilt shop in town, but often the topics that I am interested in are not covered there. I surfed the web and found that there is Quilting Television on the Internet. I discovered QNNtv at http://www.qnntv.com/ and The Quilt Show at
http://www.thequiltshow.com/ Let me start with The Quilt Show, as it features one of my favourite all time quilters.Alex Anderson. I remember when I started qulting and knew nothing, and the first books that I purchased were written by Alex Anderson. She taught me how to quilt and also to hand quilt. I do adore that lady! In addition, the other host of the show is Ricky Tims. He is an incredible quilter, and is probably most known for his Rhapsody Quilts, but he is so funny and talented. As a member of The Quilt Show, I can watch shows taped from La Veta, Colorado not once, but twice a month, read daily blogs about quilting, attend Alex's Classroom which has been on hand quilting , and see how to make a Rhapsody Quilt in Ricky's Reality Blog. There are member blogs that you can visit, and lots to do. The best part is that you can watch the shows anytime you want and rewatch them at your leisure. Then there is QNNtv...There are over 1000 videos that you can access 24 hours a day...on any topic that you can imagine., and quilters like Eleanor Burns, Fons and Porter etc, give you wonderful lessons that you can watch on full screen. You just look up a topic, and you will find tons of videos. Meet the Talent displays in an alphabetical list the names of the quilters who will be presenting and the programmes they will be featured in. Also available are listings fro USA based Events, Guilds and Shop Locators.There are videos that take you to quilt shows all over the world, and that is always exciting.

I love them both! It is a godsend for me, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my memberships with both quilting shows. Which is better? That is a hard one to answer. The Quilt Show can be accessed at any time...the shows are recorded in front of a live audience, so you get to see lots of famous quilters demonstrate their techniques. You do feel like you are a part of the audience. New quilting products are introduced on the show, which is great, and it is basically a virtual quilting community. QNN, on the other hand, can also be accessed at any time to view the videos, but they are not recorded in front of a live audience. However, the videos are wonderful, and I have often played them in my sewing room, paused them, and actually made the project involved with constant instruction from the video.

So next time you are surfing the web, try and see if you like these shows...Just enjoy the whole experience!

Shopping Spree

I was especially inspired to shop this week as my friend Marie, who is visiting with her family, was shopping till she almost dropped. Of course, she had a huge, super Walmart to go to, but thank God, there is online shopping! I did my usual monthly ordering from Fat Quarter Shop, Hancock's of Paducah, and The Personal Touch, and got some odds and ends at other places, and had spent my quota for the month. I blame what happened on Joe, as he called me over to the computer....God bless him!.....and said there is a wonderful weekend sale at Fabric Depot on mostly Bali batiks... https://www.fabricdepot.com/index.php?page=CatalogPage&pageid=19997 Anyway, that is putting a great deal of temptation before me, so I ordered some half yard increments of beautiful batiks , which was only $3.49 a half yard...with the money conversion, it only came out at $2.37 per half yard, but even without the conversion...$6.99 a yard for really high quality batiks is a steal! If you love batiks, your will be tempted to buy a lot of them.
Well, I went a bit over my monthly quota, but the temptation was too high, and some of the fabric that I bought is posted.Isn't it drop dead gorgeous? I can say without a shadow of a doubt that it was Joe's fault...Isn't he a doll?

Current Projects

I am working on several projects at the same time, which is the usual for us quilters. Right now, I am doing a baby quilt for a friend's daughter who just gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. In addition, I am working on fabric postcards, and of course my machine embroidery. I am also excited to be beginning a kimono quilt that is machine pieced and is done with templates. I am using the Asian Artisan Fat Quarter Bundle from Hancock's of Paducah. and the Myomi Kimono Quilt Pattern from Shibori Dragon http://www.shiboridragon.com/ ....It is a great place. Each block is huge, and you only have to make nine blocks for the double sized quilt. I am also using Michael Miller's Fairy Frost for the background. It should be a stunning quilt.

The Micki Postcard and Why I Took the Name Micki

Today, I was thinking of what postcard ot make for my Frienship Postcard Swap, and I came up with a fabric postcard with Mickey Mouse on it. He was pointing his finger up in the air just like I always did when I was a little girl...perfect for me. My first name is Anna...I was named after my two grandmothers. My parents called me Annie. You know how it is.....you never like the name that was given to you...It's like wanting curly hair when you have straight hair. Anyway, I became a Mouseketeer. I had the ears and all, and watched Mickey Mouse on tv every day. I loved Mickey. At the age of 16, I told my parents that I would be using Micki instead of Anna. They just looked at me, and said that they would always call me Annie. That was fine, but I was using Micki. I told everyone that my nickname was Micki, and from that day on used it. When I went to Del Valle High School in Austin, TX for an job interview, Susie Bragg, who was Principal at that time was interviewing teachers for the position of English teacher and for Department Chair. I got the job. She asked me my first name, and I said, "Micki." She said that as Department Chair, she didn't think it suitable for me to use that nickname, and she preferred that I use "Anne." At the time, I did not know her name was Susie...Hello? I don't know what I would have said if I had known that , but I went along with it, so everyone there knew me as Anne Butler. Then when she left and Ray Macias took over as Principal, I told everyone my nickname was 'Micki" and that was that. Everyone here in Ireland knows me as Micki, except a woman who works in the local food market, as her name is Annie, so I told her that my name was also Annie, so I am Annie to her. Today, I made the Mickey Mouse fabric postcard, as I thought it truly represented me.

Arrival of Two Wonderful Fabric Postcards

The mailman brought me two wonderful fabric postcards. All of them came from the Postcard Pizzazz Yahoo Group, and I just love them. The Watermellon Postcard came from Elaine, and she said that it was her all time favorite fruit, and that they get their watermelons from Harmiston, Oregon. The card, as you can see is gorgous! The watermelon is done in a wonderful cross stitch pattern, and I love it!

Card two came from Kath, who made me a deliciously wonderful apple card, with a beautiful butterfly in my favorite colour pink. How lovely, and it made me want to eat an apple, which is what I did, as I looked at it.

Well, I am off to my quilting bee, and I am a very lucky girl to have friends who would lovingly make me such beautiful cards!

Getting Older

Joe and I were walking today, and he said, "We're slowing down, aren't we?( as two snails overtook us) Boy, was that an understatement! I have to admit that getting older is for the birds, and as a friend of mine always says, "It's not for the faint of heart." For me and most other women, it means going through menopausal symptoms and some of them have been quite awful. My husband said, "You find where your prostrate is, and wish you hadn't." Then you are feeling pains where you never felt them before. You know you are getting older when everything hurts, and what doesn't hurt, doesn't work. Then there is the medicine we have to take for high blood pressure, cholesterol, and arthritis, etc...and to add to the insult, then being told by the doctor, that it is all because you are getting older. In other words, don't bother me, live with it. I heard a funny joke recently on tv that sort of summed it all up. A wife says," Let's go upstairs and make love," and the husband answers, "Honey, I can't do both." Well, there's no point of complaining, because as Joe says, "There is only one thing worse than getting old.and that is not getting old." I look in the mirror, see the grey hairs and wrinkles and wonder what happened to that young chipper woman of yesteryear. Now, we go on the bus and some of the drivers give us a reduction...Joe says that it is probably because of me...His beard has turned white as snow, but even though I love him for saying that, I know that it is not true. Hey, one way to look at it is that when we are 66 , we will have free bus fare...not all that bad when you think of it. Joe and I are both approaching 60 years....I have two years to go, and Joe is one year away from the big "60." I can proudly say that we still walk at least 3-5 miles a day. We never skip our daily walk. This year, we walked around Horn Head, and found out that we had walked 12 miles...We barely made it home, but I would guess that not too many people can say that they did that. We have since then walked to Tramore a few times....8 miles round trip...and done some very long walks indeed. Well, we have each other, and growing older is not that bad when I know that I have my Joe. The secret is to think positively and not have any mirrors in the house. Actually, we only have a wee bathroom mirror, thank God! LOL
Finally, growing older has meant that we are finally retired, and that Joe and I can spend every day together, and basically do what we want, when we want. A friend of mine just told me that she has 17 classes to teach a day....I don't envy that at all. I am spending my time with Joe, and feel, in spite of growing older, I am the luckiest woman in the world. One thing that we haven't lost is our sense of humour, and we can still laugh at life's absurdities, of which there are many.

Horse'in Around

Joe and I love to take walks around the hills of Donegal. We both love to visit the sheep and cows in the fields, but what we both really enjoy is stopping to pet and talk to the horses. This is definitely horse country in Dunfanaghy. They have a wonderful stable close to town, where you can hire a horse to ride on the beach, and there are many fields where you see horses . They are beautiful creatures! My dad loved horses too...He was in the army and had a horse named Tarzan. He took me riding in Philadelphia, and boy was my dad a good jumper. Well, getting back to Dunfanaghy....The horses here are beautiful! Our favorite walk by far is to Tramore Beach over the dunes. One day, we saw some horses free in the valley below where we were climbing the dunes,and of course we had to go visit them. I luckily had carrots in my pocket. You are probably wondering why I would be carrying carrots... Well, I always know that I will meet up with a horse....and sometimes even carry dog bones, if we are walking the route to Horn Head where we have made friends with two dogs there. Well, getting back to the horses,...I keep on sidetracking... we went down to pet the horses, and they were so friendly. I was surrounded by stunning horses, and it was a wonderful feeling. When you look into their eyes, you can see the goodness mirrored within. What a wonderful experience!

We also often visit a horse name Liath, who is beautiful white horse and her friend, which I named Cocoa, but I know that is not his name. They are located in a field right before Horn Head Bridge, where descend to get to the dunes.They whinny when they see us from afar, and know we are there to visit and give them carrots. If you ever come to visit Dunfanaghy, make sure that you hire a horse to ride or just visit one of them, and you will see exactly what I am writing about.

A Sucker For Stray Animals

Let me first say that if I ever won the lottery, I used to think that I would take in tons of strays...I am a sucker for stray animals, who look like they need a home. I always point out a dog or cat to Joe and say that it kills me to see it on the street like that. Well, I have two pets of my own, haven't won any money yet, but I do remember the time that I once did just that.

I just read a wonderful entry on a friend's blog about rescuing a cat, and it brought back the memory of when I decided to help a stray cat that I saw on the street near our apartment. I saw this greyish blue, wild cat,which was really beautiful, and I started to feed it cat food every day.He looked so much like the cat in the pic above. It slowly but surely started to approach me, and then was as friendly as he could be having been out in the wild. I knew that I couldn't take him in, as I had two dogs, but I was determined to find him a home. Joe and I put signs in the local stores and finally a man called us and said that he would be willing to take it. Boy, was I happy about that. Now, I had to get him into a carrier, which we had. That was not easy. He even scratched me and Joe in the process, as we were trying to get him into it. Finally, we did it. The man, named John, was coming in a few hours, and I thought, "Boy, we did it!" He arrived and thought the cat gorgeous. Well, he was ...He was a Russian Blue....I just prayed that it would work out.John called me after a couple of days, and said that the cat was hiding all the time under his computer desk...It seemed to be hanging around him all the time and would have nothing to do with the family. John said that he seemed a bit wild.,...not a very friendly sort. Well, unfortunately, one day, he escaped from their home, never to be seen again. I was heartbroken, and said to myself that I would never attempt that again.... never is a long time..., but I probably won't do it again. I wish that it had been a happy ending, but it wasn't.

Well, we did rescue our two boys, ...Charlie and Rufus....and that had a wonderful ending...both of them have given us so much back. We are so glad that we rescued them!

P.S:Oh, when I said that we would never do it again...We didn't take this animal in...it was a sheep this time...but Joe and I were taking a walk on a road where there were beautiful cottages, and opposite them was a field of sheep. Well, one little sheep got out of the field area through a small opening. I told Joe that he would have to rescue it. You should have seen us try to corner it...like Laurel and Hardy..Joe finally got the sheep, lifted it up to put it over the fence. I first gave it a pat...the sheep was shaking with fear.... and then Joe put the sheep down.We watched it joyfully running to his mother. Yes, I guess we are both suckers for animals in need of help. When you see that pic above, how could you resist? I know we can't!LOL

Babylock Embellisher

I think that the most creative machine that I ever purchased was the Babylock Embellisher with 7 needles. It uses no thread, but it basically punches fabric and helps you to create new textures and fabrics.Babylock has now come out with a 12 needle machine, but I don't think that it is worth the price difference.Anway, I find it very exciting to use different fabrics and materials and get such exciting results. You can discover and create new textures, which when combined with free motion sewing, can result in stunning effects. What kind of materials can you use for the punching? Well, the sky is the limit. You can use lightweight silk, lame, silk dupioni merino, organza,wool roving, hairy eyelash angelina fibers,ribbons, etc, etc. At first, you have to get used to using the machine. Basically, you move the fabric slowly, while you have the machine going at a medium or fast speed. If you move the fabric too quickly, a needle will break, and you don't want that.

The books that I found to be very helpful were the following:

1. Embellish and Stitch by Maggie Grey

2. The Embellisher: Let's Get Started by MyFanwy Hart.

3. Pillows + DVD by Christopher Nejman( Check out Christopher's website at

http://www.bagsandpillows.com/ ....it is awesome! He also has a video you can watch where he demonstrates how to use the embellisher at http://www.sewontv.com/ Browse the shows available and you will see it. Once you see that, you will be inspired for sure! Oh the shows on Sew On TV are available anytime and are on quilting, fibre arts, home decor, etc. If you never went to this site, you will love it.

4. Surface Tension by Dale Rollerson ( She is giving an on-line workshop on the embellisher in January. I missed the one that she gave starting in June. and the course is 6 weeks.)

5. Felt to Stitch by Sheila Smith

Also, a great site for information on the embellisher is http://www.tryourdesigns.com/

and also http://www.fiberella.com/ Go to the Visitor's and Featured Artist Gallery to see incredible work that the artists and viewers of the website. The landscapes are wonderful, and you will not believe what you can create with the embellisher.

Also, a fiber artist from Germany has created a wonderful workshop that you can purchase on PDF, and that can be found on http://beates-fabric-art.blogspot.com/

I have been bitten by the bug for sure. I am still learning and have so many techniques to still try, but that is all part of the fun. On Fiberella, there are many techniques illustrated.

The goal is to have fun! Once you get used to the embellisher you buy, you will be hooked for sure.

Making Dolls

If you are interested in dolls, as I am , go to http://www.dollmakersjourney.com/ or http://www.joggles.com/, but if you want to learn how to make a doll, you can get great free patterns at Doll Makers Muse, which is a wonderful blog that has great freebies. Her blog is http://dollmakersmuse.blogspot.com/ You can see the pic above of the free pattern that she is giving you. It is wonderful! You an even take classes on line at www.clothdollconnection.com/EventsandLists.html It can open up a wonderful world for you. I would recommend any books from Pati Medaris Culea or Susanna Oroyan. Elinor Peace Bailey has made a great dvd called Doll Making Basics. Enjoy it all!

Trip to Letterkenny

Joe and I needed a day out, so we got on the bus and headed to Letterkenny. Letterkenny is the largest town in Donegal County, and it is situated on a hillside overlooking the River Swilly. It has a few shopping centres, lots of pubs and restaurants, the An Grianan Theatre, a huge cinema, a leisure complex, and tons more. When we arrived at noon, we went to the Voodoo Bar for a wonderful dinner. It is the best place in town for great food.Then we went to the Treasure Bin, where I got tons of embellishments, and then to Spears Fabric Store, which is a marvelous store that gives you the feel of a store dated back in the early 1900's. It's like walking into a time warp....love it! We then saw the movie The Dark Knight, which is the latest Batman movie, and it is great. Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker was incredible, and his performance should give him the Oscar, although unfortunately, he died soon after the production of the movie from a drug overdose. He was fabulous, and his performance reminded me so much of Tom Waits. It was a great day out, and we really enjoyed sitting in the movie theatre in our very comfortable chairs eating delicious candy that we bought. What an enjoyable day! By the way, An Grianan Theatre is marvelous...you can see what it is like at http://www.angrianan.com/. That is where we met Gerry Adams, but all year round, they have wonderful events that include comedic shows, dramas, musical shows, etc.
Anyway, we rode home on the bus, which I forgot to say is only a 45 minute trip, and were glad to see our two boys Rufus and Charlie, who welcomed us with wagging tails.

My Favorite Fabric Shops

My all time favorite fabric shop is The Fat Quarter Shop. Kimberly Jolly, who is the owner, is incredibly efficient and helpful. I always get my orders quickly, and I love everything that I receive. She has a wonderful collection of Michael Miller Fairy Frost and batiks, and I adore both of them. She also has tons of other fabric collections like Moda, Northcott, and many others. Recently, she got some really great Bali Hoffman Fabrics, and I love the pack that contains the 40 7" x 7" squares in various colours...wonderful! She has many quilt kits to purchase, and well a multitude of great buys. I will be joining the Batik Club, as I am a real lover of batiks of all kinds. If you go to http://www.fatquartershop.com/ you can see her site. If you write Kimberly, you get a prompt answer, and that is so important. Best of all, I just got a 20 percent discount on my next order for being a valued customer, so you know who is going to order fabric this week.

I have also enjoyed Batik Corner at http://www.batikcorneratfabriccorner.com/ It has every conceivable batik that you would want and so reasonable. As you can gather, I love batiks!

I also like Hancocks of Paducah at http://www.hancocks-paducah.com/ as you have such variety of fabrics and great buys too. I am going to order some wonderful Asian and hand dyed batik fat quarter bundles from them ,and they are wonderfully priced at under 30 dollars.

Shopping and ordering from the U.S. has been very good for me since the exchange rate really works in my favour.

For my embroidery supplies, I order from England, as the stablizers and threads, etc can weigh a lot, so it is better for me to order from Europe. Well, I found Barnyarns, and love them. Go to
http://www.barnyarns.co.uk/ I joined their club, and their club price now is 7.95 sterling per year, and I get 10 percent off of all my orders. For my machine embroidery, my Janome 350E loves it when I use Madeira thread and Madeira stabilizers. I have really gotten great results from using Madeira across the board. I do use Weblon for my cottons and linens, and my machine embroidery turns out perfectly. I buy Weblon from The Personal Touch, which is a wonderful place for getting stabilizers and all sorts of machine embroidery supplies. I primarily order the weblon from them. Their website address is http://www.thepersonaltouch.us/

I would love to hear where you order your fabric and supplies from, as we all do love to shop!

08/08/08

Today is 08/08/08. According to the Chinese in particular, 08/08/08 is very lucky indeed, because according to Chinese numrology, it is the year of the rat, the day of the dragon, and the month of the monkey, which are all compatible with each other. Many Chinese people, and also people from other cultures, plan their weddings on this lucky date. Others even try to have thier babies born on this month, day, and year. Funny enough, I heard that the Olympic's opening ceremony starts at 08:08:08 PM on 08/08/08.
Well, Joe has a lottery ticket for the Euro Million, so you never know...this could be our lucky day. The next post may announce that we have won the Euro Million.

Playing Hookey and Meeting Bill Clinton

Here is another snippet from my meandering thoughts..I was watching the news and thought of the day that I met President Bill Clinton. I have to say that if I had to pick one person whom I was most excited about meeting, it would be President Clinton. Joe heard that Clinton would be doing a book reading at Book People, which is a book store in Austin, TX. I was teaching English at Del Valle High School, and I was scheduled to teach that day. I decided to play hookey. I called in sick, and took a day off. Joe and I headed to the book store and arrived there at right before midnight, as we anticipated that the line would be ridiculously long . I was first at the door. Yes, it was midnight. We sat down on the cement, and stayed there all night till the store opened in the morning. I was number one in line...I would only do this for a few people ...Tom Waits and Johnny Cash would definitely be two of them...Well, the store opened, and the line that had formed was so long that it extended for blocks, but I was first in line. They let the first group of people in. I had the voucher for Clinton's book My Life in my hand, and I was so excited. The man who had led me in then asked me how I landed up being the first in line. I said that Joe and I had been out there since right before midnight. Well, he told me that since I was first in line, I was going to be the first person to meet Clinton. I couldn't believe it! I was being directed up the stairs to where Clinton was giving a speech to the media...Oh my God, the press was there! The man then told Clinton that I was first in line and told him how long I had waited outside. I saw cameras flashing, and I realized that they were taking pics of all of this. It then came into my mind that I was playing hookey and had called in sick. I told the news people that I was playing hookey and not to print that. How stupid was that! Of course they were going to print just that. I went up and shook the President's hand...It was so exciting to have him smile at me. I told him that my husband wanted me to thank him for all that he did for Ireland. He clasped his hand to his heart, giving a sort of Roman salute, and said, "That meant a lot to me." Then President Clinton gave me a signed First Edition of his book My Life. I could hardly breathe as I was being directed downstairs again with the book in my hand. Well, as you can imagine, the story was on page one of the Austin American Statesman paperm and it was titled "Teacher from Del Valle HS Plays Hookey to Meet the President". The picture that I have included was plastered right there on the first page. Boy, was I in trouble, but it was exciting anyhow. I went to school and the principal called me over the public address system to come down to his office. He smiled as I entered, and said that he would have done the same if he had known , and that was it. I had met the former President of the United States, and was given special audience with him...That is a memory that I will cherish forever.

Meeting Gerry Adams

I will never forget the day that I met Gerry Adams, who is the President of Sinn Fein. Joe and I heard that he was to do a book reading at the Grianan Theatre, and we booked tickets for the event. It was to take place on a Saturday, so we went to Lettekenny early and had lunch at our favorite spot, The Voodoo Bar...Both of us had stuffed turkey and ham with mashed potatoes and veggies....yummy! We walked to the theatre, and sat down in the lobby area, waited to be admitted to the theatre. I was looking out of the window, and Gerry Adams just walked in right off of the street, dressed very casually in jeans and a white shirt. He sat down right next to me with the director of the theatre. I couldn't believe it. If you don't know who Gerry Adams is, here is a good link that tells about him: www.sinnfein.org/documents/gerry.html To say that Gerry is controversial is an understatement. LOL Well, continuing with the story, we were called into the theatre, and right on the stage in front of the podium where Gerry would read from his books were chairs assembled. We were going to be on the stage with Gerry Adams. He read from several of his books, and he was witty, friendly, and very interesting. He read poems that he had written in Gaelic, and then translated them for us, and it was a very enjoyable experience.He told us about growing up and living in Belfast, and he made the history of that city very vivid to us. We asked him questions, and everyone felt very at ease with him, as he had a wonderful warm manner about him, and a very welcoming, beautiful smile. I told him about the time that I met Clinton and how much Ireland meant to him, and he agreed that he had been very instrumental in the peace process. At the end, I went up to him and shook his hand and Joe took some great pics. It was a day that I will never forget.

Wonderful Memories of Teaching

I just finished writing to my friend Anna in Alberta , and she teaches urban Aborignal kids, whom she said do not have connections with their reservations nor their cultures. It so reminded me of my teaching experiences...Over the years, I mostly taught urban children with very difficult backgrounds. I have to say , in all modesty, that I was a very good teacher. My last teaching postiion was at Del Valle High School in Austin, Tx, but I had varied teaching experiences, and I even taught Native Americans on a reservation in the state of Arizona. I have been very fortunate to have wonderful teaching memories. I worked in St. Gabriel's Hall in Audubon, PA with children who were adjudicated ungovernable, and also at Morgan Village Middle School in Camden, NJ in a very difficult urban area, which was predominantly black. I guess in looking back on the places that I taught, I always worked with very difficult students, but really loved it. I remember many students, but one student always comes to mind when I think back on my teaching experiences....and that student was Johnny Johnson. I think it appropriate that I concentrate and write about him, as he did that for me once. Anyway, I remember the day that I met Johnny. I was teaching 10th graders English . and as soon as he walked in, I knew he was going to be a real problem. He made that abundantly clear to me. His goal that year was to give me as many problems as he could. I must have talked to his parents a dozen times, and all that it accomplished was to tell me that he gave them problems too, and that was no consolation to me. I was so happy when the end of the year came, because he was quite a handful. Well, the following school year, I was given the 11th graders to teach. I got Johhny Johnson again. When I saw him walk in and realized that he was assigned to me again, i couldn't believe it. Well, needless to say, the year was similar to the previous one. I always had successful teaching years, but I guess that I just felt that I had somehow failed with Johnny, as I couldn't get through to him at all. I consoled myself with the fact that I had an impact on many students, but I knew in my mind that I was disappointed that I couldn't get through to Johnny. Then the following year, I was given the seniors. It won't be a great surprise to you to read that I got Johnny Johnson again...three years in a row. This time, before he entered my classroom, he knocked at my classroom door, and asked to speak to me. He said that I had had a big influence on him, and that he wasn't going to give me an ounce of trouble. I was shocked! He landed up being one of my best students. That year he graduated with honours, and he went to college on an athletic scholarship. When he was at college, he wrote about me and my positive influence on his life. I was nominated twice in consecutive years by Johnny to be in Who's Who in Teaching in America, which is an honour that is only given to 5 percent of the teachers in America. It was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I thought about it tonight, as I read Anna's email to me. I think that she is a wonderful teacher too...I can tell by her emails that she is gathering wonderful memories, as I have accumulated over the years, and the memories are so priceless. I do enjoy thinking of my times as a teacher, and thank Anna for rekindling the memories.

More Irish Recipes As Requested By Kath

Here are two recipes that are delicious that my friend Kath requested. One of my favorite Irish cookbooks is by Monica Sheridan called The Art of Irish Cooking. She does the more traditional Irish recipes and so here are two of them:

White Soda Bread

Ingredients
4 cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
14 oz of buttermilk

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Lightly grease a cake pan.
In a large bowl, sieve and combine all the dry ingredients.
Rub in the buttermilk.
Add the buttermilk to form a sticky dough.
Place on a floured surface and lightly knead.
Shape into a round, flat shape in a round cake pan and cut a cross on the top of the dough.
Cover the pan with another pan and bake for 30 minutes( this simulates the bastable pot)
Remove the other pan and bake for an additional 15 minutes.
Cover the bread with a tea towel, and sprinkle the towel with water to keep the bread moist.


It seems every house has a pot of Irish vegetable soup , so here is a really yummy recipe:

Irish Vegetable Soup

Ingredients
3 good sized carrots chopped
2 leeks chopped ( green and white)
1 stalk of celery chopped
1 bunch chopped parsley
4-5 chicken stock cubes
3-4 vegetable boullion cubes
1-2 teaspoons ground thyme
1 teaspoon ground thyme
1 teaspoon ground sage
1 and a half teaspoons of cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 cut of broken pasta
salt and pepper
water
boiled potato...about 1.5 per person

Directions
Place carrots, parsley, leeks, carrots, and soup mix( optional) in stock or soup pot.
Cover with cold water until all the vegetables are covered.
Bring to boil and add stock cubes and spices.
Simmer until vegetables are soft.
Season to taste.
If you add pasta, do this now, until it is cooked.
Serve with potatoes in a bowl.
The whole boiled potatoes are put in the soup at time of serving.


Well, there are two very popular Irish dishes. Hope you enjoy it! These are particularly good on a cold, winter's day.

Judith Butler: My Adopted Irish Convict

Today, I got an email from Christina Henri, who I wrote about yesterday concerning the Irish Convict Project. I was given a list from her to adopt an Irish Convict. There was only one Butler on the list, and of course, I chose her. Her name is Judith Butler, and in 1831, in the city of Kilkenny, she was tried and convicted of the crime of stealing a pig.She was given a 7 year prison term. She was shipped that year of 1831 to Australia with her child, and sadly died in 1831 in Parramatta, at the young age of 34 years. It was amazing that all these events occurred in the same year. It also states that she worked as a dairy maid. I looked up Parramatta, and it is in New South Wales, Australia.
How very sad and tragic! I thought to myself that it was so unfair and criminal what was done to her, and my heart went out to her and all those women involved. The ship that she was transported on was called the Hooghly. I will be making a bonnet for Judith, and I am in the process of thinking of which fabric that I want to use. I will be using either white on white or creme,and will incorporate some machine embroidery. The project has also been called the Roses From the Heart Project, so of course, I will have to find designs of roses to put on it. Many people are embroidering the name of the Irish Convict, the ship she was on, the year she was shipped, and in Judith's case, it was also the year that she died. I have run the pattern off, and now I am in the planning stage. I am very excited about my involvement in the project and of my adoption of Judith Butler.

PS:

My post on the bonnet that I created magically disappeared from sight on my blog, so I am posting the bonnet that I made here now, as it was a treasured memory for me. I machine embroidered it and loved making it so much, as it was for a cause that was close to my heart. Whenver we walk past the Famine Graveyard, which is near our home, I am reminded of my Irish convict. It is nice to know that Judith Butler will be remembered through this bonnet.
Here it is:

Book Reviews From Friends

I am going to include the books that people have recommended for quilting here. I am getting some wonderful ideas too, and I appreciate that so much.

Anna, a Wetern Canadian Quilter suggested the following books and here is what
she said about them:

1. Nickel Quilts and More Nickel Quilts by Pat Speth (they are wonderful desings for 5 inch pieces of fabric)
2. Colloborative Quilting by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston( It's about freeing up your designs from tradional patterns and is filled with spectacular color right down to Freddy's great red glasses.)
3. Any of the books by Valori and Jean Wells- The books ar are filled with spectacular flora and fauna to make wonderful quilts.( Two of their titles are Stitch and Flip Quilts and Garden Inspired Quilts)
4. Ruth McDowell's Books- Piecing and Arts and Inspiration are great for inspiration and techniques.
5. Jinny Beyer's Tessellations is another interesting technique book-especially if you like hte mathematical challenges of quiltmaking.
6. Elm Creek Quilts by Jennifer Chiaverini- The series has a companion book of quilts to make. The newest title is The Winding Ways Quilt.
7. Paula Naelstern's Kaleidescope Quilts
8. Bethany Reynold's Stack and Whack Quilts
9. Evelyn Sloppy's Frayed Edge Fun
10. Judy Martin and Nancy Martin's Scrap Quilt books

Thanks so much Anna! What a great array of books. If anyone has more books to suggest, email me, and I will include them in this section.

Irish Women Convicts' Transportation to Australia

Merilyn from Australia visited my blog and wrote to me in my guest book. She said, " I have recently participated in a project called The IrishConvict Bonnet Project which commemorates the Irish convicts who were brought to Australia." She sent me the website on Christinia Henri who is trying to collect 25,266 bonnets to commmorate the anguish that the women convicts suffered. Go to www.christinahenri.com.au/main.html. During the famine period, the British sent those women convicts into exile to Australia on prison ships. One of many Irish songs lamenting these events were written. One of these is "The Fields of Athenry."
The song says:

Pete St. John
By a lonely prison wallI heard a young girl callingMicheal they are taking you awayFor you stole Trevelyn's cornSo the young might see the morn. Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay. Low lie the Fields of AthenryWhere once we watched the small free birds fly. Our love was on the wing we had dreams and songs to singIt's so lonely 'round the Fields of Athenry. By a lonely prison wallI heard a young man callingNothing matter Mary when your free,Against the Famine and the CrownI rebelled they ran me down Now you must raise our child with dignity. Low lie the Fields of AthenryWhere once we watched the small free birds fly. Our love was on the wing we had dreams and songs to singIt's so lonely 'round the Fields of Athenry. By a lonely harbor wallShe watched the last star fallingAs that prison ship sailed out against the skySure she'll wait and hope and prayFor her love in Botany Bay It's so lonely 'round the Fields of Athenry. Low lie the Fields of AthenryWhere once we watched the small free birds fly. Our love was on the wing we had dreams and songs to singIt's so lonely 'round the Fields of Athenry.

© Pete St. John

If you want to hear the song, go into my Play List and The Patched Hats sing it. You will love the song!

Finally, if you want to make a bonnet for the cause, there is the pattern on Christina Henri's site. You adopt a convict woman from the list and that bonnet will keep her memory alive. Christina is trying to reach the goal of 25,266 bonnets. I will be definitely making one. My husband Joe and I talked about it this morning and he played me the song that I have written above. It is a very beautiful song. Also, if you want to see some examples of bonnets that people made, go to
http://www.centralcoastfhs.org.au/Roses%20from%20the%20Heart.pdf

Also, go to www.naionalarchives.ie/topics/transportaion/search01.html where they have records of the Irish convict women who were transported. Also go to http://www.femalefactory.com.au/exhibit.htm for a more extensive history of the events.

Thanks so much Merilyn for bringing this very important topic to my attention, and I am proud to get to know you.