Oh my gosh! It's February!

Well, you have to love these unexpected (unscheduled) extra days out of school. A "snow day" for the grown ups - wahoo! Although, it did impede my ability to get signatures on the necessary paperwork for unemployment compensation to cover the past two weeks. [Sigh] Payment will be somewhat delayed, but I think everything will be alright.

Happily, the first (yes, that's right, the FIRST) restitution payment from the crackhead who broke into my home in 2004 showed up in the mailbox this week. Talk about your good timing. Thank you, God. Although it is a pittance compared to the overall amount awarded by the judge, I can use it every penny right now, so I am very thankful. I think it will be another year before anything else gets here from that source, and I haven't been holding my breath for anything all this time, so needless to say, this is a great thing.

The skeezer jumped bail the first time he was arrested...if he had been a good boy, I could have been paid the $1400 plus way back when. Ah well. There's a reason and a purpose to everything that happens, so let's strap ourselves in and enjoy the journey and see what's around the bend.

I began another small wall hanging as I was finishing the Sun Bonnet Sue quilt for a classmate - I came up with a funny thought/idea I hope pans out $-wise. There are numerous vet offices in the area (not to mention daycare centers and pediatrician offices), and JoAnn Fabric has quite the selection of animal prints on their shelves (and I have a good assortment of child-oriented prints in my collection), so why not make wall hangings and walk in 'armed' to see if one of those places may buy one for use in the outer office in place of artwork. It's worth a shot.

Anyhow, as I said, I began a new quilt top, based on dog print material, and all but finished assembling it today. Will apply the borders and attempt to stretch it on a backing piece before the weekend is over.

I also picked up cat material - though the pickings are slim in the non-cartoonish patterns for the feline set. The dog prints are rendered very realistically, but their ideas of "realistic" cat prints suck. I will do what I can with what I have, and will also start assembling quilts for the pediatric offices. Smaller quilts have a better chance of selling, so I will 'work small' for a while and make the best of the miniature palette. A fun challenge.

I have photos of the finished Sun Bonnet Sue (which really turned out beautifully), and pics of the interior portion of the dog blocks...all of which I can finally share, but the PhotoShop SW on the PC is screwing up the ability to use my Pentax card reader to download photos. Karl and I have worked out a routine whereby he downloads the pics to his PC, then to a flash drive, then onto this PC. A definite hassle, but at least it's a work-around. Will have to work out the kinks now in the system. I have posted a few - as you can see - if you want to see more of these or other quilt tops, please ask.

In the meanwhile, I am away from the keyboard and back to the needle and thread.

My love to all, and hugs and shiny thoughts all 'round.

Oh, and welcome to 2008, February.