JeanieG

I have lived in the town of Camarillo, CA since 1969, from my home town of Ventura, CA (15 miles to the north), which is right on the Pacific Ocean. Camarillo has grown from around 16,000 to 66,000 persons during that time. We had a quilt shop here until about five years ago, when the owner became ill and closed the shop. We had a fabric shop until last year, when the man retired and closed. So we have absolutely no place to buy fabric in my town. The closest fabric shop is Joanns which is 8 miles north. We have three fabric shops in nearby towns. Two are about 15 miles north in Ventura, and the other is 16 miles south in Thousand Oaks. I really miss the fabric shop that just closed in town, it had beautiful fabric and any notion you might need in a hurry.

QuiltE

GGal ... Oh I'm no more of an artist than the rest of you! Re quilting, I'll be giving it to my LAQ'er ... I'm hoping I can persuade her to do a custom job to further show off each of the blocks. I'm just learning quilting, so after all this work, I want it to be well done, rather than just done! I just got a Janome6600 in the fall ... and am loving it!!!

All ... nice that you all picked up on my inquiry to QNSue ... and shared a little about your locations! Will I remember it all though? .... you may have to remind this pea brain later!!! You CAN say ... I told you so!!

QNSue ... thanks for the intro to your community and your life!

ArteEC ... Thanks for looking at my FWS blocks. I'll try to remember to post a photo of the sashing fabric tomorrow. Also, the cornerstones and setting triangles. As for having it soon done ... it's going to be awhile! A lot of sewing for all that sashing and I fear that I may get bored! What a plan you have ... DH goes shopping!!

DublB ... Glad you galloped on over to the FWS threads. I call the other Ladies the Pioneers, as they did the trailblazing, and I only followed them later! Great quilts they have made, haven't they? I always smile when I see familiar town names ... we have an Odessa, Ontario (about 3 hrs from me). And a Midland too (2 hours). And Ontario, California, always brings a chuckle! No Texas though (as far as I know!!) but a Moscow (not far form Odessa), and even a Florida, Ontario!

WendiQ ... you can do PP for the FWs blocks too. Many of mine were done that way. A year ago now I had nothing good to say about PPing. Then I did a wall hanging for Easter, and wasn't all that impressed again. Then once I started FWS I found a few that just seemed too much to try to do as traditional rotary cut (and guess what? I'm not a template fan either!) ... gradually I was doing PPing more and more ..... and as I got my groove, I started to sing praises of PPing! Like you, I see it as a lazy way of sewing ...... paint-by-number meets dot-to-dot is often the way I think of it!

JeanieG ... I think many of us are the same ... the distance to the LQS isn't so difficult, rather the inability to get a needed notion on the spur of the moment is terribly frustrating! Here, one of the most difficult to purchase are zippers! Few LQS' have them, and if they do, it's generally just specialty ones and few colours, rather than the broad range you can need. I see notions mentioned on the Boards, that I've never seen here ... and few have a huge selection of the quilter specific ones!

QuiltE

Oh so true GGal ... you can take the girl out of the country, but you cna't take the country out of the girl!!!
I often say that my ♥ is still on the farm!

Sadly, life changes and we call can't be where we'd like to be ... but there's no reason why our ♥ can't be there still!

And nicely said, GGal ... about our connecting and bringing the world to our homes!
You are ALL becoming such wonderful and special friends, and making this journey ever so memorable!

Termi

Honchey, I just love your block with the santa and what great fabric, just right for that block.

In reading about where you all live, looks like only me and Honchey are on the east coast. The area in CT where I live is very expensive being so close to NYC. We'll be looking to move somewhere else within the next 10 years. Just can't figure out where. I can't imagine not living in New England, I think it's in my blood. We too have chickens. Sometimes we get them from the feed store and sometimes we'll let a broody hen sit. That's the cutest. We have the chickens for eggs only, no butchering here. Our chickens die of old age. I have one that's 9 years old. That's one that got started in a classroom where the kids could see the eggs hatch. Well gotta go, I'm going to a baby shower for a woman who's been trying for years to have her own and couldn't. She just adopted an infant, a little girl. Should be a fun time.

janRN

I live in a small town (18,000) just 40 miles north of Pittsburgh. In the past, we had steel mills, cork factory, china factory, glass factory, and a thriving main street. These are all gone now; just 1 small steel factory left. Our main street is 2 pharmacies, health clinics (sponsored by Pittsburgh hospitals), bars, and tatoo parlors. Each block has at least 1 or 2 empty storefronts. Unemployment is very high. I want to cry when I drive thru town. We do have a large Christian college which has expanded a lot over the years. This is a good thing in that it brings people to town but when they dine out or want some type of entertainment, they go to neighboring towns. This is a bad thing because parents of the students are buying the fore-closed houses and renting them to 5-6 students; this is cheaper than room & board. As a consequence, all the family neighborhoods are over-run with partying college students and no parking. I love my town and wish it were like it was but that's not going to happen. The closest LQS and Joanne's is about 30 min away but I have 2 quilty friends and we take Road Trips once a month to LQS's all over the tri-state area--lots of fun and variety.
I love hearing about your lives and feel like I "know" you!! Thanks for sharing.

oksewglad

Changing small town/city landscapes is a harsh reality, isn't it, Jan? In the Midwest the 1980's farm crisis hit hard and small towns are slowly decaying. There are many old wonderfully built houses that urbanites pay big $$ in their cities but go for really cheap in comparison here. My DS and BIL are moving back to MW from AZ to find such a house when they are ready for retirement. Hope they haven't forgotten our four letter word--SNOW!
Maybe that's the solution, Termi--"Go west Young (wo)man, go west!"

dublb

Hey You All-
I thought that you all would like to know that I feel great! I woke up this morning feeling like a new person. We celebrated our oldest DSon's birthday tonight. He, his DW & my DGS came over for BBQ chicken. (My DH makes his own BBQ sauce.) This morning I went to the store with DH & bought the chicken & the other things we needed for tonight. Then I came home & moped the floor & vacuumed most of the house. I can't believe how much energy I have. We had a good time & I played with the baby for quit a while.

JeanieG

So glad that nasty bug has left you dublb. How fun you could play with your DGS because you were no longer sick!

QuiltE

Woohoo!! send some of those good health vibes Northward-ho, pleeeeeeeeeease!
Sounds like it was a FUN time for the DublB family after you got all that work done.
(I'm somewhat OK, but don't feel like I'm totally out of the woods yet)

gardnergal970

Dubib...I think you and Honchey were the first to get the nasties. Glad to hear you've kicked it. Honchey, any better with you? QuiltE hope this is the morning you wake up like Dubib did yesterday. Beautiful sunshine here this morning with warm weather...50 degrees plus this afternoon...morning coffee tastes great...
ALL...have a great day.