November is always a time when I look back on all the things I'm grateful for and look ahead at where I'm going.
Right now I'm in Shipshewana for the Fall Dear Jane Quilt Retreat.

Remember when I reported last April when we were here for the Spring Retreat? I've decided to do that again. I'll show you what's going on at the retreat, any of the fantastic finds I come across. In the spring it was the

Chuck Nohara fabric at Lolly's. Who knows what it will be this time? I think it's time for a couple of tutorials too. Did you see the great rotating pressing station The Quilt Show was talking about? It caught my eye and I plan on putting one together (if I didn't leave my lazy susan in Traverse City) tonight or tomorrow and thought you might like to follow along. You don't have to gather much together; cotton batting, string and fabric large enough to cover your 'susan'. They suggested the round lazy susan from Linens 'n Things for $24. I on the other hand went to Walmart and got mine for $9.88! KMart shows them online but I don't know if they have them in their stores. Check around, it shouldn't be too hard to find one. If all else fails there's ebay.

I'm going to finish our Schlep project. So many ideas and so little time. The most popular square for the use of a block or focus fabric was square "B". I put everyone's email address on a piece of paper in a basket and let Clutch pull one out. Not as high tech as the online random number thing but it worked. The winner of the Week by Week Sampler pattern is jagarland@bellsouth.net. I think this project deserves a little 'tute' too so as soon as we finish the pressing board I'll get right to it. I might squeeze in a pincushion or two in there. I brought my sawdust, lavender and bird grit with me. It's my favorite filling for pincushions. I'll give you the recipe when we're working on them.

I just uploaded this week's Midget Block. Our monthly blocks for State Fair Sampler (which is finishing this month), Nancy Page Club Magic Vine are should be ready tomorrow and the final blocks for Just For Baby should be ready by the end of the week which leads me to the "November - it's now or never".

It's no surprise to most of you that I've had a rough time this summer keeping up with posting the patterns, news, freebies and such. I gave this a lot of thought the last few weeks and have decided that 'Never' is not what I want in my heart. The time is NOW!

I've set up a calendar with dates marked for letting you know what's going on, posting patterns and just plain old updating pages. I've also allocated time to answer all the wonderful questions and comments you've so kindly left for me. It's taken me 5 months to adapt to my current job with Boutique Emmanuel. Working on my feet, sometimes 9-10 hours a day, learning their computer system, inventory management, new employees (one managed to get arrested this summer), finding dead mice in the furnace filter, blindly venturing into vacuum repair and having a mentally ill, half-way house inmate threaten to kill me has occupied much of my time and energy. All is not as bad as that sounds. I love the people I work for and the girls I have working for me are as sweet as can be. They're holding down the fort while I'm here in Shipshe. All that being said, I do feel settled in and know when the slow times are and when the busy times are and can plan accordingly. That means it's time to decide what's we're going to do for next year's projects. The Magic Vine quilt will continue through this year as it has 20+ blocks but State Fair Sampler is finished. Just For Baby is finished and we need some new and fresh things! I'll show you a few ideas and let me know what you think. The new Block of the Months won't start until January.

With my new time management calendar I plan to have all the summer blocks ready before the tourist season hits Traverse City and I'm back on a 45-50 hour work week. It will be so much less stressful for me and you as you wonder "when in the world is she going to get our next block posted".

I did have a pretty good harvest this fall of some adorable tomatoes and button measures. I've put these in the online store for you. I brought them with me to Shipshewana and if you order this week I'll include something special from this wonderful town and your package will be hand stamped with the Shipshewana postmark. Not many towns still hand stamp the mail and close the post office for lunch between noon and 1:00 PM.

Time to hit the road and get a pretzel at JoJo's.