Refinements for these rules: Orphan's Table: Extra plants that we want to share without a trade will go onto an "Orphan's Table", which is to be left untouched until the door prizes are drawn. When you collect your door prize, you can go to the Orphan's Table & pick one item or two, depending on the number of plants donated. When everyone has picked one or two items, we'll start over. Don't Take, Wait Until It's Offered: I cannot stress this strongly enough. Do not take *anything*, even if you see your name on a box or a plant. It isn't yours until the person who brought the item hands it to you, at which time you hand your trade to him or her. This is the only way for traders to be sure that they don't lose control of their items before they know that they're happy with the item they're to receive in trade. If you're trading an azalea for an ivy, & you've brought a 5 gallon azalea & your trading partner has brought a 4" pot of ivy & you don't think that's equitable, you can decline the trade. If anyone takes something without permission, that person will be asked to leave. One more "suggestion", but it's a *strong* suggestion: Post your haves before you post your wants & before you ask a trader for something they've posted. & the flip side to that is, of course, if someone asks for something & you can't find what they've offered, *ask* before you agree to bring them something. We are all free, of course, to give our plants away *if we want to* (something like informed consent), but that doesn't excuse taking advantage of someone's generosity. As was mentioned on a thread last spring, you can always bring cookies; Wal-Mart sells every variety under the sun!

1. A large stack of unread books 2. A bag of cough drops 3. A 27" television

I'm sitting here laughing, because so far, all the questions of the day are so pertinent to quilters in general and you've all got our number. I am a thrifty cloth purchaser. If I find 'the perfect' pattern, I'll spring for it, but that's once in a blue moon. A year or so ago, I found a very authentic Japanese print, made in Japan, and four times the price I normally pay for quilting fabric. This is going to be my very own special quilt. I have most of the coordinating fabrics, but have not found just the right shade of teal blue, settled for one I don't like and am waiting on finding the right shade of teal blue to start it. I have this picture in my mind, and have waffled back and forth for a year as to the perfect pattern to display it, and think I have it nailed enough to comment to it as soon as I find a block of time in my off season with the business. Soooooo looking forward to it.

I'm feeling VERY good about my progress this week. I finished my granddaughter's crib quilt. My DIL picked out the fabrics and pattern. My mother and aunt helped with the embroidery. The green fabric of the dragonfly block just happened to be named Emma, so I put the name in the center of one of the flowers. I completed adding the red flannel to the tee shirt blocks to make them a uniform size (16") and added the turquoise sashing. Someone here suggested the color and it's perfect. I will NEVER again mix flannel and cotton. The tiny white block above Real Big Fish says, "I got a first class start at Pascack Valley Hospital." My 28 year old son wore it home from the hospital. Where does the time go? I finished the purple squares quilt. I think the 4 paper pieced cornerstone blocks took longer to make than the whole rest of the quilt. Do you think it needs one more border or is it good as it is? The cornerstone, which I sized wrong but made it work anyway: Now on to post on the Girls with Goals post for this week. Dianne