Backyardmomma, We have bought a dumptruck load of 'dirt' twice, once with great results and the second time, not with such great results. With the first load, we were building raised beds on land my brother owned south of Fort Worth and we bought a load that was a mixture of topsoil and compost. (This was when we lived in an old house on his land for a year in a rural area to 'test drive' living in the country before we sold our house in the city and took the plunge!) The topsoil/compost mix was purchased from Silvercreek Materials in western Tarrant County (they made their own compost then and probably still do, but are too far away for us to use now) and was AMAZING. Everything grew like mad. We had carefully done our research and asked questions and made sure we were getting quality soil. I just loved it and my brother and sister-in-law were amazed how much the raised bed with that blend outperformed their in-ground garden. In 1999, after moving here right in the middle of planting season (late Feb. or earliest March), I was desperate for topsoil to rototill into our very compacted red clay. DH ordered a load of topsoil from a supplier based in Carter County after calling around and comparing prices and asking them about their topsoil. At the time, no one within 50 miles of us was offering a topsoil/compost blend, so we were stuck with so-called topsoil that was mostly pure sand. It was awful. (I still am not convinced that you can even find really good topsoil for sale here in our rural area....they tell you it is good topsoil, but when you go and look at it, it is sand.) I just mixed the terrible sand with lots of compost and manure and added it to my clay, but I would have been just as happy if we'd never ordered or accepted delivery of that load of junk sand because all it did was bring in billions of weed seeds. At the time, I just said to myself "Well, it is better than nothing". Looking back, though, I think "nothing" would have better better than that poor sand. So, if you ever splurge and buy soil, try to find some that has compost mixed in and make them tell you what percentage of it is compost. Also, look at the soil they sell before you order it and make it clear you expect soil of the identical quality or you'll refuse to accept delivery when the dumptruck arrives at your house. Unless you have a friend with a Bobcat or front-end loader, expect it to take quite a while to get the soil from the big pile they dump in your driveway or yard to the actual beds you're placing it in. A dumptruck load of soil is a lot of soil, particularly if you're moving it one wheelbarrow load at a time. Dawn

In case anyone is interested, I did make 25 of the Sonobe Cubes (150 squares of wrapping paper in red, green and gold plaids and florals) and I put a couple of red beads at the top, and a couple of gold pony beads and red beads and a beaded tassel at the bottom. For the tassel, I bought a yard of beaded fringe from Hobby Lobby, and used 3 strands for each tassel, pulling them up into a pony bead. They came out really cute, and the best part was that I did them ENTIRELY at work, from start to finish. (I have THAT kind of job, lots of down time, with permission to work on personal stuff.) The peeps at the party really seemed to like them, too, and made me demo how they work. I forgot to stick a jingle bell in 'em, though. *dope-slapping myself* Thanks again, Karen, since I pretty much COPIED yours completely! lolol

Carol: I used to feel the same way, but then I actually tried free-motion machine quilting. My work is completely hand guided, done without drawn patterns 95% of the time, and worked on a treadle sewing machine, so I don't feel that I've lost that connection with the quilt that handquilting always gave me. I actually feel like I have more freedom of expression as the process is like drawing. It's also very challenging to do well and I like a challenge! I'm not trying to talk you out of hand quilting, because I love doing that, too. I'm just suggesting that machine quilting might be a little different than you remember. Google "Hollis Chatelaine" and I think you'll see what I mean. As far as books on pictorial quilts--It's a hot trend in quilting and there are dozens of books on the subject now. I'm including a link for you to look at, but be warned, it lists dozens of books on the subject of pictorial and art quilts, plus books on embellishments, new techniques, etc...so you are going to want to allow yourself a couple of hours to browse through it. Art quilting has come a long way in the past 20 years. When Caryl Bryer Fallert won Best of Show at the American Quilter's Society Show (the most prestigious show in the world) for a machine-quilted art quilt in 1989, the judges received almost universal criticism from the main-stream quilting world, but the precedent was set and now such quilts regularly win at the major shows. There are several art quilting forums on the net and you might want to check them out--they are going to know much more about the subject than I do. Annie Here is a link that might be useful: Index to pictorial and art quilt books

Hi, I've been looking at Scrapbooking software. I've discovered that any pictures I save on CD can be played in my DVD player AND they play as a slide show. It's so cool! My aunt and uncle recently had their 50th wedding anniversary party and I took my digital camera and captured shots of everyone. My 70 something year old uncle is a computer nerd and he loves anything computer related. So I bought "Hallmark Scrapbook Studio" software and thought this winter, I'd take all those anniversary pictures and build him a scrapbook on CD. He and my aunt will just love it. My uncle is big-time into geneology and this will fit right in with that, I think. I really wanted "Scrapbooking Workshop" or whatever it's called. It's about $40, but the stores here aren't carrying it at the moment. So I'll work with this Scrapbook Studio and see how I like it. I've run across several sites that talk about scrapbooking on the pc. Just do a search and you'll find something. Good luck! NancyAnn