I agree with most comments here - mass planting is the way to go if you want a constant supply of blooms. If your roses do get large, you can always dig it out and give it to your friends e.t.c. For example, my favorite Austin so far is Tea Clipper (although the blooms don't last very long). I only have one TC, and the plant is still young. None of my roses open at the same time: you will see a bud here and a flower there, which can be quite frustrating because I always cut those blooms off to enjoy indoors. So, next year, I'm planing on getting 2 more Gertrude Jekyll ( love the scent) and another Tea Clipper :the blooms are gorgeously beautiful with a subtle tea fragrance - its downside is that the color fades very quickly. Having said that, not all roses look "striking" when mass-planted. For example, I used to have this strip rose that looked great by itself. I saw the same strip rose being mass-planted at the botanical garden recently, and thought to myself- it's just too much, less is best because a strip rose should add excitment to your garden when you see it. Too much of it ruins this mood, if you know what I mean.

As I mentioned on Spacific's other thread, I had been planning to organize an April swap. But then I realized with all I have going on that wasn't going to work for me. It seems like spring is not a convenient time for many of us here. Maybe summer will be a better. Is there a time preference over a late May/early June or a late June/early July swap??? Ann

1) I had finally got a hair cut (^_^) 2) Machine knitted hats for charity (^_^) 3) Set up another 3-tiers book shelf and had organized all the knitting books that have been laying everywhere around the house (^_^) "To do" list for the next few days and weeks: 1) Routine back up the laptop 2) Clean the dining room to make room for knitting machines. 3) Clean out stored stuffs from the 3 bedrooms. I really need to do a garage sale. Sigh... I say this every year and haven't gotten to it.

The "right" side is the side facing out, usually, when you buy the fabric. I haven't bought a pattern in a while, but I never saw a layout which said put the right sides together. If you do that, then you'd have to turn the pieces to mark them--darts, dots, etc. I never cut the selvages off either before I cut a pattern, and I've been sewing since I was 5, and am about 55 years older than that now. You don't have to wash the fabric before, but it might shrink a bit when you wash it, so take that into consideration. A lot of cotton fabric is preshrunk, but not all of it. For a costume, I probably wouldn't wash it, unless he's going to be wearing it plenty of times. Good comparison there with the wood grains, yes, they're essentially the same, and I never thought of that in all my years of sewing. To get the patterns straight on the grain line, lay a piece on the fabric where it shows on the layout, pin one end of the arrow, then measure from the arrow to the edge of the fabric. Now, at the other end of the arrow, measure until the measurements are the same, then pin that end of the arrow. This will ensure the grainline is "true". I made my son a frontiersman costume once, and he won first in the Halloween parade. It was his favorite costume. I loved making their Halloween costumes.