New pic of me - QuiltCon Linky Party

I am linking up to QuiltCon's Linky party for those of us going to QuiltCon this year.  They asked for  us to post a picture so I quickly took one this morning, and they asked for us to tell 5 things you might not know about me.  Well, unless you are one of the 30 (actually I think the number is closer to 10) or so people that read my blog, most of you know nothing about me.  So, here it goes. 

 

 

1.  I have a BS degree in Vocational Home Economics Education.  In today's terminology (since I am ancient) I teach Culinary Arts in the Family and Consumer Science program in the Career and Technical Education department at my school.  Whew!!  The first one is much simpler to say, but may not be understood today.  This is my 28th year to teach and 23 of those have been in the high school.  I also have a certification to teach early childhood to 3rd grade and taught Kindergarten for 4 years and that last lone year (if you are doing the math)  I was transferred into teaching an 8th grade pilot program for the state - that was not the easiest year and I have vowed to be a manager at McDonald's (another thankless job) instead of teaching junior high ever again!!  As part of this conversation:  I am also the third generation in my family to graduate from College and  to have attended my Alma mater, Abilene Christian University.  Of course, it was Abilene Christian College when my parents and grandfather attended.  My cousin's son is the 4th generation in my family to attend. (I say attend, because my grandfather graduated from Texas Tech and not ACC - the rest of us graduated from ACC/ACU)  To me, that is something very special and rare. 

 

2.  I have a HUGE collection of fabric.  I have been fascinated with fabric since I was a young girl.  I remember being little - 3 or 4 maybe? - and going into the fabric store with my mother and touching all the fabric hanging off the bolt as we made our way through the store.  Mom had a hold of one hand, but that other one was working at trying to touch everything.  There are a few fabrics that I can't stand the touch of and even to this day, if I touch any of those I have to wipe my hand off on my pants leg.  yuck!  I still like to touch fabric and if someone has something on that calls for me to touch it, I just ask if I might, perhaps touch their garment.  I began collecting on my own when I would ride my bike down to the little mom and pop store that carried a selection of fabrics and use part of my allowance to buy fabric.  I still have a little bit of those fabrics in my stash and refuse to use them.  It just makes me smile to see them in there. 

 

3.  I have lived in Texas all my life.  I actually live in west Texas!!  Not the city West, but the area.  I have never lived further east than Abilene.  As a result, I can't stand humidity.  I know, that is a really weird thing, but I just have a really, really hard time acclimating when it is very humid outside.  It doesn't get that way here in west Texas but maybe once in a blue moon and usually it burns off by noon!  Even though I live in a desert, Odessa, I can't stand the heat.  I think last year we had 13 days in a row over 100.  I can't remember how many total we had.  Of course, the rest of the time was either 98 or 99 degrees so that is not much better.  AND we began early with our hot temps last year.  Since we have already had 80 degrees in January of this year, I am truly not looking forward to the summer months.  Here in west Texas, we almost all have great air conditioners in both our homes and cars.   We have learned to either walk quickly from our cars to our houses/places of work or to walk slowly and savor the warmth before going into another cold building - it's rarely too cold for me. 

 

4.   I have been making quilts since I made my first baby quilt as a project my sophomore year in high school.  My second quilt was designed by my mother and I made it my senior year, but didn't ever get it finished and quilted until about 10 years later.  That may have started my trend of making quilt tops and not quilts.  I have a HUGE (again, all in caps because it is so large) collection of quilt tops.  I haven't counted, but probably should, the number of tops I have in my studio, but I always say I have about 80 or so.  I don't know if that number is correct, but considering I have about 30 hanging in my closet, another 30 or 40 stacked on the floor and then a few more out and about around the sewing/quilting/computing area . . . now that I am thinking about it, that number may even be a little low.  Hmmm.  I might ought to clean off my grace frame a little faster than one item a month.  I do know I am behind 7 graduation quilts - tops made, just not quilted - for my family.  To me, the fun is in making the quilts, choosing the fabric, seeing how it all comes together and then, it's finished.  Thinking about a back is very hard for me to do since I really don't want to use my precious fabric on the back of a quilt - heaven forbid!!  LOL 

 

5.  Okay, I really have to hurry now,  I have spent too much time and become chatty with 1 - 4.   As a result, I have to let you know that contrary to what you read here, I am not much of a talker.  LOL I know - hard to believe.  I am pretty shy in person until I get to know you, but even then, I will let other people talk, for the most part.  So, when or if you see me at QuiltCon, I am not being super snooty or rude, I am just basically a shy, introverted person.  (weird, huh - might not have guessed that from reading my blog)  Feel free to come up and speak with me - I probably won't be doing that first.  I will try to be a little more extroverted while I am there, but that is hard for me in a crowd of people I don't know.