I Must Ask . . . What Would You Like to Ask, Part II?

I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity. –Eleanor Roosevelt

Today's the day that I answer all your burning questions. I know you've all been waiting for it with baited breath so, let's get rolling, shall we?

First up, P. of The Way I Sew It asked, If you had a personal assistant (like I wish I did), what would you have asked them to do for you this week?

My answer to that question today is that I would have a P.A. take down my Christmas tree, because yes, it is still up on the 19^th of January. Now that I've outed myself, I'm going to have to take it down tonight because that's just plain embarrassing.

When I read P.'s question two weeks ago, the first thing that came to mind was that I wouldn't so much like a personal assistant as I would like to be able to split myself up, like that movie with Michael Keaton, Multiplicity. In the movie, he clones himself and each of the clones possesses one of his character traits. So, I'd like to split off the part of me who likes to do housework {and really, there is a part of me who likes it. Or, maybe I like the satisfaction of having done it} and let her loose. Then I'd send the part of me who likes my job off to work every day. I'd send the part of me who likes to run errands off to do that, the part of me who loves children off to volunteer at my kids' school and I'd have the part of me who loves to cook prepare menus, prep ingredients and feed us all delicious and nutritionally balanced meals every day. And then the REAL me would sit down and sew. At the end of the day, I'd put myself back together and enjoy feeling like I had conquered the world.

Shay from Quilting In My Pyjamas asked, What have you wanted to do since you were a child that you still havent done yet?

Of all the questions, I think this is the hardest to answer. The first thing that came to mind was that I've never owned a pink Volkswagen Beetle. When I was a kid, that's what I wanted. I did own a red Volkswagen Beetle, which started out as a sort-of tomato soup pink before my dad painted it red, and which I loved to pieces. But there is still part of me that would love to drive a really pink {as in Pepto pink} VW Bug.

Something else that came to mind is that I would love to go to a masquerade ball. It just seems so mysterious and glamorous and grown-up. A charity in Utah has hosted one for the past two years and I really wanted to go. If I ever had the chance, I would absolutely jump at it.

Elizabeth at Mom's Sewing Room wanted to know, Where do you sew? Do you have a room, table, a place you can leave things or do you have to get stuff out and put it away every time you sew?

I do my machine quilting at the kitchen table because it is big enough to support most of the quilt as I work. But I do most of my sew in my living room and my sewing is always out. I have a card table set up in there and my projects are all over the place; stacked on the table and under the table, on the ends of the couches, stashed in the bookshelf and sometimes spread across the floor. We don't have a family room, just the living room that the front door opens into. I suppose that is why I'm not too worried about getting the Christmas tree down, because having my sewing mess all over the place and the tree still up is only slightly more embarrassing when someone comes to the door than when someone comes to the door and it is just my sewing mess.

Also, (I know this is TWO questions) are either of your kids interested in sewing?

LadyBug is a little bit interested. She's done a few projects by hand and we had "sewing lessons," but she got bored having to practice sewing lines on paper and learning all the names of the parts on the machine, so I think the answer to your question would mostly be "no," although I would like to involve them both more. Perhaps there will be a mandatory pillowcase workshop rather soon at Bug Cottage.

Ann Marie at 16 Muddy Feet asked a really delightful question. She said, If you had $1000 to spend on fabric, where would you go to buy it all?

Mary Jo's in North Carolina. Mary Jo's Cloth store is a mecca where you'll find mountains of fabric at thimble sized prices. While I've only shopped their shelves from the virtual world, I have it on good authority that Mary Jo's is everything it promises.

Marianne, aka Ranger Anna at Misadventures with Rangers wanted to know, Were/are you a Girl Scout? And for how long? (I was going to ask you where you got your quiz widget to ask this! It's the 100th year of Girl Scouting and I've been one for 50 of those... sheesh.)

First off, Marianne, congratulations! That is really something to be proud of. Secondly, I hope you won't unfollow me when I tell you that I am really mostly an indoor kind of girl and was not a Girl Scout. Camping/hiking/scouting is just not my cup of tea, though it is not for lack of trying. Between the ages of 12 and 18, I went camping every summer with a girls youth group. I even went winter camping once. I dug a snow cave and slept in it and everything. I have allergies and being out in all that nature is really miserable, especially the sleeping portion. I also miss showering and toilets that flush. However, I do support the Girl Scout cookie program whole-heartedly, so I hope that wins me some brownie points.

Marianne, e-mail me and I'll tell you how to do the quiz widget.

Richard over at Richard Quilts asked, I am new to quilting so my question is how long have you been quilting? Oh and what is your most prized quilt that you have ever made? Wait that's 2 questions. Oops.

Two questions are totally allowed. To answer your first, I have to start at the beginning. I started sewing when I was 8, and moved from the basics like pillowcases to simple shorts to more complex garment construction. I started my first quilt 11 years ago. It is still not finished. I have only been doing my own machine quilting for about a year-and-a-half, and up until that point I only considered myself a seamstress/sewist/patchworker.

As for my most prized quilt, well, you opened a can of worms with that one. I can NEVER narrow any category down to just one favorite because I believe that every thing has its own kind of beauty. But, I'll give it a shot. I really love my Snowball Quilt because it was my first big success with free-motion quilting—the first quilt I did without stippling/meander or straight lines. And I really love the Glad of Heart and Kimono Garden table runners I made for Christmas gifts this last year.

Thank you, everyone, for such thoughtful questions! This was so much fun for me. I think that you all were pretty easy on me, though, because no one asked me about my most embarrassing moment. I wouldn't have been able to answer that anyway because I tend to repress those things. So how about we play round 2? I'm doing this mostly because I really need to go take down my Christmas tree, but also because nobody asked what my dream job would be {hint, hint}. So, go ahead. Ask me anything you want and I'll answer them all next week!