Welcome to Gypsy's Threads!
Hello all – Just a quick reminder of the Gypsy Threads sale this coming Saturday. I have been sorting and packaging all sorts of goodies. At last count, over 300 rubber stamps, lots of ephemera, thousands of beads, many old linens, ribbons, trims, and lace, display pieces, cutter quilts, old quilts, fabric and of course, wool – plus who knows what else!!!!!!
So, we hope to see you on Saturday 4/20 at 8:00 a.m. @ 660 East Sixth Street in Chico!
Hello, Dear Friends – both new and long-time!
Thank you for visiting with me today. I have been busy in my studio packaging up things and pricing for my upcoming Studio sale. The date is set for Saturday, April 20 at my home in Chico. I hope you will come and help me pass along treasures, both old and new, for you to add to your arsenal of “needfuls”. I have lots of wool, cutter quilts, non-cutter quilts, display pieces, organizational pieces, books, Somerset magazines, Bead and Button magazines, beads, fabrics, rubber stamps – well you get my drift! Plan a carpool with several of your friends. I promise it will be worth the drive. Please tell your friends, organizations, and anyone you pass on the street to come help me out!
I know several of you are wondering as to how my health is these days. As of this writing I have only twelve more radiation treatments remaining. My skin is a lovely array of colors ranging from pink to raspberry and according to all the medical professionals who see me, it proves that I am right on track for where I am in this course of treatment.
I had surgery the beginning of this year following chemotherapy prior to. I am so grateful I have not had any of the horrible effects that often come with either of those two. Each and every person who has been a part of my experience was kind, efficient, and caring. Everyone. David must be tired beyond belief! All I can say is thank you. We had friends who cared for Pearle and her sister, Ruby, who joined our household the beginning of December. They are like two peas in a pod. Pearle likes being “the boss” of Ruby and Ruby is (mostly) okay with that. A huge thank you for the ones who were brave enough to welcome Trouble One and Trouble Two into their homes for days on end!
Oh, I could go on for awhile, but, I always feel it is best to leave before you are asked to do so! Please email me if you have any questions about the sale on April 20. It will begin at 8:00 a.m. with no early sales and conclude at noon. Cash only, please.
Be kind to yourself, thank you for reading, and be certain to come see me April 20!
In battle sometimes an order is given for the troops to “fall back” during a battle. That order comes for a reason determined by the commanding officer and generally is issued for the good of the troops.
In the fall of the year we “fall back” and set our clocks so we can make the most use of the daylight hours and save energy. This takes a little getting used to. None of us like the long nights that come so early.
I am at the place where I am forced to “fall back.” When I last posted I announced I am undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. I am now down to my final two treatments! Through all of this I have learned that kindness and a sense of humor can take you places you never dreamed possible. Three weeks ago I went and did a sweet show in Willows. David did the lions’ share of the setup and teardown. It was good to be amidst folks and not consumed by doctor’s appointments and having blood drawn! I was not feeling at my best and ended up in the hospital for five days. I am grateful to say I am much better now, but still not back to my new “old” self – but I am working on it!
My next scheduled show is in February in Watsonville for the PVQA Quilt show. This will probably be my last show for some time. As it is looking now I will probably be unable to continue doing shows. At some point in the spring I will host a huge sale in Chico to sell my remaining inventory, display, and things I use to create Gypsy Threads things. I will send out a post as to that date.
Thank you for reading. For now I am “falling back” and grateful for good days, a caring spouse, and loving children. If you wish to email me, do so @ buttons42@comcast.net. I am having computer problems and cannot access my other account and cannot get to the Apple store to get it straightened out as it is 1 1/2 hours away, plus the “class” and travel back – too much! Please be kind to yourself and someone you do not even know – even if it is a caring smile or gentle comment.
Hello my patient friends. Many of you are aware this summer has brought some unexpected changes into the rhythm of the life of Gypsy Threads. I have been diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer and begin sixteen weeks of chemo starting tomorrow, August 20. About three weeks following that will be surgery and then radiation. The up side is, I will have lots of free time now that I don’t have to worry with those pesky chin hairs that suddenly show up when there is no tweezer in sight and loads of time not having to shave my legs! I am sporting a cute SHORT haircut to show off my earrings and hide the patches as my hair leaves me for awhile. What a terrific excuse for some cute soft hats! What an opportunity to shed those pesky pounds I have nearly given up on! See, there IS a bright side to all of this!
Guess you know that means my show schedule has been suspended for the foreseeable future. Yes, that has been a tough pill to swallow. I hope you will continue to keep David and me in your thoughts and prayers. If it is a good day I plan on sharing some of what I will be up while on this journey. I am very much at peace and trust the best outcome for my life. All the doctors and every single person I have been entrusted to have treated me so kindly and professionally. And, since you are wondering, Pearle is my greatest companion and very rarely leaves my side.
Until we next meet, thank you for continuing your friendship and support – truly.
Well, here it is, just three weeks (+ or _) from the official start of summer! How did THAT happen? It has been a wonderfully busy spring. We have done three new shows these past few weeks, which means more time in the studio!
The van is nearly packed and accommodations have been made for Pearle as we depart for Turlock tomorrow for an Open House at American Country. This is just the most charming little shop, out in the middle (no exaggeration) of farm country! The shop proper is a log cabin from my neck of the woods, Ohio. They had it dismantled, shipped to California and reassembled! What a treat it is to hear the floorboards creak, echoing the steps of others who spent time there before us. There are all sorts of goodies for us to drool over. If you want to come join the fun we are there on Friday, June 1 from 10:00 to 4:00.
Are you ready? We are leaving Turlock on Friday evening and driving to San Luis Obispo to spend the night. The next morning we are heading to Remnants of the Past show…not as a vendor…yet…but glad to visit with all our vendor friends there! We went to their very first show and nearly died. Now it is five times larger so I am hoping I don’t pass out from shear pleasure! Oh, and the best part is…it was David’s idea! Sigh!
The following week I head to Los Altos to do the American Country Antique show. This is my tenth summer for that show. Our group has changed in size a little but we all have something yummy for your home or person! That show is also from 10:00-4:00. We are in the back corner where we have been for the past three years, right in the show!!!!
Okay, time for me to finish all those things I “need” to get done before going to bed way too late tonight!
Thank you for reading, telling your friends about Gypsy Threads, and leaving me a comment so I know I am still connected to the “real” world! Be kind to yourself and do something kind for someone you don’t even know.
While I am sitting here stitching and thinking in the silence there are thousands of things that I want to share with you. Witty thoughts. Touching memories. People who have traveled through my life and left an imprint on my heart. Sad things. Things that have changed and I ponder why that has happened. Thoughts of friends and challenges they are facing. Far away places I have traveled and lived. Many of them I long to return and revisit.
Today I choose to share the experience I was so excited by two weeks ago. As you may know I follow a blog called Tongue in Cheek. The author writes EVERY day. Amazing photos grace her words. For a time I had to stop reading as the beauty of the expression of her thoughts via word and photo was just too much for my heart to handle. ANYWAY she came to Chico to have a meet and greet with her public. It was my honor to meet her face to face. As I sat there listening to her share I felt like somehow she was speaking MY thoughts, MY heart’s desire, MY passions and desires. I have never had an experience like that before. Not a live one… It was sublimely wonderful and I shall treasure it always.
This coming weekend will find us at the Three Speckled Hens event in Paso Robles, CA. It is Saturday and Sunday. This is such a wonderful show. I cannot wait to see all our old friends – both customers and customers. The promoters are top shelf. I am grateful for such a great opportunity to share what we have created with all who come to visit.
Thank you for continuing (or beginning) to read. Please share this with others and help me get out there with my creations more. Be kind to yourself and someone you have never met before.
A Tasty View!
Well, we all know change is not easy! As you know, our computer, after ten years of service was experiencing problems, which meant I too was experiencing problems.
We have proudly welcomed the new computer, an iMac, 21.5″ screen into our home. All I can say is, “Oh, MY!” As usual there is a learning curve. That is, in part, part of the delay in posting. Along with a new computer for blogging, my etsy site needed to be revamped. Yeah. None of this can be done by me. It isn’t that I have not tried! My attempt today resulted in nearly an hour of trying to figure out how to get out of Mission Control. Which, I had to call my son and ask for help. I did finally get out of Mission Control (as you can now tell), but try as I might, I still cannot get a photo loaded. Yes, it is back to begging my daughter to try to learn me how!
I got a book to help me with my iPad, which I still adore, one year after purchase. Here is the thing. Books for some folks are just the ticket. Apparently I lost my ticket somewhere between here and there! I lay the book out and very carefully do exactly what they say and ta da! Yep, it doesn’t work. The worst part is once you update your product the stuff in the book is out of date because your system isn’t configured the way it was when you bought the dang book!
I have begun work on the items traveling with me to my next show in February! The show is the PVQA Quilt Show, the final weekend in February. Watsonville, CA. New things are coming forth. I am HOPING to complete a new pattern. We will see how long the learning curve is for the computer. Guess the computer needs no curve, it is I who needs a nice, gentle, gracious curve! We will also see what my frustration tolerance level is coming in at! I will be discontinuing several patterns. They will be on sale at the PVQA show and I will have them listed on my etsy site, just as soon as it is all up and running!
Thank you for being patient and supportive. Please share this with your friends via Twitter or your own blog or Facebook. Leave me a comment so I know how you are doing! Remember, be kind to yourself and someone you have never even met!
Yes, trepidation! Of what? Blogging? Perhaps! But, it begins way before the actual blogging process takes place. It begins with attempting to turn on the computer. Yes, it took nine times of pushing the button to get it to come on. The button is tempermental. Yes, tempermental. I looked it up and that is the exact word for that button! We had the computer guru do his magic while we were away during the summer and he did say there were some “issues” which were (for lack of a better word) inoperable. So, it is not a question of IF but a question of WHEN the ole’ gal will no longer draw her last breath. Mr. Guru assures us the device he placed on the computer will back everything up….pardon me if I am skeptical (which is not his fault)!
So, the issue of getting the computer turned on is part of the delay in blogging. Once the computer is on molasses in winter is faster than dealing with the delays. Perhaps the title of this blog should be FRUSTRATION! Speaking of frustration, I do not look forward to the process of finding a new computer and then learning how to use it. Yes, it WILL be different, as this computer was purchased in 2002. The year, not the movie!
It has been so long since I last blogged the format has changed and I am having trouble posting a photo! If when you read this there is a photo you will know I somehow muddled through and if there is not, you will know, once again of my ineptitude at figuring out how to do computer “stuff”!
This coming Saturday is my final show of the year. It has been an ordeal in preparing for it. My therapist could buy an island after dealing with this one…if I had a therapist. I have come up with some new things just for the upcoming holiday season. Not my usual offerings…well, sort of, but different for me! The show we call the Bird in Hand Country Christmas is once again, Saturday, December 3, 2011, from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the American Legion Hall on First Street in Los Altos, CA. There are a variety of choices there for you from Christmas to Folk Art to Antiques to birdhouses to rejuvenated gems! One stop shopping and you are supporting America by buying from people who are actually making the items themselves right here in America. There is a huge difference in the goods from China. They are tempting, but the quality is definitely not there. So, I ask that you consider supporting the American made goods. It will make a difference in the lives of our countrymen and countrywomen. We also have live music and a few goodies for you to munch on to keep up your strength while you shop!
Sounds like rambling. The wind is (literally) blowing up to 45 mph, so if they do not blow away to the next county, the things I put outside to dry from my dying process should be ready to come in for the next step!
Thank you for reading. I am feeling a little less trepidacious (how’s that for a word?) Carefully consider your holiday purchases this year. Remember we all need our oil changed, cars washed, go out to eat at locally owned restaurants or would enjoy seeing an independent film at the local theater. Pass this along to your friends, if you feel so led. Remember to be kind to someone you have never met and leave me a comment! Until next time.
Bird Pin Cushion
Yes, yes my head DOES hang low! Only because it has been sooooooo very long since I have last posted. I wanted to. I really wanted to. I suppose you are asking, “If you really wanted to so badly, why didn’t you?” Well, let me tell you why. I am weak. If the computer is on I will think of something I want to look up, and the next thing you know, it is an hour later and I have not completed the thing I am working on to take with me to my next show. It is the same as unplugging the telephone (yes, I just dated myself on that one….who unplugs their phone any more? We just set the cell phone to vibrate, or “power it down!”)
The other “reason” for not posting, is my OLD computer is so, so, so slow it takes forever. I am into this posting at eighteen minutes and I STILL do not have the picture up and inserted. I need to get a new computer. There, now you know what trials I am facing. Not to mention I am technologically challenged! I thought I would let that one go, but, since I am being honest it is only right I include it as well.
Let's celebrate Halloween!
You can see I have been busy getting some fall things ready. Seasonal offerings are not my strong suit. But, I do manage to get some done, usually.
So, since we were last together, David and I traveled to northeastern Washington to do a quilt show at the Buggy Barn quilt shop. Never before have I done a quilt show on the prairie. Well, hats off, once again to the folks that crossed this vast country of ours (often on foot for a majority of the journey) and settled in places where there was (and in many cases it remains true, still, to this day) nothing and no one! Courage and fortitude I do not possess. Here is what I saw from the front of our booth.
I wasn’t kidding, was I? (lol!)
To pass the time as we drove past miles and miles of wheat fields, David read from a book of love letters written between a civil war officer and his wife during that great war. In addition, we had great adventures to include stopping at one of my favorite places, Crafter’s Warehouse. Two hours in there just flew by with purchases of things I need and cannot find anywhere else! We stopped by a couple places to eat which were featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. The most unexpected stop was a visit to Shipwrecked Beads in Oregon. It is about the size of a grocery store. WOW! Found things there I need! Then we came across a town with several little antique stores. We had the best time, and of course, found a few little treasures to bring home! I cannot wait to go back there again. All this and we had the Quilter’s Companion with us and found several inspiring quilt stores along our path. Good stuff for the old inspiration factory!
Last weekend was the show at Goat Hill Farm, in Soquel, CA. It was a true working farm, complete with lots and lots of dust! And sun! Phew! Let’s just say a shower and a beer were in order immediately after the close of the show each day! This was only the second time for the Goat Hill Faire. All of the vendors were terrific with treasures galore. The owners of the property were marvelous, kind, easy going, generous, and gracious hosts. (Let’s just say when I needed help backing up the van it was offered just as easily as if we’d known one another forever!) BUT, that was nothing compared to Cyndi Garafolo, the show organizer. She was kind, patient, caring, and just a dream. I say, “thank you, and I am a better person because of you”. I also could not have done it without the help of my friends, Karen and Cheryl. They came out in the dust and heat and helped me break down and load the van at the close of the show. Thank you both. I am empowered by your strength.
Guess what! October 1 and 2, we will be in Paso Robles for the 3 Speckled Hens event at the fairgrounds. I just adore those ladies and cannot wait to see my friends from there! This is the fourth time I have done this show. (I should say, “we”, as David is the brawn and companion which makes it all come together!) Having said this, I realize I need to get back to work so I have some more things made to take along with me in JUST ONE WEEK! So, if you can, come by and say, “Howdy!” (it is cowboy country down there). It will be nice to see you!
Thanks for stopping by. If you are so moved, share your comments and tell a friend or two to do the same. I appreciate each of you. Do something nice for yourself and a kindness for someone you never met before.
A Bit of This and a Bit of That
The above is just a little something I am putting together! It will travel with me – soon. Which leads me to a riddle for you. What common thread is there between a Buggy Barn, a goat, Three Speckled Hens, fishes, 3 Pugs, and a Bird in Hand? Oh, you clever folks probably already guessed it… Those are (in part) names of upcoming shows I will be attending!
The Buggy Barn is just that. A lovely quilt shop in Reardan, Washington, known for their publications, fabrics, and love of all things primitive and antique. They have an outdoor quilt show every year. The week before the quilt show nationally recognized teachers come to teach and then the rest of us show up with our wares to share with folks! I believe this has been happening for the past 15 years. It is Gypsy Threads’ first visit. I am really looking forward to meeting all the wonderful folks I have been dealing with these past several months.
Now, for the goat part. Next month I will be traveling to Los Gatos, CA, to do a truly fun show called Goat Hill Fair. You can check them out at http://www.goathillfair.com. It is their second event and my first for attending as a vendor. I must say, I am honored to be on their postcard for mailing! Those of you who are local will be receiving one in the mail to remind you to stop by and visit. It will be fun!
The 3 Speckled Hens are no surprise! The first weekend in October we will be returning to Paso Robles for a terrific time with all the gang. We just feel like that is home for us. A real family!
Fishes…wondering about that one, are you? I have been invited by a friend in Carmel, CA, to bring my wares to her home for a trunk show! She is inviting a group of her bestest BUDS to come do a little early Christmas shopping! I know it will be a delightful afternoon.
I am leaving Carmel, and traveling to Phoenix, to visit my daughter and her two pugs, Stella and Brie. Which, I know, you are thinking my math is off – again. No, because Pearle will be traveling with me! I cannot wait to see these three gals together. Only Stella and Pearle have met, but from what I hear, Brie loves just everyone and never stops wagging her tail…which for a pug is something to see! I may do a couple of cold calls and take my things a few places and see who might be interested in some Gypsy Threads!
Last, but not at all least, is Bird in Hand. That is our holiday show in Los Altos, the first weekend in December. The usual gang will be there. Antiques, paintings, folk art, and some goodies to munch on!
Wool Heart Pincushion
Of course, there will be more information as the time gets closer. Aren’t you excited? I know I am. I have been hard at work making some never before seen items, all the while knowing a vacation is in order! Guess I can rest when I die! At least I am not getting in too much trouble! Although we did go to four estate sales over the weekend. They are such fun, because you just never know what you will find. The last one we went to on Sunday afternoon and when we pulled in the sign had my favorite words….everything is FREE!!!!!!!! We did find a few things for David, like rusty nails for birdhouses and the like.
Well, thank you for reading. Please share this with your friends and plan on coming and seeing me somewhere or all the “wheres”! I love to read your comments so keep those rolling in. Until we connect again, remember, eat thoughtfully and organic as much as possible, and be kind to yourself and someone you have never met before.
