I live in south Louisiana with my husband of 33 years and our 18 year old son, Chris. We share our home with Murphy, a gray stripey cat with a fluffy tail who someone graciously gave to us one night (unbeknownst to us until we found him), Pseudo---a Siamese wanna-be with a white masked face, chest, and feet and dark ears/tail and Sam, another Siamese wanna be in Chocolate Point colors (Domestic). We also have several uninvited outside kitties who we feed because they are good at keeping mice away. We like to walk out on our deck and fish in our stocked pond if it's not too hot and muggy. Our weather almost always is hot and muggy so I stay inside most of the time. You can check out our kitties on their own page I've been quilting for about 13 years and am a confirmed swap freak. My favorite patterns are for hand appliqué. My favorite quilt style is the Signature/Friendship/Album quilts. My Granny Dorsey had one on the guest bed and I can remember lying on the quilt tracing the embroidered names with my finger. I have so many WIP's that I never will get them finished and so many blocks from swaps that I will never make quilts with them all. I have a forever growing stash that I make every effort to contribute to frequently. My largest undertaking has been an international swap for Chris. It was called the Geography Lesson Swap or GeoSwap for short. We hoped to collect 100 blocks from quilters around the world, but as is always the case with quilters...generosity abounded. To date, Chris has collected 185 blocks from quilters from many different countries and backgrounds. He used the swap as his Social Studies Fair project. It was also on display at the Hammond Regional Arts annual quilt show....Through The Eye of The Needle. We asked for an 8.5" unfinished block that told something about the Quilter or where she lives. In return, we sent them their choice of a Y2K charm set with a Mardi Gras signature square or a Fat Quarter. In addition to sending their block, many sent extra gifts to Chris. He has received things like beautiful travel brochures, postcards, letters, hat pins, T-shirts, bandanas as well as many other nice things. We have made some lasting friendships through this swap. We have a wonderful online friend in New Zealand who swaps new postage stamp issues for fabric from us. One of Chris' interests is stamp collecting. Another good friend in Canada swaps Canadian goodies and stamps with us for fabric and U.S. stamps. Then, there's the special friend in Holland who I swap U.S. fabrics and quilting supplies with for beautiful Dutch fabric. Chris recently received a fabulous gift of a very old stamp collection from a lady we met through the GeoSwap. Her aunt had traveled extensively throughout the world and no one in the family was interested in her collection after she died. This special lady made the stamp collection a gift to Chris. We met her at a Gulf States Quilting Association meeting where we had been invited to present the program. We gave a talk on Quilting in Cyberspace and showcased the GeoSwap along with my butterfly quilt top (made from blocks from Round 1), my friendship quilt top (signature squares from an online swap of course) and many blocks from other swaps. It is quite an honor to be asked to speak to this group. You could really tell that quilters are interested in using the Internet with their quilting because we had the groups undivided attention. You can see some of the blocks and read the stories about them on Chris's page.
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