We sit out on our patios/porches after the sun goes down, trying to get some relief from the heat and humidity, cause we have entered August - “The Dog Days of Summer.”   You can hear the tree frogs chirping at night along with all the bullfrogs croaking. The yard lights up with Lightning Bugs and you would swear you could quilt by hand. We gather together with friends and families at reunions, weddings, parties, and barbeques. We go to lakes, rivers, and the ocean or in the pool to get relief from “The Dog Days of Summer“.  We weed our gardens that have been planted and now producing large amount of vegetables and flowers or pick lots of blueberries for those wonderful pies and muffins.

With all of this we get ideas for more quilts to keep us warm in the winter when the wind howls and there is chill in the air, or maybe we make that jacket and vest to keep warm. Why do we think of these things in the Dog Days of Summer? Because we want to create like Mother Nature, give comfort, joy, relief to those who are less fortunate. Yes, we do a lot of thinking, planning the next quilt and sharing with family and friends ideas of love and sorrow.

We also stay indoors with the air conditioner running, which means our sewing machines are running too. You can clean house, make meals, pay bills and do laundry, which includes the fabric just purchased at the local quilt shops or fabric stores. We sit in coolness and create the beauty we have seen or create a quilt for those who need comforting.

Some of us are on the roads traveling through out this beautiful country of ours, or maybe traveling to far away lands. We get ideas for quilts as we journey on these paths. We get to meet friends made here in Fabric Stash, we grow with challenges and swaps and we grow when welcoming new people to Fabric Stash.

We have been very lucky these past few days of welcoming members of the www.hgtv.com message board. We have some new members of our guild. They wanted to chat with fellow quilter's, sewers and crafters, to have friendship and share with all and learn from us what chatting is all about. Comfort, help, sharing ideas, asking questions about quilting or other sewing projects. I want to welcome every single HGTV’rs with open arms and show them that they are most welcome here. Some of them have already contacted our Comfort/Charity Antlers asking what type of charities. This is wonderful since we are a self-sufficient guild that helps all with comfort and love.

This month I will be traveling to the to Washington State then on to the Canadian Rockies and back to Washington State via Montana and Idaho. I will get to meet some wonderful members of this group. I will report back whom I met with photos for the next newsletter and also hope that everyone here can also include photos of their summer activities.

September means back to school for many and some are already back to school, also means meetings of guilds. I want everyone to put on the thinking cap. We will be asking for volunteers to form a nominating committee, also volunteers to plan activities to celebrate our 10th Year Anniversary, which starts in October. We want to have a grand year of events so please be at the meeting with ideas, suggestions.

I hope that everyone has a good end of summer and hope to see lots of you in chat. We are now chatting at all times of the day and it is like the old days. Come in a chat and share with all of us your adventures of the “Dog Days of Summer.”

Purple Hugs

quiltDonalyn/President