Hello all, Mary Ellen here.

I’ve spent some time over the past few days cleaning the bookshelves that hold all of my quilting and crafting books and “stuff”. I will be bringing the back issues of many magazines for auctioning in our January quilt buck auction. There are issues of American Patchwork and Quilting back to the first issue, if you want a piece of quilting history. Those are the only magazines I kept whole. For all of my other subscriptions, I tear out articles that seem interesting and file them in notebooks. I must admit I seldom go back to find patterns to be made, but I do peruse them for inspiration now and then. So many of the quilting magazines (and others) now have digital subscriptions available. I’m thinking about switching some of my subscriptions (I subscribe to LOTS of quilt magazines!) over. I wonder if I would enjoy viewing them on the computer as much as I enjoy turning the pages, adding post it notes, dog earring corners, and tearing out the really great designs. There is something very tactile about those processes that a digital edition would not satisfy. The plus side would be the storage, or lack of it, and thereby no need to dust those old issues! Do you have any digital subscriptions? What do you think about them?

Today I was visiting the blog associated with Quiltmaker magazine. Even if you do not subscribe to the magazine the blog is available to you, and to be honest you get quite a bit of quilty content for free. They are counting down to Christmas, and for today are visiting the International Quilt Study Center. Some very nice green and red quilts are featured in the entry. Though they are not all “holiday” quilts, the colors fit the theme.

The blog authors mentioned a link to this chocolatier, saying that the chocolates would make great gifts for quilter friends. If you visit this link, you’ll open up to a slide show of lovely things. Just keep reminding yourself that they are all made of chocolate. The lovely antique “buttons” and the all white wedding cake decorated with “buttons” were among my favorites.

I’ve caught the “cold/flu” that’s going around, I think. I’m having trouble staying warm. Keeping a cup of hot tea with me today. I’ve got a party to attend tonight, and I don’t want to have to stay home. Hopefully the tea, lemon and honey mixture-an old standby- will get me in shape by this afternoon.

TTFN