This year is just flying by! The last "official" newsletter was in June and it seems like I was working on that one just yesterday! A lot has been happening over the last few months both professionally and on the home front.

On the home front, in August, I had two major "events." I had a water pipe break and a complete computer meltdown. Both of these things happened within a few days of each other. After dealing with plumbers, a contractor, living without water in the house for three days, techno-geeks and others, I am happy to report that everything is now working well.

When my computer suddenly died, I was fortunate to have Carbonite.com  which is an off-site, secure, back up service for all my computer files. Once my computer was fixed and running well, I was able to restore EVERY one of my files, including websites, videos, manuscripts, etc. EVERYTHING CAME BACK! I am not affiliated with Carbonite.com but I am one very, very satisfied customer. This service is only $55 per year and it is a business expense. I cannot say enough good things about this service and I would recommend it to anyone. If you want more information about Carbonite.com please visit their website www.carbonite.com

Longarm University attended the Innovations conference in Tacoma, WA in September and we had a great time. Thank you to everyone who stopped by the vendor booth. It was good talking to both old and new quilting friends.

Soon it will be Thanksgiving and I hope everyone has a wonderful time with family and friends. It will be special time for my family because my son-in-law will have just returned home from Iraq. Please think of our military and others who are away from home and family for the holidays. Please don't forget about American Hero Quilts and Quilts of Valor. Both of these wonderful organizations make quilts for wounded soldiers. They need all the machine quilting help they can get. If you are a new machine quilter this is a great way to increase your quilting skills.

Christmas will soon be here, so let's get to making quilts for everyone! A great resource for scrap quilts is the Quiltville website www.quiltville.com. This is a GREAT website and I can spend hours there! There are many free scrap quilt patterns which would make great holiday gifts and, maybe, clean out some of your stash! Does that mean I can buy more fabric to replace what I used?

Quilters Against Breast Cancer
A few weeks ago I saw an absolutely wonderful exhibit of the most interesting quilts. These quilts were all for sale and all the proceeds went to the Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation. This foundation is working with the wedding gown industry which donate "old" wedding gowns (which have never been worn) to the Making Memories Foundation.  The gowns are distributed (for a slight fee) to quilters nationwide, to make quilts from the donated wedding gowns. The completed quilts are donated back to the foundation so they can be sold. All the money raised is used to grant wishes for breast cancer patients. (To see some of the quilts that have been created Click Here)

New Year's Day 2010 Mystery Quilt
The Second Annual Longarm U New Year's Day Mystery Quilt is now being created!
Some hints about this quilt: It is all free hand quilting and it will be a "feather free" quilt! If you would like to be notified as soon as it is ready please send me an email at LongarmU@aol.com