Ouch!

Ok, taxes are done and paid. It always hurts a bit as being a small business, I never seem to have paid enough ahead. No one is going to bail me out either. We all shudder as April 15th approaches, but it's over, so time to move on to more fun things.

Spring is always filled with watching my 9-year-old grandson play baseball, trying to motivate myself to work more in the yard (I'm a big time garden club dropout), and enjoying 4-year-old Quinn's dance moves. I am going to "gymtastics" watch night this week for the first time.

I have a bit more time to do all these things as, yes, my business is slower than normal this year. Just like everyone else, I am being affected by the economy's downturn. Cutbacks for me will be maybe going to NQA show in June but not taking a class, not buying as much fabric as I would like (Of course, buying as much as I would like is impossible in any economy), and not investing in the business as I usually do with battings and backings available for purchase by my clients. I am also filling my time with more service quilts -- baby quilts for donation to the local hospital and soldiers' quilts for returning wounded.

I have no fears that my business will go under; it just may not pay for my obsession with quilting as it has in past years. But my stash can keep me quilting for quite some time and my friends will keep me company quilting. It's all good.

Loss

I haven't written for a while as the family has been dealing with the loss of our beloved nephew. Only 45, Jeff had fought cancer for the past year and a half but left us on March 25th. He was a wonderful man with a lovely family that stood by him, cared for him in all ways, and will miss him always. The hundreds of people who came to the funeral home and attended the funeral mass can only testify to the loss all feel. It's not my place to memorialize Jeff; his wife, his children, his parents, his brother and sisters, his sisters-in-law and their families, his huge extended family of friends will do it far better than I. But I wanted to take note of his passing and to let any readers know that a man of great worth is gone.