Today is Lily's 2nd Birthday!!!

I can't believe she's already 2 years old. She seems to be growing up faster than my daughter did and that's scary. There's a big party at the park planned for this afternoon and Lily will be in heaven playing on the "side" (slide). She LOVES slides and laughs the entire trip down them. I'm looking forward to it, too, although I do really wish time would slow up a bit.

Sorry for the long "pause" between posts. I was away...sort of. I don't know what the deal is but I'm just not very good at taking a vacation. Maybe it's the fact that I enjoy my work so much or maybe it's just that there's too much of it lately but I can't sit still and relax for anything.

We took the Winnebago to the lake this past week and tried to have a "working" vacation. It turned into way more work than vacation including daily trips back home (an hour, round trip) for this thing or that thing I needed to work. I didn't have an Internet connection so I was trying to correspond through typed-on-the-cell-phone emails (what a joke). And RVs aren't known for their spaciousness so I couldn't spread out my drawings and paraphernalia all over the place like at home.

But, still, I really enjoyed it because it was something different AND, I got to take Lily to spend the night with me by herself one night and both Lauryn and Lily another night. That part WAS wonderful. Except for the fact that there's no "sides" at the camp playground.

Lots of April parties have been going on and lots of happy quilt shop owners are reporting in. Sherry, at Calico Cupboard in central Ohio, has been really excited about the response to the Party with Patrick™ Club at her shop. She and I had the chance to chat on the phone and I think she was a little surprised at the turnout she's had. I'm surprised myself by the fact that some shops are having to schedule more than one party a month to fit everyone in. What a nice problem to have, huh? I heard that there's one club with well over 50 members now and they just had their FIRST party! It's nice to know that what we're doing is helping to bring more customers into the quilt shops.

One thing that has always been rewarding about what I do is the fact that I can create a design and put it into pattern form so that my "audience" can make the same piece using their favorite fabrics. The Party with Patrick™ Club doesn't require a shop or its club members to buy large amounts of my fabric designs. I encourage my customers to use fabrics from their stash if they'd like or they can choose to use my fabric designs if they wish. In this economy, the main thing is to keep quilters quilting. Why do we have stashes in the first place? They aren't meant to take up space (I'm not even going to get into that issue!) So, if the money is tight, club members can draw on their stash and be able to join the party and all of it's social aspects without breaking their bank.

So, I get a lot of photos of my designs looking very different from the one I made and that's really cool to see. Sherry sent some pics from her April party and if you'd like to take a look you can click here. I posted the pattern cover showing my sample of the May Flowers design so you can compare it to the various choices in fabrics made by Sherry's partiers. It fascinates me to see what fabric prints other quilters choose for my designs.

I also had the chance to attend a party at a shop that's not too far from me called Zoe's Trunk in Chandler, AZ and these people know how to have fun as well. I have some pics to share from that party as soon as I get them posted so stay tuned. Hopefully, I'll have them ready to post tomorrow. I hear that Mary (owner of Zoe's Trunk) and Ken (their PWP Host) are going to be joining us for my Dam Christmas Party retreat in Boulder City, NV in July. I'm sure they'll bring a lot of fun with them!

I've lots to get done before the big birthday party this afternnon so I better get to it.

Thanks for looking in on me ;-)