The following conversation happened today between two friends in our booth at a quilt show. Seriously. You can’t make this up. “I want it all! I want every one of these!” “Me too! (picking up a kit and sighing) The problem is that my husband likes sex and I like to quilt.” “Yeah. He needs […]

Today is the 16th anniversary of the day Bill and I started our business. It was started at the Javits Center in New York with the ink on our business cards barely dry. We had gotten through the screening at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair and were showing our very different-looking modern quilts to buyers […]

I am writing this aboard a Virgin Airlines flight from Chicago to San Francisco where I am headed for business. I first flew Virgin from Tokyo to London in 1989 when it was the cool new airlines. It was a fun and memorable flight. Typically their fares are too high, however, and they have very […]

When I was an undergraduate I took a Japanese Economics class with an incredible woman, Eleanor Hadley, who had been part of General Douglas MacArthur’s occupation administration in Japan following the end of World War II. Professor Hadley had the most skillful delivery of the word “No” that I’ve ever seen. I once saw a […]

Awkward [Note: the moments described below have all occurred at various quilt shows where we’ve vended.] When people stand 3 ft from me and rate every quilt in the booth to her friends. “That one’s OK. I love that one but I don’t like that one; what’s with all the white?! Do you like that […]