Seam Line Variations in Improv and AHIQ #3 Link Up

A frequent comment about improvisational quilting is whether or not rulers to use rulers. Tami and I discussed freehand cutting at a book study. Offhand I can think of four ways to seam; each is a different combination of cutting and sewing.

1. Ruler cut; matched edges.
This is traditional quilting. Do you think it isn't improv? Think again. Many well-respected improv quilters use this technique in some part of their work. (Admittedly, most frequently to square up a freehand block.) Gwen Marston and Sujata Shah come to mind.

• Cut pieces with a ruler
• Match the cut edges
• Sew a quarter-inch seam

2. Free cut; matched edges.
Offhand, this may be what most people call improv.

• Cut pieces without a ruler
• Match the cut edges no matter how they wiggle
• Sew a quarter-inch seam

3. Ruler cut; unmatched edges.
This is a possibility but I don't think I've ever seen it done. The seams can move like matched edges of free cut strips.

• Cut pieces with a ruler
• Do not match the cut edges
• Sew at least a quarter-inch seam

4. Free cut; unmatched edges.
What is this? Just because it's cut a certain way, doesn't mean that's what is wanted. This method smooths out the irregularities. A seam can appear to have been ruler cut if done carefully.

• Cut pieces without a ruler
• Arrange the pieces to smooth out wiggles on the edges
• Sew at least a quarter-inch seam; it may be wider in some areas

Here they are 1-4, left to right, from the back. Look carefully to see where the edges match or not. Because seams are pressed to the dark, the uneven edges don't show well on the last one. I pinned them back to give you a better view.

Back views. Left to right:
1) Ruler cut, matched edges.
2) Free cut, matched edges.
3) Ruler cut, unmatched edges.
4) Free cut, unmatched edges.

And here's what they look like on the front. Notice how the seam line of #3 ruler cut, unmatched edges mimics the look of #2 free cut, matched edges. Similarly, #4 mimics #1. These are only one example of each. I emphasized the waviness to illustrate the seams; there are many different ways to cut them.

Front views. Left to right:
1) Ruler cut, matched edges.
2) Free cut, matched edges.
3) Ruler cut, unmatched edges.
4) Free cut, unmatched edges.

Improv is about choice. Frankly quilting is (or should be) about choice. Cutting and sewing decisions affect the appearance of your quilt. I believe we should follow our own inclinations rather than rules imposed by others. It's one thing to read and discuss; you are still responsible for your own choices. Blindly following dictates from others lessens our confidence and creativity.

Most of us quilt for pleasure. Are you having enough fun? This Subaru commercial expresses the joy we should feel when we quilt. (Google 'Subaru painting easel' to find it on your own.) Don't you wish we all experienced as much drive to create, excitement during the process, and contentment with our results as this man enjoys?

InLinkz removed because the site was hacked.

Enjoy the day,
Ann

Kaleidoscope Quilt and Peanuts Movie

We have a good friend who shares a love of Snoopy/Peanuts with my husband. Oh, and a birthday! We celebrated this year by visiting the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, CA, and attending the Peanuts movie. This past spring I decided to make her a quilt with Peanuts fabric. I'd seen some before this decision but I only found two pieces in six months of searching - one in California, the other in Colorado. (Once the quilt was finished I found a huge selection at PIQF and more at the Schulz Museum. Too late.)

My original plan would not work with only two fabrics. On to plan B. I've quoted Claire Cook before. "If plan A doesn't work, remember there are twenty-five more letters."

I used Marilyn Doheny's kaleidoscope ruler to make the Spiderwebs. There are directions for making kaleidoscopes with strips on the back of the card (which I still have, imagine that.) More recently I saw this lovely quilt by Linda Miller using four or five strips in each wedge. Sujata Shah made another that gave me the idea to wait to fill the corners until the top is on the design wall. (I can't find the link.)

Mine have only two strips, cut 3.5 inches each. Because of the angles, the seam at the top of the wedge is about 5/8". Once sewn, the inner ring becomes smaller than the outer and the blocks finish 11.25".

Kaleidoscope quilt using
Peanuts or Snoopy fabric.

I looked through my stash for cheerful fabrics that seemed to go with either the red or blue Snoopy fabric. Those two were used in most of the kaleidoscopes. I made strips of fabric pairs about 28" long and cut wedges with the point on opposite sides. This gave me two sets of four wedges. Then I placed the them on the design wall and rearranged.

Laying out the spiderweb portion of
Peanuts Kaleidoscope

Larger, slightly oversized HSTs fill the corners. Each was cut from a 4.5" square. By carefully selecting triangles, I made some flowers. (Thanks, Sujata!) The blocks were easier to trim because of the extra room in the corners.

Possible flowers in the Peanuts Kaleidoscope

I considered this Jane Sassaman fabric for the border. Using it as triangles looks better than the diamonds but in the end, decided this quilt didn't need anything more.

Considering a border for Peanuts Kaleidoscope

Because this is a snuggly lap quilt, I wanted a looser, all-over pattern. Maria Shell gave me the idea to mix swirls and flowers. Fun and easy.

Quilting details on Peanuts Kaleidoscope

Here's the leftover Peanuts fabric on the back, extended with some random scraps.

Back of Peanuts Kaleidoscope

Quilt Details

Size: 58"(H) x 58"(W)

Pattern: Kaleidoscope variation

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose 100% cotton

Thread: Gutermann cotton thread in orange

Quilting: Free motion on a Bernina 1230

Remember, the next Ad Hoc Improv Quilters link up is this coming Tuesday, 24 November. What have you been thinking about?

Enjoy the day, Ann

The Spiderwebs are Haunting Me

It's still clean up/clear out mode around here. I bought shallower boxes for my fabrics so they all fold upright. Much easier to move them and to see everything at one glance. Previously my fabrics and projects were stacked like pieces of paper. It was easy to get lost in the stacks.

Guess what? Those pesky Spiderwebs popped up during the move. I hadn't forgotten them but had been ignoring mine. Everyone else's are gorgeous. See Cathy's here, or Edeltraud's here or Sujata's here or Krista William's here... but mine have not played well together.

First attempt at Spiderwebs, 2014

While clearing out the scrap bag last week, I made more wedges. And I decided to limit the stars to light blue/green. On the left are four different blue stars. Unfortunately that's all of three blue fabrics. Most spiderwebs are grouped by their outer band color. Opinion of my arrangement? Yuck.

On the right the stars are one fabric and each web is grouped into alternating sets of outer band color. (I thought it might look like propellers.) Yuck again.

Spiderweb versions 2 and 3.

"If plan A fails, remember there are twenty-five more letters." Claire Cook

Adding dark strips didn't improve things nor did adding lights. Finally I decided the webs needed more concentrated colors. By now the scrap bag is skimpy; so I cut some new fabric. I sewed new wedges of mostly single colors - red, blue, green, yellow, purple, orange, or pink - placing them to boost the color of each web. Much better; almost jewel-like.

Spiderweb Jewels

Spiderweb blocks are sewn around the star, not the web. I drafted this 12" block myself using a kaleidoscope ruler. Silly me. The wedges needed to be cut 6.625". I should have used an easy measurement for the wedges and let the block be whatever size resulted.

Construction notes: Mine are not paper pieced. I sewed strips together, pressed, then cut wedges for some. Others I eyeballed lengths of strips to form the wedge, pressed, then trimmed with with the ruler. Once I started assembling the blocks, I stopped pressing to keep from distorting the bias edges.

Spiderweb Jewel, detail showing construction

Remember Ad Hoc Improv Quilters linkup #3 is only a week away - Tuesday, 24 November. What do you have to share?

Enjoy the day,
Ann

Tilting at Hawaiian Windmills

Look what my quilting sister made. I guess she liked the windmills I made from her donation fabrics because she's making one from her leftover Hawaiian fabrics. (That smartie buys these gorgeous prints whenever she vacations there.)

Hawaiian windmills with matching blades

And her second layout.

Hawaiian windmills with random blades

Here' how she finally pieced it.

Hawaiian Windmills with sashing

Enjoy the day,
Ann

Don't Leave a Puppy Home Alone All Day

You know what happens when you do, right? That puppy gets into everything, making a big mess... and is usually so proud to show you her results. In this case I was the puppy. Yep.

While visiting my quilting sister (QS) in Colorado this summer she foolishly left me home alone with the lame excuse of work. So I cleaned a bit, read a bit, then noticed the stack of fabrics she'd set aside to donate. According to QS, they didn't go together. Hah, says I.

I'd previously sent her a copy of Sujata's Cultural Fusion Quilts but... she hadn't started on any. Of course! She needed an example. I started cutting. By the end of the day there were 120 squares and some blocks were sewn. Over the week I finished sewing all the squares and suggested she sew it into a philanthropy top. QS gave me the snake eye. Where's the gratitude? Into my luggage they went. Last week I sewed them up. It's major clean up/clear out mode at my house.

Rocky Mountain November quilt

They look well together, IMHO. The fabrics remind me of late fall in the Rockies: the bright foliage is gone, some snow, blue skies and lakes, brown and evergreen hillsides. This has been my recurrent point -  your fabrics will go together. You already curated them when you bought them.

Rocky Mountain November detail

Because of the size, it's now a Veteran's quilt. Thanks, QS.

Quilt Details

Size: 90"(H) x 75"(W)

Pattern: Windmills from Cultural Fusion Quilts

Enjoy the day,
Ann

Use Those Scraps and AHIQ #2 Wrap Up

Did you read the links in AHIQ #2? Such variety of techniques and processes! Everyone presented their work much more confidently. We are all embracing our path and our discoveries. Modern utility quilts are an official movement. Hooray for us!

After these last few quilts, the scrap bag is overflowing. Even though I want to work on the selvedge strings, the bag demanded my attention. (Weird. Sometimes all the leftovers must be dealt with before I can make myself cut new material. Note to self: consider donating the scraps.) What a jumble of wrinkled fabrics.

First they were divided into three groups: strings, hunks, itty-bitties. The hunks were cut into 3-4" squares without a ruler, paired and cut into HSTs.  If four are alike, they form improv pinwheels. If not, they are just HSTs. As the day wore on the starting squares became larger and more random. However, you can see I need practice making the center points NOT match up.

Random Units Created to Empty the Scrap Bag

Strings go to spiderweb quilt that I've been sadly neglecting.

Itty-bitties are paired up and sewn into slightly larger units. I'm not sure what to do with these; I'm just making a pile for now.

Eventually I found some large hunks that I rough cut into 4x5" rectangles to make Housetops (or half log cabins.) These are interesting. I'm going to leave them on the design wall while I think.

Improv Housetops or Half Log Cabins

Because they are rectangles, it's important to determine which quadrant they occupy. Compare the quartet on the bottom left and right. Oops, on the right. And the sawtooth triangles were made for the New York Beauties. But I forgot to scale the paper correctly when printing. Oops, again. They look good here, though. Nice recovery.

Lots of little bits will make a large stack and perhaps a quilt someday. AND my ability to cut straighter without a ruler is improving by leaps and bounds.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Two Improv Round Robins

It's certainly been a busy month with a couple of trips, visiting friends, several quilt meetings, and the PIQF show. Most of my quilting time was spent on the Lobster Boat quilt for my grandson-to-be.

CQFA (California Quilt and Fiber Artists) is a smaller group that takes turns leading workshops. Round Robin from Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters was suggested.  Because I'd previously taken this workshop from Sherri Lynn, when the day arrived I was the leader. What a great day we had! Each top passed to seven quilters. Their personalities show in the sections they added.

Here's the top I took home.

CQFA Improv Round Robin 

My signature fabric, which I used on each top, was the green and yellow large moon print next to the orange feathers. I like the way everyone balanced additions to this quilt. The two red columns are especially strong and pleasing to me. My one regret is that I grabbed leftovers rather than pulling fabric. These small scraps are wonderful but each was already ruler cut the widths you see in the quilt. Very rectangular piecing rather than freehand cut. Live and learn.

Two weeks later the Book Study group met for our Round Robin. We stopped after the first round to take a quick photo of our beginnings. (Thanks for the reminder, M-N!) Clockwise from my Finnish flags in the bottom right: Tami, M-N, and MK.

MK shared results from a Floating Squares workshop she took with Sherri Lynn. It's a good read.

Bron gave me the lavender and cream print I used in the HSTs and as my signature fabric. You can see it best at the bottom of the last photo. The selvedge says it's a 1998 Nancy Crow design. How styles have changed!

First round of Book Study Round Robin

We completed six rounds which meant we worked on some tops twice. The results are below.

Finished Round Robins for me and MK

Finished Round Robins for Tami and M-N

Our next Ad Hoc Improv Quilters Linkup will be November 24. It's always the last Tuesday of each month. We hope you will join us with a link or simply come to read the fabulous posts from other improv quilters.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Chinese Coins Improv String Finished and AHIQ Linkup #2

I chose to square off the edges with a ruler, then quilted and bound the Chinese Coins improv string with a very soft pink solid. Light bindings attract me more these days.

Chinese Coins Improv String quilt

My first quilting idea was a combination of lines and circles like one of these sketches but Tami suggested a freehand diamond grid. Much more in keeping with the quilt. (Thanks, Tami!)

Quilting design sketches

Detail photos.

Chinese Coins improv string detail with red column

Chinese Coins improv string detail with crosscut column

Quilt Details

Size: 65"(H) x 57"(W)

Pattern: Improvisational Chinese Coins

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose 100% cotton

Thread: Auriful 50/2 cotton threads in pink

Quilting: Walking foot

More information about creating this quilt on these posts:
1. Beginning Improv String Quilt
2. Improv String Quilt Pieced

Enjoy the day,
Ann

InLinkz removed because site was hacked.

Propellers and Planes in the Fall 2015 Blogger's Quilt Festival

I've always wanted to make an airplane quilt - partly from memories of watching them with my grandfather and more recently because I have sons. When I saw some blocks made with the Steam Punk pattern, I knew it was time to start. I pulled all my vintage/special fabrics, bought more, and combined them into a personal memory quilt. Spurring me on... I desperately need a quilt large enough for our California king bed.

Propellers and Planes quilt

Upon completing a few blocks I loved the density of the fabrics when the blocks are set side by side without sashing.

Collage 2 of Steam Punk quilt blocks

However, that layout would be a piecing nightmare with so many points to be matched and thick seams pointing the same direction. Additionally, I wanted more variation on such a large quilt. So I drafted some larger blocks and sawtooth sashing, combining them with groups of four small blocks.

For more fun, I drafted and improvisationally pieced a squadron of 30" planes for the back. I've never gotten a photo of the entire back but I snapped several partial views at our guild show.

A squadron of single prop planes flies across the quilt back.

When you make a quilt "just for you" it's always scary to send it out into the world. What will other people think? I've been honored that so many people have stopped to talk with me about the fabric combinations. There is something for almost everyone on it: bicycles, models, dogs, birds, fish and flowers, vintage and modern. Those novelty prints plus remnants from gifts made for family and friends make it my perfect memory quilt. I am blessed to sleep under it every night.

A selection of the fabrics in this quilt

Here is my last post about this quilt with links to many construction steps.

Quilt Details

Size: 118"(H) x 118"(W)

Pattern: Based on Steam Punk 

Batting: Pellon cotton

Thread: Auriful 50/2 cotton sewing threads

Quilting: Free motion quilting on a home machine

I'm entering it in the Large Quilt category of the Blogger's Festival at Amy's Creative Side. Take the time to look at all the wonderfully diverse quilts.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Lobster Boat Quilt for a Special Person

Guess who's going to be a grandmother?

Lobster Boat quilt

How happy am I? VERY!

No names announced yet so we are calling him Little Tex.

Surely such avid sailors would want a sailboat quilt. Wrong-o. She Who Wore White wants a lobster boat. Fortunately she sent several photos. I got busy sketching different ideas. When finalized, templates are drafted by overlaying tissue paper. Sometimes I draft in reverse; other times I turn the tracing paper over after drawing because the freezer paper templates are always the opposite direction.

Lobster boat sketches and pattern.

Do you see those small cities of houses in the sketches? Thank goodness I came to my senses before piecing. The bottom two photos show the templates. I kept the gentle curve along the top of the hull because it will be easy to piece. But I did add a very small triangle on the front of the boat to make a pseudo-curve. It could have been been drawn as a curve, too.

Next I pulled fabrics that might work. Way more than I finally used but it all came from my stash.

Fabric possibilities for the lobster boat quilt

Fairly confident in my choices for the ocean and the boat's hull, I pieced those sections first. The bold red and white striped fabric adds emphasis (several boats had a band of color on the hull) but I especially liked the way the yellow and text fabric creates boards.

The lighter blue and white print and the dotted blue mimic reflections of the boat on water. Originally I planned to piece the lobster buoy from several small pieces. Then I found a Balinese wax print that worked excellently - a yellow teardrop on dark blue.

Piecing the lobster boat quilt

The blue fabrics get lighter with distance. Careful template placement on the blue and white stripe makes perfect shorelines and sandbars. How lucky is that? That's (my version of) the Brewster Island lighthouse in the distance.

Piecing the center of the lobster boat quilt

Throughout construction I was dreaming up more ways to personalize this quilt. So the trio of houses in the foreground are the school colors of parents and uncles. (In fact, that same yellow is in the Tiger Stripes Rail Fence.) To ensure no one else could claim them, each is labeled with the respective name in Metler Poly Sheen neon yellow or orange. More about writing in this post. None of these colors showed up well on the yellow house so I used dark purple cotton thread on it. Then I christened the boat with the grand-dog's name and added a Texas flag because he would always fly it.

Details of the lobster boat quilt

There were sailboats, fish, and lobster prints begging to be used but they never worked in the body of this quilt. I worked them into the border.

I intended to improvisationally piece the back from the scraps (honest) but these fabrics dropped next to each other. Now he will always be wrapped in the loving arms of Texas... and me.

Texas flag on the back of the Lobster Boat quilt.

Those directions for five-pointed stars came in handy again.

Lots of free motion quilting: still water, waves, stone houses, windshield, boards, and more. Even with all that quilting, it's still soft and cuddly once it was washed.

Quilting details from the back of the Lobster Boat quilt.

Quilt Details

Size: 50"(H) x 51"(W)

Pattern: Original design

Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose 100% cotton

Thread: Metler and Auriful 50/2 cotton sewing threads, Metler Poly Sheen

Quilting: Free motion quilting

The next Ad Hoc Improv Quilters Linkup begins the Tuesday, October 27.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Selvedge String Quilt Resewn

The Selvedge String quilt is back together. Although most people won't notice any difference, I like it better.

Selvedge String quilt, resewn final seam

Here's what it looked like the first time. The lighting is better in this photo but the long selvedge from side to side bothered me. That's what I removed.

Selvedge String quilt, before resewing.

Because I added fillers, there are still places where they point in opposite directions when they meet, but it no longer feels like opening a book.

Selvedge String quilt, detail of final seam

Border next.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Selvedge Quilt Continues

I made twenty Brock House units before putting them together. My only requirements for sewing two units together were equal lengths and that they not have the same center solid. Sometimes they matched almost perfectly in length and curvature.

Two selvedge blocks ready to sew together.
Same length and curvature.

Others just needed a trim.

Two selvedge blocks.
On the left: same length, need trimming.
On the right: trimmed.

It got a bit harder after that. The well-behaved pairs matched each other again although the length might be off. In the set below, I added another string to the top right side to get them to match.

Left photo: the top right section bows in.  
Right photo: yellow string added to equalize the lengths.

Other times, they curved away from each other. Fixing that was a choice between adding some strings or trimming the curves. When trimming, I overlaid the two units and cut between them so they would lay flat after sewing. There's a more detailed explanation in this post.

I sewed two sets of four and two sets of six then sewed those together. Again I added a selvedge or trimmed as seemed best.

Things went very well until the last seam. Here's a mistake. I added long selvedge strips to both sides rather than trimming one side.  The selvedges point in opposite directions so even with a variety of selvedge strings this seam is more visible.

On the design wall it was obvious a long selvedge joined every large section together. If I had trimmed both sides, the vertical and horizontal rectangles would have butted against each other in a more natural fashion and better disguised this seam. I may take these out and redo them...

Brock House Selvedge quilt center

Here's a detail of the final seam.

Final seam detail.
All the selvedges point in opposite directions.

Did you notice that the solid selvedges are included in these strings? I was afraid the quilt would be too bland. The solids had really long fringe on the edges, so I sewed them about an eighth-inch inside the woven area. Perhaps you can see it in the photo below. I used white thread for all this sewing since many of the selvedges have a white edge.

As luck would have it, two solids formed a T which you can see in the photo on the left. Like an itch you can't scratch, it bothered me until I inserted a second string to separate them.

Selvedge quilt detail:  before and after
inserting a second string between two solid strings.

One of the best effects of blogging is that it forces me to slow down. Stopping to look at the photos helps me see problems that aren't as apparent while I'm sewing. Perhaps they aren't a mistake to anyone else but it's better to decide now if it will continue to bother me. And what am I going to do when I finish this quilt? Start another. Might as well get this one to my satisfaction.

Previous posts Improvising a Traditional Block and Selvedge Race quilt.

Enjoy the day, Ann

AHIQ #1 Wrap up

What a week! Kaja and I both feel Ad Hoc Improv Quilters started off with some wonderful links. So many different ways to improv a quilt. People shared their ideas so generously. Looking at all the comments and posts, two common themes thread through the posts.

• Although improvisational quilting is more demanding than originally thought, most find the process freeing and fun. Hooray for a positive!
• Many worry whether their work is "real" improv, whether it resembles other improv quilts. Boo for a negative anxiety.

Kaja posted about emotions. I'm going to attempt to work through the anxieties.

Her dictionary definition "to create or perform spontaneously and without preparation" and "to produce or make something from whatever is available." Neither of these says anything about style, commercial success, or approval by anyone including the worst critic of all - our inner negative voice. Improvisational quilting is a way to practice, and hopefully master, our own artistic visions. It's also a way to use fabric we already have on hand. Both are admirable and sufficient to the definitions.

There are no references specifying use of rulers or not, use of rotary tools or scissors, use of new, recycled, printed, or dyed fabric. Gwen Marston and Sujata Shah seem to prefer to cut freely at first before they straighten their units with rulers. Rayna Gilman and Sherri Lynn Wood usually avoid rulers. Rayna also over-dyes and prints her fabrics. All are improvisational quilters. While we certainly admire their work and find ideas there, it's a mistake to constantly compare our work with others. Amy at Amy's Free Motion Quilting Adventures said it best: "Comparison is the thief of joy."

By 1998 Nancy Crow was so tired of her rigid, template-driven style she almost quit quilting. The quilts of Anna Williams revitalized her, encouraging her to move in a completely new direction - improvisational, without drafted designs, rulers or templates. Anna was the first guest artist at the1990 Quilt/Surface Design Symposium. Nancy is an internationally known quilter. Who influenced her? A vernacular artist - Anna Williams.

Anna hailed from Louisiana, not Alabama. Most of her quilts were made of many small pieces rather than the large pieces more common to early Gee's Bend work. Why? Katherine Watts gave fabric to Anna when she closed her shop. Anna had a rich resource of quilting fabric unavailable to the others.

The women of Gee's Bend originally quilted "britches quilts", the name they gave to utility quilts made from worn out clothing. Later some got factory scraps, the leftovers from mills. At one time, they used Sears corduroy. As their economic situations improved, they eventually purchased fabric off the bolt. This progression is visible in their quilts.  My first point is that they chose what to use from what was available to them. My second point is that they were internally compelled to create artful quilts to the best of their abilities. Just like Anna; just like us.

This reminded me of Kathleen McCrady of Austin, Texas - an accomplished, award-winning quilter. Here's what I recall from a lecture she gave in Dallas years ago. Her parents were Oklahoma farmers; they had land instead of cash. With a small grant from the Quilter's Guild of Dallas, Kathleen documented her family quilts before they were completely lost to history. She related the sequence of fabric use: sew a dress; when worn out, make an apron; when that wore out, make a quilt. It was very apparent from the photos that these were utility quilts whose primary purpose was keeping the family warm. Large rectangles of dress fabric, faded and slightly dingy from years of wiping hands on those aprons combined with occasional work pants. Many were stuffed with corn husks. Finally she showed a 1950 bright pink and green quilt, the first her family made with fabric purchased expressly for a quilt.

Britches quilts, work clothes quilts, utility quilts. These women never called their quilts improvisational, although we classify them such. Perhaps we should call our work Modern Utility.

Many of these women knew each other or they knew other quilters working in this style. They borrowed designs from each other. And they had fun making something needful. When the press of needfulness abated, they made quilts for the sheer joy of the process. How about you? Are You Havin' Any Fun?

Enjoy the day, Ann