regardless of what the stats say on the soil maps, Strawbs, I can definately say my soil is alkaline - not as much as yours but rhodies and azaleas are a distant memory from my northern childhood - our black silty fen soil is top class for cabbages, celery and onions and sugar beet. Anyhow, unfortunately, I am not much of a guide to soil ph and roses since this is an issue which rarely comes up - at least not as much as mildew, rust or blackspot. The only dodgy roses (chlorotic, needing regular sequestrene) I grow have had too close a brush with rugosas - and one of my only Austins, Wild Edric is definately a pale and pasty specimen....although Compte de Champagne comes awfully close and I couldn't say what its parentage is. Annoying, as the rugosas are generally happy with well drained, sandy soil (I am on calcareous grassland. Of course, I do not have the extremes of temperature that you have so I have been able to adopt a blase attitude to ph as it is practically impossible to actually kill a rose here. Nonetheless, not dying is emphatically not the same as thriving - there are roses which are doing considerably better than others. I did expect china roses would be a bit feeble but have surprised me with their general willingness to grow and bloom - Sophie's Perpetual, Mutabilis and Sanguinea have been stars. Even more surprising, the infamous bourbons do well for me too. I would have to say that the majority of my roses are species or close hybrids although I have a weakness for Harkness floribundas. I am incredibly fortunate in that Beales and Trevor White (2 out of 3 old rose growers in the UK) along with Harkness and Legrice are based in East Anglia with similar soil and climate conditions as myself....and fervently believe that this conflation of conditions has a whopping bearing on the subsequent health of the rose once it is planted in my garden so I think you are right, Strawbs, in pondering specific nursery circumstances before considering buying from them.

There are so many that I hardly know where to start. For organic info, Dirtdoctor.com. For regional horticultural info, Neilsperry.com. For crape myrtle info on variety selection/growing: crapemyrtletrails.org. To track the purple martin migration in spring: purplemartin.org. For monarch butterfly info/migration tracking: monarchwatch.org. For wildflower seeds, wildseedfarms.org. For Oklahoma weather info, a wealth of info can be found at the Oklahoma Mesonet, mesonet.org. For Oklahoma climate info, there's the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, at http://climate.ok.gov. I use the Sam Roberts Noble foundation at noble.org for Oklahoma-specific agricultural and horticultural info. They have lots of stuff, but sometimes you really have to search for it. They're the best source for info on growing strawberries here using plasticulture, and have done a lot of research with "homemade" hoophouses. To track the hummingbird migration in spring: hummingbirds.net. For OSU fact sheets on all kinds of agricultural and horticultural topics: http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/View/Collection-297. This takes you to the beginning of the index pages. A quick link to several tomato problem solver websites is to go to Tomato Pest and Disease Forum here at Garden Web, and search for Tomato Problem Solver 2 and search the resources linked there. For Texas A&M University's extensive veggie question and answer website, go to: htp://plantanswers.tamu.edu/vegetables/veg.html. I order seeds from quite a few websites. Someone already mentioned rareseeds.com which is the website for Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and it is my favorite source for many heirloom vegetables. Sandhill Preservation Center is a great source not only for heirloom seeds, but also heirloom poultry, and they have the best prices on seeds that I've ever seen. Seed Savers Exchange is great and anyone interested can buy from their public catalog, but the best thing is to buy an annual membership which gives you access to the many thousands of seeds their members save and perpetuate. Other favorite seed sources include Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Harris Seed (for some tomatoes they developed that are only available through them), Victory Seed (the BEST info avail. on the heirloom seeds they carry and high-quality seeds and packaging), and--for heirloom flowers of all kinds--Select Seed. I like allrecipes.com but also use recipezaar.com too. For "freebies" there are the many Freecycle sites across the country. To find the one nearest you, go to freecycle.org us. Membership is free and members can post messages about stuff they want to give away to someone who'll use it (better than sending stuff to the landfill!) and also members can post messages about stuff they are looking for. NO SELLING allowed, only free stuff. I believe there is a related Cheapskate organization to. For used merchandise, DS uses Craigslist. Find the Craigslist nearest you at Craigslist.org. Just this year, DA has found great buys: a fishing boat, a boat motor, a 125 gallon aquarium and a refrigerator. The refrigerator, for example, was in great condition and was only $50. For books, especially used books, I use Amazon.com but also use Half.com, which is where Kristine just bought books for the upcoming fall semester for $140 instead of spending $500 at the college campus bookstore. Every major retailer in the USA has a website and I shop at a lot of them, but I usually restrict myself only to the "Outlet" section of the website because the prices there are so much better even than sale prices. I also look online for coupon codes to get further discounts and free shipping. I just google the retailer name and words coupon codes because there are tons of coupon code websites. And, because it is always cool to find a cheaper way to feed our gardening habit, I love the ideas you can find at Garden Web's Frugal Gardening forum. I use DG's Garden Watchdog as well. For organic supplies I use a lot of different sites, including Planet Natural, Arbico (beneficial insects) and Worm's Way among others. When DS was younger and I was doing a lot of room mother type stuff, carnival type stuff and Cub Scout den leader type stuff, I always shopped at Oriental Trading Company (Orientaltrading.com) for theme merchandise, novelties, art and craft supplies, holiday decorations, etc. AND, if you're planning a wedding, they even have oodles and oodles of wedding favors, supplies, decorations, etc. That's all I can think of at this moment, but I can always post more later. Dawn

Hi Yvonne, I'm not sure I follow exactly, but you can carry the thread over to where you want to be, just take it down behind the piece and then bring it up on the other wing and start sewing at the beginning of the line, coming out right next to where the wing meets the butterfly's body. The sewing doesn't have to be one continous line throughout the piece. You will probably need to carry over to stitch on the antenae. This is where the layer of batting really helps, as it will hide your carryover threads. If you are doing a larger piece, rather than carrying over, you can just finish the thread and knot/tuck under and start sewing in a different place. Let me know how you do! --Amy

Hi, I'm new to this group and to sewing. After reading your posts yesterday I bought a Janome regular $129.99 on sale for $89.99 but b/c of Thanksgiving sale I lucked out and got it for $69.99. I took KyBell's advise and bought from a local dealer. The sales-lady took time to show me how to fill the bobbin, thread the machine, etc.... She told me that this little model is a favorite for quilters who go on cruises so they can quilt away. So, with that info and the recommendations from this site for the Janome I felt confident to make the purchase. I've been playing with the machine and I've got to say it's very easy to operate and the stitches are quite nice. Thanks for everything. Debi