Ken, the term applies. Yes, full contact is how I approach this business, as you'd agree if you saw me right now. I've been out potting the new guys from Green Mt., and they are all lined up with their new pots as the newest of the new to watch in my staging area for a few days. So far no pepper splashed on them, but all in due time. I thought I'd indicated that it was the lack of drainage, even with holes drilled in the bottoms, pots and saucers included, that would NOT drain. For whatever reason, maybe because the holes were on the bottom, even though they sat on thick cypress shredded mulch, that some were swimming in water after some of our heavy reains. I'd been cycling them out of my hosta garden, but this spring I really saw the damage they did with my poor plantaginea collection. I had 8 of them, mostly from 2012, and they are like miniature plants. The soil was soaking wet in the bottoms and a good way up the tops. I was disgusted. I am very pleased that Chris at Hallson sent extra plantaginea as my gift hosta, since I only ordered one. One can never be too rich, or have too many Mama plantaginea hosta. Anyway, my two neighbor ladies who garden and each own ONE hosta....its a greenie and might be Honeybells, I'll see when it blooms.....they are quite pleased to have the old pots since they pot and sell their daylilies and such. Making a little retirement $$$ from their green thumbs. Both have free passes to my hosta garden. Not much is showing in the potted hosta, since there were some pips but no leaves. I realize that it is a lot easier to pot dormant or pipping hosta than the leafed out ones. With Chris' directions, I'm HXLL on wheels with the pot job! I think I almost know what I'm doing these days.....hehehe.... But I'm pulling out those NON DRAINING pots, which just happen to be sold by WalMart, only place I ever saw such for sale though, and using the very basic black nursery pots of appropriate size. With this windfall from GreenMt, I got my Fair Maiden and it had over 20 eyes. I got confused and started the count over a couple of times, then finally said, 20 is close enough for gummit work. And my additional Verna Jean plants (I ordered 4 more) came apart into about 8 to go with 2 full pots from 2012 also from Green Mt, so I put them in a ring around a full The Razor's Edge to make a nice full display pot. Verna Jean multiplies quickly too, so I have visions of a real nice small hosta edge to my driveway bed. Not quite on the driveway, but close enough! I got one giant in the bunch, my very first Montana, Aureo Marginata. Judging by the size of those pips, bigger around than my THUMB, and the heavy roots on it, with a big piece of crown as well, it will fill up a good sized pot this summer. I'm looking forward to that one. Then I had 2 Harpoons. Those roots were fine as angel hair spaghetti, and had many eyes on each plant. I put them in one pot like twins, the next size up from the small pot. Maybe later today I will be restored/refreshed enough to take my camera out to show off the flat black pots full of mix and white ends of name tags punctuating the lineup. But right now, I'm pooped. I know I'm omitting some in my remarks, but that will change as they poke noses above the edge of the pot. I really want to see my golds.....the new ones, Cadillac, Fat Cat, King Tut...I'm a sucker for the gold hosta! I noticed most of this order was for medium sized plants, not intentionally, it just worked out that way. I also like the smalls, and those which are slightly bigger than small too. Well, hope I've appropriately responded to the WalMart point of order. No reason to cast aspersions on them or their products. Just these pots are not good for hosta. Avoid them. Wanna see a picture? I'll show you a few shortly.

I personally prefer to use the Gutermann threads. However, if I were to be making a quilt that I was hoping would win awards and be hung in museums, I would likely select a 100% cotton thread. I am not a big fan of the monofilament, especially in the bobbin. It tends to stretch and I get more bobbin thread breakage when used in the bobbin. I also have found that when I ue it in combination with cotton or cotton/poly blends, it has a propensity to slice through my other threads and then the quilt ends up looking like a hot mess. But again, when I taught quilting [a lifetime ago, it seems], I was also for "do what you like, however you choose to complete it". I want people to enjoy the experience and the journey, not regret that they "should have" followed the "rules" or that they somehow "broke the rules." Here's a clue, folks: there are no rules. Only recommendations. We have so many new methods and tools because of the people who "broke" the rules and found new and (sometimes) better ways to do things. great question.

Carol, In a different tut I too had problems with the drop shadow turning ugly (dark) after I animated it....it turned out that I had to reset my optimization settings... See if this will help with your dark edges... Open A/S....open a new canvas and draw a line on it...this will get the settings to stick... Then click File....Optomization Wizard.....Next...Customize button...Partial Transparancy Tab...now you want to change the blend color from black to white. Then keep hitting Next till you get to Finish and hit that too.... But you're right, its pretty as is... : )) FlutteringBy

Are there ever A LOT OF GREAT TUTS at this site!!....wow, 2 hrs. (when I should have been doing other things) zipped by & I haven't viewed them all yet....sure is easy to loose track of time when you're into some good stuff!!... : )) Glad you posted the site, FlutteringBy