I hopped on the phone this morning and called Betty in Rapid City and the call was answered “who is this?”When I identified myself she said “oh, I’m glad I picked up the receiver!” Right away she said, “I’m not dead!” She said she had tried to call me but the number she called was my old landline.
I was relieved to talk with her. What’s going to happen when any of us die and the blog readers will never know? Will any family member leave a comment to let me know? I worry about this.
Li has a great suggestion – take a picture of the couch quilt you currently use when you’re watching tv in the evening. It can be a casual picture of it thrown over the couch. Don’t stress about it. Send it to my email. I’ll take my picture tomorrow.
How about Thanksgiving decorating? Send me the pictures.
This is Sue who helped me all day today and finally the back room is completely organized and in order. She says she likes organizing – me, not so much but this will make life easier for me.
She kept a running list of any patterns that I don’t have at least a single pattern and after Christmas I’m going to post the list. All of you can help me compile a master collection of all the patterns we published. I can’t believe we were so shortsighted as to get rid of patterns as well as the quilts. 40 years of quilts! We thought we were done. 😢
The Vote can be available for $10.00 and a SASE – business size envelope ONLY.
To the reader who asked about The Storm – I found a single copy with many pages so the price is $10.00.
All payments must be cash or check. I’m sorry to keep repeating but obviously not everybody reads what I say.
Available Christmas patterns:
Each of these Christmas quilts are $5.00 and EACH PATTERN REQUIRES ITS OWN SASE – a business size envelope not a small letter envelope.
Tomorrow is the day – don’t forget to vote!
I am so happy to see a response from you, Betty! It is always fun hearing your opinions.
I was lucky enough to visit your shop twice, Mary; and I did shop for patterns. They were wonderful stops.!
Our rain gauge read 2 1/4” today at noon; this was also for yesterday.
Thanks, Mary 🥰
Oh my! There’s Betty! Hi Betty! Glad all is well with your computer. I love that joke, just lose your balance, lol! I’m reading all of the advice here about how to keep things straight and what to put where. My question is that our passwords are always changing – or at least that’s what I thought we were supposed to do. How do you put those on a document? Maybe I misunderstand? Jan in MA
Jan, we were told to write everything down the old fashioned way….paper.
I would list your present passwords for accounts you use but leave enough space to cross out and update as needed. That’s what makes it hard if you put your data on a flash drive, then hand it to your children or person in charge, it’s harder to ask for it back and change. Paper in your own possession is how you control everything written down and current. And keep the file box handy so you can keep a recent bank statement in it, etc like Jo recommended.
Oh wow! There’s Betty! Hi Betty! Glad all is well with your computer. I love that joke, just lose your balance, lol! I’m reading all of the advice here about how to keep things straight and what to put where. My question is that our passwords are always changing – or at least that’s what I thought we were supposed to do. How do you put those on a document? Maybe I misunderstand? Jan in MA
I am so glad you called Betty! That is awful that she was hacked and I am so glad she didn’t give in to his demands. I hope you get to call her periodically so that we know she’s ok! At least until she gets her computer straightened out. So glad that Sue is there to help you, Mary! Hi Sue! So glad this election is coming to a close, and I’m so glad you found the pattern for “VOTE!”! Jan in MA
One more thing. I DID NOT HAVE any financial information, etc on my computer — just quilting, etc. Once I asked if I should be backing up my computer information. The answer was you don’t have anything to back up!!! I’m an old bookkeeper. We don’t die, we just loose our balance!!Betty
Thank you, everybody, for missing me. The computer was completely frozen so it was no help. It took awhile for my computer person to get it cleaned up. Look! We’re back and I love it. Had to open a new checking account and get all the automatic deductions and deposits set up again. It could have been so much worse as my account has just my checks. I don’t like other people with their hands in my checking. When my husband was alive, we each had our own account, but they were joint and set up so at death his went over automatically to me. Plus, I had filed ALL the necessary information. We had a disagreement on who should file stuff. He said if he did, he’d know where it was. If it was me, he wouldn’t know to which I answered if he filed it, neither of us would know where it was!!. We solved the problem with me having the original and he had a copy!!!! Worked like a dream.
In the meanwhile – back to quilting!!!
I, too, am happy to hear Betty is ok, and only a computer problem. Hope it gets fixed.
Mary, you mentioned no pig or cow patterns. There was a goat pattern and kit. The kit is still in my things to do.
Good advice regarding accounts, computer passwords, etc. I don’t think about it too much, but have a little lately after losing two cousins in the past 3 months.
What will the commercials be tomorrow? And, will the unknown calls be fewer?
Beryl – yes, we did several goat patterns because I’ve always had goats. Never had pigs or cows however.
OMG, $9,000 to unlock her computer! Shocking!! Disgraceful.
Betty, I’m glad you’re ok. Technology, AI, what’s next?
I’m so thankful we have quilting to keep us grounded. I know technology helps design patterns, prints fabric, deliver news, pictures, messages (blog friends) from New Zeland to New York and beyond. Ok , we need technology, so we have to take the bad to enjoy the good.
There is a couple local races that are interesting here. I’m keeping track of them.
Welcome back, Betty, when things get restored. I experienced a scam through my computer 18 months ago. What a frustrating mess, to say the least. You’ll get it figured out. Data Doctors, if there is one near you, might be of help. Technology was supposed to make life easier!
Glad for all the advise to put with final papers. Thank you so much. It’s time to do a review and overhaul of my Trust anyway.
Mary and Sue, thank you for all the time to organize the patterns. Copier? Is there someone at your church that could help you out, or knows someone who can?
Just last Saturday my family was having dinner together and commenting on all the negative rhetoric during this election season. Since my children’s voting experience has been in this atmosphere, I told them this was not the the way it should be, or was the case not too many years ago. Again, technology has stirred the pot. The only glimmer of civility I’ve seem was the debate between the vice presidential candidates. Okay, done with my two cents. Yes, I did vote early with a mail-in ballot.
Mary, your blog adds civility and kindness, beauty to our days. Thank you!!!
Jan
So happy you were able to talk to Betty! Betty, we all miss you. I loved reading about your daily life. I also loved reading what your weather was because I had two grandsons at the school of mines in Rapid city. The oldest has now graduated last spring and is an engineer at caterpillar in Peoria, Illinois. The younger grandson transferred to the Mitchell Tech School. Keep in touch Betty!
Gray weather with no measurable rain. They are still saying it is in the forecast but it all goes east.
Take care.
Betty I was eavesdropping on your conversation with Mary yesterday. I want to be your friend – doesn’t everyone? You are a hoot. Glad you are well. I helped Mary organize her patterns yesterday. I’m no organization expert, but I do enjoy it. Hopefully my work will be beneficial to Mary when readers request a pattern. Now if only we could figure out her copier. We tried. Honestly, it was like Lucy & Ethel.
Sue – hahaha!! It really was like Lucy and Ethel, wasn’t it? It still haven’t come across the IB folder – I simply can’t handle working and chatting at the same time, I guess.
Betty, You are also a wealth of information. Last year you told us about the buffalo round up. I never knew anything about it and was fascinated by the video. Thanks for letting us know about it.
Mary, so glad you were able to reach Betty. Rain again today for us. We have 1.6 inches in the past 52 hours. Glad for the rain.
I attended your “closing” sale and have several of your patterns that were FREE during the sale. If I have any that you are missing, I will let you have my copy so that we can all have access to them. I love the Vote quilt. I love that you designed quilts around what was going on in your lives. What a fun way to remember. Glad you got in touch with Betty!
Debbie – when I make the list you can just make me a copy. On the subject of making quilts around our lives, listen to this. We made farm animal quilts a lot but we never featured a pig or a cow because I didn’t have either one on the farm. My limited outlook – ha!
I attended a seminar following church a few weeks ago and it was about assembling all our important data in a lock fireproof filing box the big box stores sell. Our world has become so digital that no more just documents but passwords to accts, renewing yearly contracts and yes on important things listed too was a list of people you wished to be notified of your passing and the way to get ahold of them. This was so whomever is left behind to care for your dealings can have at their fingertips what to do as easy as possible…..even list the hymns you want sung at your service if desired. We are more now than a paper copy of a house deed, birth, marriage, death certificates. We do a lot digitally that we didn’t do before like auto renewing a Barnes and nobles membership or snowplowing on a credit card. It saves trying to get it removed before you shut down the card. I know many of us already do this for the care of our pets with lawyers. I learned more though at this seminar which wasn’t legal jargon as much as personal things. And then don’t forget to show the person you are leaving in charge of your affairs where the key is to your Life Box!
Good morning Betty. Hope you still read comments that you are dearly missed.
Kathy, So true. We updated our wills last year and our lawyer gave us papers to fill out for all the digital stuff: 1) devices; 2) user name, password, and instructions for a) digital devices, b) email accounts, c) social networking, d) online banking/investments, e) online media like netflix, etc, f) online storage like icloud, dropbox, g) online shopping like Amazon, h) domain names for blogs, etc, and i) voicemail/home security. It was overload for me, but I have all that information now. He also asked us to fill out a page with personal property items with recipients we wanted for certain items. We had done that long ago, asking our sons what they wanted. Thankfully, there was overlap between what they each wanted.
“No” overlap. Fingers went too fast.
Kathy – such good advice!!
My husband passed away unexpectedly 3 months ago – fortunately for me, things were pretty well organized. There were a few things I needed to hunt for, but things were not too hard to find for the most part. Unfortunately, he had just changed his e-mail password and had not recorded it so I haven’t been able to access that yet – hope I haven’t missed anything important there! I’m sure it will get figured out soon, but other things have taken priority.
One note of caution for those with joint checking or savings accounts: one would think that having a joint account with mean equal access by both parties. However, in our case, he was listed as the primary (which we couldn’t get changed for some reason). Anything he did online with those accounts under his user name and password could not be seen by me if I logged in under my own user name and password, so he shared the info with me so I could manage the account when he was away or busy. When the bank found out he had passed, they froze his access and I couldn’t see anything that was scheduled to pay. I had to make several trips to the bank to set things straight, and the bank made several miscues which resulted in some bills being paid twice. I has taken all this time to get things straightened out with that bank – and I’ll soon have everything moved to a different bank!
Gail, I have heard that same banking situation with couples as well which has prompted us to visit our banks! I’m a believer of having things in order so my kids can concentrate on getting rid of my SH…T, oh I mean treasures. I work with many mission groups so don’t worry about my fabrics. They know whom to contact.
Vicki, thanks for even more information. I swear with all the Amazon purchases my kids make, no wonder stores can’t last. They don’t walk in stores to food shop nor other things. They probably would vote some day that way so they use their phones for that too. The person leading the seminar said go back to the old fashioned way of paper rather than digital or flash drives for writing everything down as long as it’s stored in the fire proof file.
I can relate to your predicament….totally. A beneficiary of an account doesn’t give you the same access to the account as a co-owner. And possibly, Credit Union rules may be different than bank rules. I would advise everyone to print your banking statement about every 3 months. Shred the old one. That gives the person left accurate info on what is paid on line, automatically deducted, automatically deposited, etc. what to cancel, what to change. That information is critical if the account is frozen.
Gail -oh, I cannot imagine what you’ve been thru! We all ignore it till it’s too late to ask. I wrote a trust but it’s so complicated I have no idea what will happen when I die.
I’m so glad you called Betty. Are you able to tell us why she hasn’t commented in such a long time. Like many others, I was hoping that nothing was wrong.
Compiling a list of all your patterns is a great idea . You had so many beautiful and unique designs. Love them all.
I’m going with my Mom today to see a friend in the nursing home. My Mom is taking her an amaryllis plant. The plant grows so fast that you can see a change every day and, the blooms are exotic looking. She should really enjoy it.
Connie – a hacker who demanded $9000 crashed her computer when she refused to pay him!! It’s taken awhile to find a tech to fix it.
Oh my!!! How sad and scary for her. I can see why she was not commenting. Hopefully she can find a solution. The world we live in….
Thinking of you all. We have been saturated with u.s. news for weeks now and tomorrow 10.30am our time we will be following the counting.
The world awaits….
Denise – and aren’t you as sick of it as we are?????
Actually, yes!
Thanks Denise. Today for me is a day of NOT watching tv. After voting (which I did) there is nothing more than the chatter of all news stations trying to figure it out. Tomorrow will tell me all that I need to know and I’d rather be sewing anyway. We Americans are so self-centered we forget what an impact our president has on the rest of the world. Hopefully, we will make a good decision so relations elsewhere go smoothly. I listen to Australian news on Utube often as you have about the best information.
You must be going into your spring/summer season, am I right?
Take care.
Yes Janet, but currently more like summer with temperatures in 30s (unsure how that translates to you) and evening thunderstorms. The plan is to tidy up the yard asap so can then stay in my sewing room where it us cooler.
Mary, for the $10 patterns, does the SASE need more than one stamp?
Martha – I haven’t weighed it but probably it takes two. It’s sorta thick and I’ll probably have to use a different size envelope. I should have had the po figure it out before I posted – duh.
That’s great you got a hold of Betty. How wonderful to get all your patterns organized. A job well done and it will really make your life easier I agree.