Hello Quilter! Welcome 2017! Zoey, pictured in her dashing new shades, and I wish you only good things for the entire new year and beyond. Imagine.

MadMimi.jpg
ZoeyGlasses

Hello Quilter!

Welcome 2017!

Zoey, pictured in her dashing new shades, and I wish you only good things for the entire new year and beyond.

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Imagine...2017! The number 7 has always been one of my favorites. I like 5 too, but 7 has always has always been the favorite. Unlike 3 or 8---they don't do a thing for me. I have no idea why. I can't think of anything lucky or auspicious about the number 7, nor has anything particularly good or bad happened to me that had anything to do with 7.

Seven, and all derivatives of 7, are also funny to me, as in: "I just bought 37 Santa hats yesterday." (Actually, I bought 40, but 37 sounds funnier.) They were on sale. 75% off. How could I pass them up?!

After spending way too much time pondering 7, I just noticed that it is the only digit from 1 to 10 that has more than one syllable. Maybe that's why it's funnier. (Maybe not.)

For those of you who are still hanging in there and haven't deleted me, allow me to share one more bit of mathematical nonsense. My uncle Bud made up his own number: elevendy-seven. He used it any time he could get away with it. Still makes me smile. Slip it into conversation and let me know how it goes.

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Christmas List app

Gifting App

The Santa hats reminded me that I used a new app this year for keeping track of presents. It was really fun. It's free (always a good thing) and it lets you keep track of gift ideas, where to get them, price, and status for individual people and groups of people. You can check off when it is purchased, wrapped, shipped...whatever you need. For those of us who look out for those special gifts all year long, I found it tremendously helpful AND entertaining. I even got everything done ahead of time for once in my life. Except the present for Janet who told me about the app. (Sorry Janet. Still sewing.) The APP is called The Christmas List by Erik Eggleston. Get it here.

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MerryMerryTease

A Little Tease

You've heard of Christmas in July? Let's call this Christmas in March. I'm such a trendsetter. Watch, this is going to be huge. Retailers everywhere are going to jump all over this bandwagon.

I've been working with Steve's cousin Ann Marie Cunningham for probably two years now on Christmas fabric. That's not entirely true. Ann Marie did all the hard work (Draw this! Draw that! Make it bigger/smaller/wider/thinner...) within weeks of agreeing to let me drive her crazy. I've been procrastinating on my part of the bargain, which to my utter amazement, has not moved the project forward in the least. Until now. I finally have my fabric proofs in my hands, and I am beyond thrilled with the way it turned out. Except that I totally missed Christmas. Hence my brilliant marketing scheme.

There will be patchwork patterns for a tree skirt and table runner using the triangular patches featuring Ann Marie's awesome designs. And, soon after that, many of the same motifs will be rendered in 4" squares for you to patch together for all kinds of wonderful projects. Please imagine me hard at work at the sewing machine making large, triangle, log-cabiny blocks with one hand while writing and illustrating the patterns with the other. OK, maybe Christmas in April?

We're calling the line "Merry Merry." It will only be available at AmiSimms.com. To give me a thumbs up click here. That will automatically put your email address in a file so that you will be the first to know when the fabric is available for purchase. Plus it will encourage me (or fill me with guilt) depending on how far along I am with my work when you click.

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NeckLiteDemo

That's me on the right in a totally dark room with nothing but the NeckLite for illumination. No PhotoShop tricks.

NeckLITES

I have not been able to get NeckLITES in stock since October! My order is finally on its way and should be delivered Wednesday. For those of you who have been so patiently waiting, your lights will be shipped by the end of this week. Thank you so much for your patience.

For those who didn't get their orders in by Halloween, I have ordered extra lights---battery powered and adjustable for around your neck, AND plug-in for your sewing machines. Order here. These are by far the best lights I've ever sewn with.

NeckLiteColors

Available neck strap colors are shown without the X.

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MileIQ

If you have a business, you should track your mileage. Business miles are tax deductible. I racked up 1,624 miles in 2016 just running around town to the bank, post office, fabric store, other fabric stores, and still more fabric stores, to purchase things for my business. That's about $875 I won't have to pay taxes on. Why leave that money on the table?

Use Mile IQ. It's painless, and kind of fun. It's a smart phone app that runs automatically. All you have to do is classify each drive at the end of the day. (You can wait, but my memory is like a sieve. I can't remember what I had for lunch today let alone where I drove yesterday and why I went there.)

January is a great time to start. It's probably one of your new years resolutions already, right? Get MileIQ for free and see if you like it. My link will give you a 20% discount should you decide to upgrade to the paid version. And I'll get a $25 gift card if you do. Here's the link: https://www.mileiq.com/invite/PNVGG

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Thank You!

Thanks for reading all the way to the end! Scooter is mad at me for giving him a bath and he doesn't feel like writing this time around. He'll be in the newsletter next time.
Happy New Year and Happy Quilting,

AmiSimms Sig
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