Blog Tour Day WhoTheHellKnows and Day IsAnybodyPayingAttentionAnymore

I'm playing a bit of catch-up today, as yesterday just kinda generally sucked ass. The stop on the tour yesterday was my friend Lisa Sipes, who was also apparently having a suck-ass kind of day too. Long, long ago I made a baby quilt for an old friend and was not confident enough to quilt it myself. We were pretty strapped for cash back in those days and paying someone was a luxury I could not afford. I wrote about this conundrum in a blog post and a short time later got an email from Lisa saying, in essence, "I will quilt it for you. No charge." I was floored by the offer and my first instinct was to refuse, but I decided to say yes. It was beautiful.

I started hearing from Lisa more and more in comments and emails and then she did another quilt for me, the one I made for the person who gave me a plane ticket so I could go see my brother after his first brain surgery. This time I sent her a check. Bitch refused to cash it. And look what she did for me:

This seemed to be right before Lisa went and got INSANELY FAMOUS. I love her so much and I love her work, and if it were at all possible, I'd have her quilt everything I do. I worry all the time about asking her, because she has gotten so, so busy and everybody, it seems, now wants a piece of her, and I don't want to be one of the ones pulling her limbs off just so I can have something I want. I just hope that someday I can figure out a way to give her something back that means as much as what she has given me.

ANYWAY. My favorite weirdo was yesterday's stop on the tour and she is giving away a book so get on that shit and enter!

BUT WE ARE NOT DONE! No, now I am going to tell you about my friend and Quilt Market Stalker, Charlotte Newland, who is today's stop on the tour.

When I went to my second Quilt Market in Houston in October of 2012, I was scheduled to leave noonish on Sunday, which meant I could swing by the Market floor quickly Sunday morning. I posted something about my Market exploits Saturday night (most likely something to the effect of how much time I spent in the bathroom trying to avoid having to talk to people) and someone named Charlotte commented on my post, asking if I'd be around on Sunday. I said yes, but only for a few minutes first thing, and though no more of it.

Then Sunday morning, I'm in the GenQ booth with my big-ass suitcase being stuffed full of extra copies of the mag and I hear a little British voice behind me: "Megan? I'm Charlotte."

I know that Charlotte now thinks I am a total freak, but I must have hugged her twenty times. It was so amazing to me that someone wanted to meet me at all, and then even more amazing that she was willing to get out of bed early and come down to the show floor to try and catch me before I left. And she was so funny and sweet and I knew that we would have to become BIFFs (that's Best Internet Friends Forever, natch).

Since then, I've seen Charlotte win ribbons at QuiltCon:

and make all kinds of cool stuff, and teach classes, and snuggle with her dogs and celebrate her kids and her husband. I love reading her blog because she is so funny and warm and real and pretty much exactly the way I remember her from our short in-person meeting.

In real life, Charlotte is an editor for a scientific journal, so when I was working on my little booky-poo, I asked her to copy-edit for me and she graciously agreed. I wish I could share with you all her suggestions (Charlotte did not edit - she suggested), because they were all phrased like, "You certainly don't have to change this, because who the hell am I to tell you what to write, but I do think it should be 'fewer orphans' and not 'less orphans.' Please don't hate me!" I could never hate you, Charlotte, and yeah, I know 'fewer' is technically correct but the narrator of that piece would not, so it stayed 'less.' Sometimes the incorrect thing is intentional—ARE YOU READING THIS JAKE AND MELISSA?

I am determined to get to the UK someday so I can stalk her right back. And play with her doggies.

My dear Charlotte is doing a giveaway on her blog today, so please go look at all the marvelous things she makes and tell her how wonderful she is and then enter to win!