Quilts from Art Auctions

I’ve been traveling throughout California attending art auctions looking for unique quilts.  I have had a lot of success.  I have found so many quilts that you could tell were filled with thousands of hours of careful planning and stitching.

I was attending at art auction in Orange and found a wonderful quilt.  The quilt was from the Civil War era and was made in the design of Blazing Stars.  There was a wonderful appliqued red and green swag-like border.  The center of the quilt has a feathered heart hand quilted.

The art auction that I went to in San Bruno had a fabulous quilt that was made in the 1860s.  The quilt was hand appliqued using cheddar, red and green cotton solid fabrics.  The background was white and the border has a meandering flowering vine.  It was truly special.

I found a great quilt that was made in 1894 while I was at an art auction in Rancho Cucamonga.  The style of the quilt was really fun.  It was called a Victorian Crazy Quilt.  There was so much elaborate hand embroidery over every seam and within the blocks, it was magnificent.

I was on vacation in Napa and attended an art auction that had several really nice quilts.  The one that I won was made in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and was completed in the 1870s.  I like the design called Ocean Waves.  The chain had earth green and chocolate brown triangles that were pieced with exceedingly fine skill and precision.  The border and background color was warm, cadmium orange.

The quilt I found at an art auction in Paradise was an 1840's thin, cotton Quaker quilt, which measures 108" x 88" and had 10 stitches per inch.  It was a Quaker cotton wedding quilt.  The top border, near the pillows, had a blue print and each side and the bottom had wide borders with North Carolina Quilt blocks in each corner. There were two rows of North Carolina Lilies in the center, and one row on each side facing outward.

The quilt made its way into the art auction because someone made the decision to sell some of the great historic heirlooms that were passed down through her family to her.  I was very fortunate to acquire this heirloom that had passed through the many generations of Quaker families.  Now I own one of the great Pennsylvania Quaker masterpieces.

Log cabin quilts are a design that I have always liked.  My grandmother made a quilt using this design for me when I was twelve.  I found one made in a similar fashion at an art auction Los Gatos.  The quilt was made in the 1870s and was made by Mennonites.

I was lucky to find the art auction, it was difficult to find.  The quilt is just fantastic.  The light and dark design of this quilt has a red center on one side with two green bars, two cinnamon bars and two blue bars and then two red bars and on the other side of the red square in the center are two yellows, two black and white stripe, two lovely Lancaster blue bars, and two peppermint stripe bars.

There was an art auction in Huntington Beach that advertised quilts and I was really happy with the pieces that I found there.  The quilt that I bought had a pictorial motif, like an album quilt, with a lot of interesting designs.  Each block was quite different and special.

From Electric to Hybrid Cars, the Future of the Car Industry

Ever since the automobile of the gas-powered cars were introduced to the market in 1880s, car makers from around the world have been constantly aiming to introduce revolutionary and new modifications of cars.

Be it known that the gas-powered cars were also an improvement to horse-run carts in the decades before 1880s. After more than a century, the time is really ripe for the gas-powered cars to further advance and embark on another evolutionary stage to mount a different and more modified version.

Cars are more widely used around the world right now, that people from every corner of the world would find it hard to live by without owning one.

Cars have become a necessity and n important part of the everyday living of man. That is why, if there is one machine or device currently in use to mankind that needs or deserve further modification and improvement, it would definitely be the car.

Electric cars

But the usage of cars comes with different and varying setbacks and accompanying issues and concerns. The most grievous among these is the issue on gasoline consumption.

Traditional and conventional cars, being run by oil or gasoline, make up or require astronomical or higher gasoline consumption bills, which to many are enough reason to trigger a looming and fatal heart attack.

Because oil prices are constantly rising almost every week due to the volatile and unstable political and civil condition in the Middle East, the principal oil exporting region, gasoline prices have reached a point when ordinary people may find purchasing it almost a luxury.

The environmental concern that has been tagged on the gas-powered cars also invoked serious consideration and steps on the part of the car makers.

Because the phenomenon called greenhouse effect or global warming has started to show its wrath through climate changes around the world in the past decades, people are becoming more and more concerned about environmental degradation.

Thus, the electric cars were developed by several car manufacturers. Electric cars were the first attempt of car makers to address the rising and evoking concerns over environmental degradation and soaring oil prices.

Because electric cars are run by electricity, which is stored in batteries, there is no need for the car to undergo or process spontaneous combustion of gasoline on its engine. Thus, smoke or carbon monoxide emissions are eliminated.

The owners of electric cars would also not need to frequently visit gasoline shops and stations for refill. All they have to do is to deal with their batteries through recharging, which can be done at home or at recharging shops, which previously was also aimed by gasoline stations.

However, the electric cars had greater setbacks, so humungous that the adverse shortcomings and product limitations were offset at greater levels by its uses and advantages.

For one, the speed and mileage of electric cars are inferior compared to those by the traditional and conventional gas-powered vehicles. The required time or duration of charging of batteries is also one source of setback for the electric car.

The hybrid cars

Because of its limitations, the electric car was considered a failure and car makers did not proceed to fully roll out and launch the product to the market.

But the research and effort made to develop electric cars were not to be put in absolute futility. The car makers were really determined enough to come up with better cars that would address the issues revolving from pollutants and oil consumption.

The electric cars provided the templates that were used to develop another type of car---the hybrid cars.

The hybrid cars were crossovers or integration of the traditional gas-powered cars and the disappointing electric cars.

The hybrid cars were principally made to use the best features and qualities of each of the two types of cars, and cancel out their respective weaknesses.

For one, hybrid cars combine the use of electricity and gasoline in running and mobilizing the car. The gasoline consumption is this lessened, along with the high oil bills and air pollutants produced.

But the hybrid cars are still evoking a greater room for improvement. Because the industry is still in the experimental and initial phase when it comes to hybrid cars, expect to see more developments and modifications in the coming years.

Hybrid cars are better than electric cars and gas-powered cars because it got the best features and characteristics of the two types of cars.

Internet Marketing Strategies that Won't Hurt Your Savings Much

Your new business will benefit a lot from various Internet marketing methods. But you don't have to spend millions of dollars just to get some decent exposure for your company. There are ways to make your business be seen and felt without doing overkill with your advertisement expenses.

Make use of your online power - through Internet marketing. Here are simple methods that you may employ to boost the visibility of your business without shelling out more than what you can afford. However, these techniques need patience and some footwork to produce agreeable results.

Firstly, you need a website before you can make use of these low cost Internet marketing strategies. So go create one or hire a web developer. It will display your products and services. This will be used in employing the following Internet marketing techniques.

1. Affiliate Marketing

This is the process of recruiting a network of smaller websites known as affiliates to drive targeted traffic to a website. Ad copy and links will be provided by the advertisers. You will have to pay a certain percentage of the sales profit to your affiliates.

2. Links

One of your goals should be to attain a good ranking with search engines. One way to do it is through link building. This could be done through trading links to other businesses that are related with yours.

3. Newsletters

Sending out newsletters to your subscribers (those who signed up for your newsletters) will help greatly in establishing a good working relationship with your customers or prospective customers. It has to be short, sweet, consistent and written for a general audience.

4. E-mail Marketing

As one of the best cost-effective Internet marketing tools, it stays as a very important method of keeping your customers aware of your products and services. Just make sure to avoid spamming or soon enough you will have to close down you business due to complaints.

5. Articles

If you put quality content in the form of articles in your website along with your products and services, search engines will have to index your website. Getting you website indexed by popular search engines means more traffic for you.

6. Forums

Expand your Internet network is through joining forums that mainly discusses stuff regarding or related to your products and services. Actively posting responses or answers and asking relevant information will build your reputation as that forum's member and boost your company's visibility through your signature files. These signature files are those that go with your every post. Links to your website could be included in this signature.

Lease Financing

For auto-consumers, crunching the numbers is one of the most difficult and
confusing aspects of leasing.
Take the finance charge on a lease for instance. Most people just don’t
understand how this is calculated on capitalised cost AND residual value
instead of just the capitalised cost. For most, it seems plainly obvious,
just as is the case when purchasing, that a charge should be levied on the
capitalised cost of the vehicle.

Well, no quite! When you lease a car, you’re only using the car over a
specified period of time with the option of buying the car. The residual
value represents the “loan balance” at the end of the lease. If you add it
 to the capitalized cost and divide by two, you’ll get the average
capitalized cost outstanding over the lease term. Let us suppose you’re
leasing a car with a capitalized cost of $25,000 and a residual value of
$15,000. You average balance over the lease term, irrespective of how long
it is, is $20,000 – the sum of the two divided by two -.
Using this sum works because the money factor is the annual interest rate
devided by 24, rather than 12. Continuing with our example and assuming an
interest rate of 6% APR:
$30,000 X (6 per cent / 24) = $75
(Capitalized cost + residual value) X (interest rate / 24) = Monthly
finance charge
This finance charge is added to the depreciation charge to calculate the
monthly payments on your lease.

6 Red Hot Tips To Get Your Articles Read

There are many people who dread having to write papers or articles. Many just feel like it seems to be too much work and it all just goes to waste when no one reads the. To some people, reading articles seems like work to, especially if the article is boring and very bland. Well, articles are supposed to be read, that’s their purpose to impart your message and information. If it is not read then it is a waste of time and effort.

But all the same, articles have to be written to be read. It’s just a matter of making them good. Making a good article doesn’t have to be strenuous and straining. There are just some points needed to be reminded of, and some guides to follow. Once you get the hang of it, writing articles could be fun, as well as profitable for you and your site.

Of course, writing articles must be about something you know about, that’s why if you own a site, you probably is knowledgeable about that certain topic and theme. When you write about it, you won’t have a hard time because you already know what it is and what it’s about. It’s just a matter of making your articles creative and interesting.

To make sure that your articles get read and enjoyed, here are six red hot tips to get your articles read. These tips will make your articles readable and interesting.

1) Use short paragraphs. When the paragraph are very long, the words get jumbled in the mind of the reader just looking at it It can get quite confusing and too much of a hard work to read. The reader will just quickly disregard the paragraph and move on to much easier reading articles that are good to look at as well as read. Paragraphs can be a single sentence, sometimes even a single word!

2) Make use of numbers or bullets. As each point is stressed out, numbers and bullets can quickly make the point easy to              remember and digest. As each point, tip, guide or method is started with a bullet or point, readers will know that this is where the tips start and getting stressed. Format you bullets and numbers with indentations so that your4 article won’t look like a single block of square paragraphs. Add a little bit of flair and pizzazz to your articles shape.

3) Use Sub-headings to sub-divide your paragraphs in the page. Doing this will break each point into sections but still would be incorporated into one whole article. It would also be easy for the reader to move on from one point to another; the transition would be smooth and easy. You will never lose your readers attention as well as the point and direction to where the article is pointing.

4) Provide a good attention-grabbing title or header. If your title can entice a person’s curiosity you’re already halfway in getting a person to read your article. Use statements and questions that utilize keywords that people are looking for. Provide titles or headers that describe your articles content but should also be short and concise.

Use titles like, “Tips on making her want you more”, or “How to make her swoon and blush” .You could also use titles that can command people, for example, “Make her yours in six easy Ways”. These types of titles reach out to a persons’ emotions and makes them interested.

5) Keep them interested from the start to the finish. From your opening paragraph, use real life situations that can be adopted by the reader. Use good descriptions and metaphors to drive in your point, just don’t over do it. Driving your examples with graphic metaphors and similes would make it easy for them to imagine what you are talking about. Making the experience pleasurable and enjoyable for them.

6) Utilize figures when necessary and not just ordinary and insipid statements. Using specific facts and figures can heighten your article because it makes it authoritative. But do not make it too formal, it should be light and easy in them and flow. Like a friendly teac her having a little chat with an eager student.

The Toyota Prius, Hybrid Car Phenomenon

Hot of the market, this brand of hybrid car is on the tip of everyone's tongue. Prius stands for prize in most people's book when they think about hybrid cars. And that's not just because a Toyota Prius looks pretty. In terms of hybrid cars, the Toyota Prius has tons to offer car consumers. And it's not as if potential hybrid car buyers don't know that. News of the Toyota Prius is everywhere in the media.

Why? Well first of all, the Toyota Prius is a great kind of hybrid car. The model I speak of is Toyota's petrol and electric hybrid model. It's sharp, stunning, and is a best seller among hybrid cars. This car is so good that it was voted car of the year in Europe for the year 2005. Furthermore, in the United States, the Toyota Prius got an award that was very comparable to the car of the year award given in Europe.

But the Toyota Prius hybrid car isn't selling off the lots because it is the fastest car around. Some Toyota Prius's have some pretty high profile owners. Among them are Leonardo Dicaprio, Harrison Ford, and Susan Sarandon. With these people driving this particular hybrid car, off course it's selling like a hotcake. And the stars are doing a world of good for the sales of hybrid cars in general.

But while the success of the Toyota Prius is good for Toyota, it isn't so good for its competitors who have yet to manufacture a hybrid car. Now Nissan, GM and other popular car manufacturers are trying to quickly get their act together and come up with their version of the hybrid car.

Some of these other manufacturers just did not believe that people would put their faith in the hybrid car as a solution to the constant fluctuation of oil prices. But the number of sales for the Toyota Prius hybrid car has certainly caused a change of tune for competing car manufacturers. So soon you might here of a best-selling Nissan hybrid or GM hybrid. And Toyota Prius buyers shouldn't get too comfortable with their car because before they know it, something else will come out that they would like to have.

But as far as Toyota goes, claims have been made that in the near future, all Toyota engines will come with hybrid options. And Toyota also believes that it's only a matter of time before all cars are hybrid cars or at least have hybrid engine options.

Next year, Toyota should be making Prius's in China, and there, sales are also expected to boom.  Toyota doesn't want to leave anyone behind. Soon it may expand its manufacturing plants to locations in places like California. Surely, there are plenty of movie stars there who can be persuaded to buy this hybrid car.

The Toyota Prius is certainly making a name for hybrid cars, and hopefully the buck won't stop with the Prius. Toyota probably has some other models of hybrids cars that are fast making there way to having top sales as well. 

Great Brands for Good Prices on Auto Sound Systems

If you are one of the many people across the country considering a new auto sound system, there is a great deal of good news. First of all, it is very possible to find a good bargain on a nice sound system for your car, truck, or SUV if you are willing to shop online and install the system yourself. The problem often lies not in the cost of the system but the price of the installation. However, the cost of installation is well worth the dollar amount for many of us who really have no clue what to do as far as a project of that scope goes. I for one am among the electronically challenged and not really willing to risk my dash board for an experiment in frustration and failed electronics.

That being said, there are many who are either perfectly and wonderfully capable of installing a nice auto sound system or are fortunate enough to know someone or someone who knows someone who is. For you, finding a great bargain online is probably the best way to go-provided you've actually been in the shop and heard the sound quality of the particular system you are considering. I would never recommend buying a system you've never heard in action no matter how great of a bargain you think you are getting.

I've found that some of these systems are not even as good as the minimal factory installed systems that come standard in most cars, trucks, or SUVs on the road today. You do not want to pay money and spend time and effort for the installation of a sound system that isn't at least better than the one you currently have.

There are times when you do not have to go with top of the line or well known brands in order to have a great sound or auto sound system. But there are some well-known, good quality makers of sound systems that do not cost a fortune. You can find some very nice sound systems that are not exactly top of the line but also offer great quality sound and excellent features (particularly when compared to factory installed sound systems).

If you're looking for a very nice auto sound system you can find some good ones by popular brands for well under $300. They have some that are even less expensive but those in the $300 range generally offer a little boost in quality from those that can be found at lower prices. Of course, this isn't always the case and you will occasionally find some excellent systems at even lower prices than this. You and you alone can tell if the system you choose is one that you will be happy with.

The thing to remember is to listen to the sounds of the systems then make your decision and compare prices. Alpine, Kenwood, and JVC all have excellent auto sound systems in a wide variety of price ranges. There are times with these systems that paying a little extra is worth it. If you are satisfied with the quality of a less expensive sound system however, there is no real reason why you should purchase a more expensive system. You are the one who will be riding in your car, truck, or SUV and it is only important what you think of the system you select.