Girlfriend Quilt Weekend

This IS the BEST way to spend a February weekend!!  Dear, dear friend from Texas flew to visit ME!  I realized that in all these years, I’ve only had family visit, never a girlfriend.  This was the best weekend of quilting, sharing, encouraging, eating…. EVER!!

 

She is a hand-piecer but wanted to try my long-arm!  I let her!  LOL!!  My thinking was that I’d start it, she’d do a bit, and ask me to finish.  She loved it and did her whole quilt – a throw size.

This is in the evening after she had just arrived that day!  I’d be way too tired to think.  She did an amazing job!

Put any 2 ‘retired’ homeschool moms together and what do they do…?  We took a historical field trip!  This is an old stone bridge on some property we rent where a famous future President crossed following some local debates.  It is cool to see, the weather was so mild we were sliding in mud!, and it was a good time to be out and hike.  Thankfully, we took a driver and slightly OK photographer.

We were dressed for February, not for fashion photos!  It didn’t matter, we were together!

The middle of our mild winter, she saw a few bits of snow fall and the pond behind us had ice on it.

She got so comfortable with the machine she added her name to one of the near-solid blocks.  She also added a bit of glow-in-the-dark thread for fun on this quilt!  We were so excited when it really glowed!  (by Superior)

I added the binding by machine and she had her quilt ready to take home with her!  She left 3 other quilt tops for me to quilt and bind for her.   She hand sews the bindings.  All had wonderful labels that she lettered while she was here.

She also got a junior version of English Paper Piecing class.  I’m no pro but it was fun to play with fabric together.  She also organized and culled my batik fabric bin.  Clearly she didn’t cull enough as the lid still doesn’t fit on!

Monday night we threw in a trip to one of my quilt guild meetings.  In February, we don’t usually have programs scheduled but she loved it enough she promises to go to a local guild near her!  #cough

At the airport and sadly it is time to say good-bye.  We had realized we’d never run out of things to talk about.  I needed to get a jump on the traffic.  And really just.in.time!  It backed up a ton behind me and in the other direction as I headed out of the city.  Sad to send her back home.  Thankful over the top that she came to visit!

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Quilt Show with Friends

I was able to go to a quilt show with the added bonus of seeing some friends that I don’t see very often.

A few quilts from the show …

Song Birds ???

 

I ♥ the miniatures!! (note standard size rosette ribbon)

 

Love the farm scene!

 

Yes, I gravitate to house quilts… by a group, pastels, and vines over the thin sashings. Great work!

 

Modern is another favorite along with all the quilting here.

 

A whole wall with a whole year of quilts and then close-up of the last one. Stunning!

 

Favorites – flowers, pinks, black & white, texture, different fabrics, 3-D, spectacular quilting

 

I took a class and just got this far…

The class was instruction to make the center to either hang on point or straight of the part inside the squiggly yellow line. The instructor had many examples of how she had used this same pattern for a medallion on other quilts. My tiny triangles for the star points are on the table at the end of the class!

It was a paper piecing class but I like to do paper piecing.  I’ve done a lot of methods and will still stick with “mine”.  But we had a good instructor and I enjoyed meeting my table partner.

To a sponsored pajama party….

…and had a blast with cheering and laughing until our sides hurt.

our table princess ~

 

Seeing special friends that came for the show too! ♥

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AQS Quilt show

My friend and I made our annual trip to a nearby quilt show in Iowa the first weekend of October.  A friend of hers has joined us for the last 2 trips and the 3 of us are good travelers together.  #3 delights in the back seat and does hand work on bindings and hand quilting and shows us what fun magazine she has all while never getting ill in the back!  Plus she brings us super yummy jumbo-sized cookies!!!

Our favorite reason to go to this show is to meet-up with an east coast friend of mine from college days!  Oh the joy and tears to reunite each year!!  We then get a few meals with her as well.  It is never enough time. She is super loving as always!

Me, EHB, SL

I spent a lot of my time at E’s work area and while she made business contacts with some at a table, I helped others register for the iquilt.com site.  The iQuilt site has quilt shows that you can buy and download and watch & re-watch as often as you like!  Let them know I sent you.  😉  J/K  — there are no kick-backs!

The national show is smallish but the local guild has a large show every year that is all included in one ticket.  A beautiful break away!

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Quilt Show

Another quilt show… more friends!

Some of my favorite quilts but we didn’t see all the quilts nor did I photograph or post all of them!

This is a quilt… fabric & thread but even in real life looks like a photograph!

 

My friend was really drawn to this within our first 30 minutes. I know the maker (have met her) and she isn’t far from me.

I love the miniatures category. When I went to view that area, this quilt’s maker was there visiting with any of us. You can see the size perspective with his hand in one photo and his casual attire and personality in the other photo. He had on his veteran hat. Great moment!

Saturday morning, we gathered with me & the TX quilting gang at a local Mexican (real!) restaurant.  I was a little apprehensive in the neighborhood and the outside of the building but I understand their decorating now.  The food was aMAZing!!

 

Together at the show!  Oh my what fun to spend the day with these loved ones!!

Delight!!

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Quilting Friends

Another part of the large Iowa show was by the local quilt guild.  The guild is so large (over 400) that they also have a lot of small groups that gather together to quilt.  Sue & I loved this display!!  Loved it!  (I left the photo large so if you click on it, you can see them up a bit closer.)

First I noticed the cute quilts.  Then I read the story.  There are 8 quilting friends.  They each made 8 identical cloth dolls to represent themselves and then the dolls were exchanged so everyone had 1 of each friend.   Everyone made their own quilt but all were in a circle, all had spools of thread, and then a bit of variety with additional notions and of course fabric choices.

Stinking cute!!  🙂

So we of course were excited to tell this to Elaine, our friend that was working and not strolling through the show.  So with Sue, and me, and Elaine, and our quilting buddy at home, Lori, we had a group of 4.   I lamented that we could each invite a friend but then really we’d have a quilt with 7 other quilters and maybe you’d only know 3 of them! LOL!!  So this isn’t an immediate goal or plan but sure seems fun!

And on cloudy, rainy, cool days… one just needs a fun idea and easy blog post.   🙂  And I suppose I need more quilting friends!  🙂

 

Hmm…. I just found the pattern.  🙂   I do have 8 friends… could just make one for myself I suppose.

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Texas Trip

Now coming up on 2 weeks ago, I flew to Texas to meet my dear friend, Heather.  We’ve been online friends (we met through our homeschooling connections) for around 5 yrs and this was our first time to meet in real life!  It was as fabulous as I expected; I cried to see her and I cried to say good-bye 3 1/2 days later.  It was just wonderful!  This was also my first visit to Texas!   🙂    (After IL had changed to fall-like temps, I was very glad to have summer back while there!)

Heather was a terrific hostess!  Honestly, we could have hung out doing a whole lot of not much but talking but she took me to some amazing places!  As they are just in the US for a few weeks visiting, mostly they were with her MIL & family but I also met  her mom and a dear friend of hers.   Of course, we still acted like a 3 night slumber party and kept sleep to a minimum.   🙂

The first night we exchanged gifts and she showed me her current quilting projects!  That was so much fun as we’ve shared photos and chat about the projects since their inception.   Heather is a hand-piecer (but just wait now!) and is self-taught.  Somewhere in there she also pulled quilt designer out of her hat!  I think with her location, she has limited access to the patterns as we here in the states have, so she works from her own ideas.

The next day we spent it with her dear friend, Robin, who is now a new friend to me as well.  All the kids are great friends and were thrilled with another day to be with each other.  Robin is a quilter as well.  I took these photos of Heather’s projects as she showed them to Robin.

Clockwise: pattern for Radiant Stars, fabric in Heather’s colorway for Radiant Stars (blues, golden yellows, silver grays), 2/3 of a new baby quilt of her design, and 1/3 of a quilt for her oldest that will include his own comics.

It was fun to have a photo op in Robin’s backyard later in the day —

I’m not usually such an agriculturist but the fields of cotton were a first for me and their normal trees are not what we have either.

The bottom right tree is a pecan tree!  Yummy!!  Especially considering that I just paid $10.99 for a pound of pecans!   I can’t imagine how wonderful a tree in my yard would be!  These trees & the kids are all at Robin’s house.

Another day we drove to Stewart Beach in Galveston at my request to see a beach on the Gulf.  Beautiful, I exclaimed!  However, they live a country with the top 10 of the world’s best beaches so were surprised at my delight!  (I think it has been about 8 years since I’ve been to a beach. *sigh*)

Yes, this is embarrassing that my hair is ALL over but I loved the photo with the 2 of us.  I learned that next time I’ll aim to get more photos of us together!  We were having too much fun!!

I was surprised and excited that our hotel was just a few blocks from Johnson Space Center!  I never thought I’d get to see that!  I am much happier with free and avoiding tourist traps and was thoroughly delighted with the free walking tour of Rocket Park!

And yes, even tho Houston should have one of the official shuttles, this one above is just a replica.  Seems silly that Houston missed that lottery!  The building at Rocket Park housed Saturn 5 and it is even larger than I’d ever imagine!  Just stunning!  The far wall was lined with information and photos on all the Apollo missions.

My flight was early evening on my last day but I was glad we could still do fun things that day.  First up, we went to what will be her local quilt shop and she had classes for a new sewing machine!  She’s never sewn on a machine and had the purchase and class all arranged for a day she was there.  I’m so excited to see how fast she cranks out quilts now that she has an electric needle!!

The sewing machine dealership is just  a piece of a very nice & large quilt shop!  Of course, I found something to bring home!  🙂  I’m thinking of using these fabrics to make 3 Swoon blocks (also in photo) for a large table runner as each block is 24″.

After lunch, we visited her paternal grandparents and the Indian gallery they own.   I brought home a pair of turquoise earrings in a silver setting.  That meeting was special; Heather is close to these grandparents and our visit was a surprise!  🙂

We said goodbye at 4 that afternoon and I flew home.   A bit late on arrival and Phil & I got home just after midnight!

It was a fantastic trip but with all good things, I was sad to have it end.  Soon, Heather will be back home and we’ll be back to regular emails and occasional phone calls but all with a deeper friendship having spent these days together.   Thanks for the great visit, H!

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Friends at Paducah

Before I went to the quilt show, I seriously wasn’t sure if I was more excited for the show & shopping or for seeing dear Elaine.  It was all wonderful!!  On top of it, I had a super-duper traveling companion, Sue.  🙂   She enjoys driving as much as I do and that was so nice to share the load.  She actually did a lot of driving and I loved it!

Sue & I were great companions; about the same style of shopping & quilt viewing.

For Friday lunch, we met up with some of my SL online friends.  They aren’t quilters but live in Paducah so I was thrilled with a chance to meet them!  {It was our SL day to honor, Megan, the daughter of one of our mutual friends who saw Jesus face-to-face just on Sunday after her long battle with leukemia.   Megan’s mom asked us to wear pink or purple that day.}

So here I am with Jessica & Lori… I’ve known them for so long but just met them here.  🙂

Here is just me… clogging up the downtown Paducah traffic!

Sue & I finally figured out that visiting the main convention center in the afternoon was much less crowded!  So I asked for another photo shoot.  Sue is sweet to oblige her more outgoing friend…

Seriously, someone needs a new haircut….

Only one take of this… I have no idea what is on the camera lens here….

The Yo-Yo Club of Paducah!

On Friday afternoon, we were just ready to head to another building when a 20 minute thunderstorm broke out.  I’m sure there were cats & dogs falling out of the sky!  And we weren’t even in the temporary building at the time!!   So on our way to wander another area in the same building, we walked a new route and then had to back up to see these ladies!  The bills of their hats were adorned w/ tiny fabric yo-yo’s!!  And they were so cute!  Once we stopped to chat, they told us about their 4 member club and the vast amount of money they have raised for charity.

I have no idea if it they are open to new members but Sue & Elaine would love to join!!  I’ll just support them from the background as that would be too much hand-sewing for me.

My saddest part of the week… heading out of town and realizing I didn’t have any photos with Elaine.  😦  We were too busy visiting or eating to think of the camera in the few hours we had together.  I will fix that next year!!  ((hugs))

I must leave you with these thoughts….

A number of groups came in matching tshirts.  Whereas, it could have been helpful if Sue & I always wore the same color each day so when we’d look for each other we didn’t have to think what she wore today… there is NO way we’ll have matching outfits.  We are PAST kindergarten!!  🙂

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again…  I will not join the Red Hat Society.  Oh. brother.   (I have more opinions on the matter but will refrain from printing them.)

And then… we have no idea what is going on here.  As a dear niece-in-law would say, “What were they thinking???”

 

I do plan to show you my loot from the week.  I started to take those photos this afternoon and the camera battery was dead!  It has lasted through all of the quilt show and numerous visits to the kitties.  It is now taking a break.

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Finished Bargello

I told you about my friends & I gathering to work on our Bargello quilts back in August.  I finished mine and have it all quilted so wanted to show you here.

Here are some upclose shots of the quilting, both on the frame and once it was done.

A few other photos are on my business site.

This quilt will head to K’s after I have it for an example at the guild workshop I’m teaching in June.

~~

Our sewing day has turned into a once a month gathering and it is SO much fun!!  We just met Saturday but only 2 of us and we really missed our #3!  We keep asking others to come but it hasn’t worked out for them yet.

I worked on my quilt blocks from the Sonlight quilters exchange!  It was good to have them out and I’m excited to get that quilt finished!  I’m adding borders tomorrow to my current project so once that is quilted, I’ll get back to the SL quilt.  The current project was just too much to pack and haul to Sue’s on Saturday.  It is pieced on point and at the time I had all the blocks arranged on my studio floor for piecing. Not something I wanted to move!  Good thing I have lots of UFOs!!

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Sew-in Day

We had our quilting day last week and what a blast!  It was just great to piece together. Plus fun to figure out a new pattern together.  It was fascinating to see how our different personalities worked out the new pattern.

By 4:00 we had our pieces this far —

We were each making 2 identical pieces.   The pattern suggests then cutting each piece into 3 sections for placemats.  I plan to keep mine as 2 table runners.  Here we are showing just 1 of our pieces but Sue snuck in both of hers so closely it is hard to tell.  😉

I’ll warn you it is best to NOT hold your breath for mine to be finished.  LOL!!  I think Lori finished hers after we moved out.  I only have 4 strips to add to each of mine so it won’t take long.

Our day together was so much fun we plan to gather more this fall and just work on whatever we need to work on.    I hope you have friends you can get together with for craft days.  It is good for the soul!

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Friendship Time!

Last week, one of my online friends came to visit and it was such a treat to spend a whole day together.   🙂    Even better, we hit if off like long-lost sisters and had a wonderful day together.

They arrived in time for lunch and afterwards, Phil gave us a tour of all the buildings with pigs.   Some baby pigs had been born that morning as well as a few litters the day before.

I thought maybe Big Sister would be interested in the babies but just Little Brother held one.

After our tour, and they asked very good questions 🙂 ,  Christine & I agreed to the house in lieu of drizzle while Big Sister stayed out to climb trees, brush Nina, and visit the creek.   (She is such a younger version of Miss K!  🙂  )  Little Brother got in some good man-time with Phil and rode in (probably) every tractor and the combine as Phil was rearranging the machine shed so that he could get the combine ready for wheat next month.    C & I  popped outside for photo ops (on her camera) when Little Brother was in another tractor.   He liked riding but Phil said he didn’t want to drive when offered the chance.

C & I are quilting buddies, too, so enjoyed lots of time in the new studio as well as the disastrous sewing room.  She has offered/threatened to organize the sewing room on the next visit.  🙂

All of a sudden it was time for supper and they had to head off to some family in Wisconsin. They got a later than planned start so hopefully arrived all right so late at night.

Before they left, we had to have a photo with the 2 of us.

She got a photo of Little Brother with a favorite toy out in the field.

And then Christine wanted a photo of her quilt in the field!  It looked fantastic.  🙂

Little Brother noted that the corn was past (his) knee-high.   In the last few days, it has really grown even more.  We can’t figure that out… hardly any sun (until today) and cool temps.  Usually, not the best growing conditions.

Today I’m sending extra prayers for Christine as she is making her long (multi-day) trip back home.

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