Saturday, April 10, 2010

We made it to the Pueblo Quilt Show!

Good Morning My Quilting Friends!
It is early Saturday morning..the second day of the show. We need to be up and at the convention center at 8:30, but I thought I  would share a few photos of the last two days work before heading out this morning.

When I first walked in....I was tickled pink to see one of my own designs (Meet Me In Paris) hanging from the front hallway!
 
I also thought this was a cute quilt in the hallway.
For all you Grandmother's Flower Garden Junkies out there....I captured this picture.
And here are some pictures of our booth this year.
And of course this entry wouldn't be complete without a pic of Burk setting up. He does all of the set ups for me now, and how I love this man of mine. There is no way I could be on the road without him!

Last night, dad and mom came down from Castle Rock and met us at the Black Eyed Pea for dinner. They had just flown in from their Hawaii trip. My mom is quite the woman. She is 80 years old, and she runs their 3 Assisted Living homes. She takes care of old people!!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Did she get married after dating him for 2 weeks?

And the answer, sadly, is yes!
She called us yesterday morning and told us she was on the way to the courthouse. I cried, I prayed, I called my prayer warriors, and alas, the deed still was done. Some of you have met this little spitfire of mine. She is the dark haired, funny little beauty of mine, Tory. I do believe I could write a book on her alone! She definitely keeps us on our knees. The following is a picture of the little angel with me on her graduation day.
And by the way, she is the one who has sporadically sent you all newsletters, answered your emails and calls, sent you packages and sold you on the Meet Me In Paris at Quilt Shows!

And now about the Man Quilter I hinted to you about:
I met his wife Dee and her dear friend Bonnie at the Pueblo Quilt Show a few years back and we all have become fast friends. Imagine my surprise when she shows up in my booth at Las Vegas out of the blue! (Quilters will go anywhere for a good Quilt Show). She proceeded to tell me about her husband who was working on his own Meet Me In Paris quilt in the back of his 18 wheeler (in the cab). He has his sewing machine all set up, boxes of fabric all sorted in containers, etc, etc. And not only that....the Wall Street Journal interviewed him a few weeks previously for 6 hours about his new found passion he had picked up to pass the time while waiting for return loads. They even mentioned the Meet Me in Paris quilt in the article. Now what's a girl to do about that? Do you think I could ever get an article in the Wall Street Journal??? And yet here a man did??  You go Man Quilter!!!! I am so proud of you!

AND ALAS..... about my new pattern:   Here are the pictures of the work in progress It's called:

                                          MEET ME UNDER THE MISTLETOE
I knew I wanted to set it on point like the Meet Me In Paris quilt. I also wanted it to have some romance...thus the ruffled hearts and bows.
This was the first basket I made for the center block using the EZ Dresden Ruler. But I wasn't one hundred percent happy, so back to the drawing board. Below is the new basket. Much better. It wasn't a very good picture, with the sunlight coming through the slats and all. (With snow piled up outside...how I wish for that sunshine now!)
                                                                                                                       Here it is up on the design board with the ribbon being attached to the basket and the "Meet Me Under The  Mistletoe" card being propositioned
on the left side of it  It's slowly coming together!
It is now after midnight, and the lighting is not very good, and maybe just maybe, I'm not holding the camera still enough! But I am determined to get these pictures loaded before we leave at 6 a.m. for Colorado!
And a close up of my mistletoe. I have never seen a quilt with mistletoe on it. I am always searching for new design ideas.
I might also add, that I don't use a computer to design my work. It is all free hand. Sometimes I start out on a piece of paper drawing, and sometimes I just start out commissioning fabrics.
I now have to work out the final borders. My plan is to have a few more small borders around the setting triangles and then if its not too much, the last large outer border will have holly and candy canes in it.
I'd love to know what you all think!

We are headed out in 6 hours for the Pueblo, Colorado show, and then if we still have enough inventory we will go straight to our Paducah Kentucky show! Yippee!! If we are too low, we will drive back and have to make more kits to restock and then scramble to get there in time for set up.

I hope to post more pictures of our travels there, and of course many more pics of great quilts at the shows that are being presented. Good Night and Happy Quilting to all of you quilters out there in Quilt Land!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Wow...where have the days gone? We have been in the midst of a move and some very difficult decisions that have been hard to make. Mostly, closing the shoppe for now. We have actually moved into it for the time being, until the economy gets better. After crunching the numbers, we realized we had to make some changes. And since the vending at quilt shows keeps the business running we have made the decision to go that route for now. I think this has been the hardest winter I have ever had. Dealing with health issues, coming to the realization that there was no way I could run a retreat house was pretty humbling. Oh well....thankfully I still have my business, my wonderful customers, a stash that is just waiting for me to dive into,  and even the hubby has hung around. See?? I really do need to count my blessings!
A few weeks ago we attended the Quilt Show in Henderson Nevada. It was one of our first shows, and the first place where I humbly hung my Meet Me In Paris quilt, not having any idea how the quilting world would respond to it. So going back to that place always sparks a happiness in my heart.
Here are a few pictures and happenings at the show:
For some reason my pictures turned out kind of blurry. I don't know if it was because I tried to gingerly step back as far as I could and yet not stepping on the next row of quilts, so I could get the whole quilt into the picture. But anyway, you can get the jest of these. This was an adorable quilt with embroidery as well as quilting. There was also one in red. The red pictures weren't quite as blurry.
I tried to get some close ups too, so you could really see all of the great work on it.
This darling Christmas Quilt was made by Darlene Finney and I had to take some close ups of it. The embellishing on it was amazing. She also won a ribbon on it.
So tomorrow I will wake up and tell you about my day today. How my youngest daughter called me from the courthouse and told me she was getting ready to marry her boyfriend of 2 weeks. I will then post pictures of my new pattern that is almost finished, and I will share a story about one of my customers...a guy....a trucker...who was written up in the
Wall Street Journal about his sewing studio in his big rig.
Until then....my friends....Happy Quilting!