East and West

A quick note before Kate and I leave for Sew Expo in Puyallup, Washington.  John is already on his way to Hampton, Virginia for the Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival and a teaching job on the way back.  We packed for days and days it seems to get ready for these two shows which fall on the same weekend every year.  John called a little bit ago and has made it to Mitchell, South Dakota and is catching up on the Olympics.

Kate and I are getting to be pros at finding our way around the area where the Washington show is held.  It isn't very easy to find a hotel close to the fairgrounds although there are more hotels than there used to be.  In fact, vendor friends drive big motor homes and stay in a lot adjacent to the fairgrounds.  We stayed in a really scary motel last year and Kate wouldn't let me use the Jacuzzi in our so called "suite" because it really didn't look clean.  And they moved us to the "suite" because I complained about the smoke in our non-smoking room.

Part of our exploration of the area has been because we have needed more printing, once because the TV/VCR we use in the booth quit working, because the chair we use when demonstrating collapsed, because we ran out of receipt books, because I didn't know how to work the headlights in our new van,  just for a few reasons.

So tomorrow will find us on the road, testing out my new GPS and counting off the miles.  Here are a couple of the new Storm at Sea pre-cut kits we will have at the shows.  Unless I forgot to pack them.

Brooke

To Catch Up

I haven't posted to the blog for quite a while - first, we had our annual trip to Southern California for the Road to California Show.  It was as beautiful a California January as you could hope for and we made it out before the heavy rain started Sunday night.  The quilt show gets better and more spectacular every year and we enjoyed visiting with new and old friends. 

 A highlight of the road trip was seeing the Trumpter swans on the Snake River in Idaho - we look every year but this time there were a dozen or so.  John would tell you that the low point was stopping at IKEA in Salt Lake City; I wouldn't necessarily agree but the store is huge and crowded. I did manage to get a couple of kitchen things.

I caught a cold along the way somewhere and that is my excuse for not posting for a while.

Here are pictures of the wedding quilt John made for two of our young friends; we were able to give it to them last weekend at a gala Trivial Pursuit party.  The quilt is satin, hand quilted with YLI Jean Stitch thread and has a Matilda's Own wool batt.  Obviously, it is tough to take a good picture of satin; it just reflects so much light but it really is a pretty quilt and I think the couple likes it.   Oh, we came in second at Trivial Pursuit; it was close! 

Hope you are staying warm, wherever you are, and drive carefully out there!

Brooke