Quilting Adventures

Kate and I had adventures in vending in the new AQS Lancaster Show location. Set up and, especially breakdown, were a real trial but that is part of vending, unfortunately. What fun it is to drive with a GPS; mine is called Carmen (like in Where in the World is Carmen San Diego). Smart that car makers build them right in to the dashboard now; on a ten year old Chevy cargo van, the GPS is a separate accessory. John had adventures in lecturing to two groups of 200 quilters and friends. His adventure continued with teaching Super Nova, an advanced class, to a group of quilters with mixed levels of experience. We all survived.

Here are some quilts that caught my eye. Linda Pool’s applique quilt is called “Icing on the Cake”. It has spectacular, tiny applique and cording and hand quilting. David Taylor did a masterful job on “Christmas Chickadee” which is machine quilted. And “Loki” by Jodi Scaltreto made me smile every morning when I walked by.

The downtown part of Lancaster is old and very interesting. A couple of mornings, Kate and her friend walked over to the Amish Marketplace to get our lunch; it was tasty and so fresh. I wanted to bring fresh fruit home, but a 2000 mile trip is hard on durable things; can’t imagine the damage fruit would sustain.

Two more shows to do this spring and John teaches in Chicago; better get busy cutting kits…

Brooke

Another Road Trip

Today we are doing the last of the packing of my van for the drive to Pennsylvania.  Kate will meet me Monday evening so we can vend at the brand new AQS Show in Lancaster.  It is exciting and we like the area; Kate and I have a favorite shop or two, if I can remember how to get there.  That is what the new GPS is for.

John leaves Tuesday for a guild show and class in Illinois.  He is scheduled to lecture twice; we just helped him sort through his quilts and I can tell he is looking forward to it. When you think how much time goes in to selecting fabric, piecing and then quilting, it really is true that each quilt has a story.  Hours and hours of a quilter's life are wrapped up in the quilts and I suppose that is why Show and Tell is so much fun for both the teller and for the listeners.

A lot of quilt activity went on last weekend; there were bits of thread all over the house by Sunday night!  The Supernova wall hanging is a class sample for Illinois, bright and black, and not for beginners.  We have had the Imperial Compass pieced and waiting to be quilted for at least a year so I am so happy John had time to quilt it for the show in Lancaster.  We will hang it in the booth and the pre-cut kits are ready; I think this kit will be pretty popular.

Well, spring is always an adventure.  When John had his construction business, March was just the most worrisome month.   The crews were always itching to get to work, but there was ice and mud and bad weather and lots of nerves.  Now we don't have equipment to dig out of the mud or forms ruined by ice and cold and it is great to be able to enjoy early spring with all its variations.  I hope flooding rivers aren't part of your spring, though, wherever you are.

Brooke

I Thought It Was Spring

A little cold snap is heading our way; it is probably a good thing since some of us were getting a bad case of spring fever. I was able to take a short walk along the highway last weekend and even picked up some of the mysterious plastic bags that blew in around our house during the winter. The late winter/early spring sunshine is just delicious and I can't wait to see our crocus. We have no sunshine today.

John got back late Friday afternoon from vending and teaching in Virginia and North Carolina. The van turned over 200,000 miles on the way; it is an oldie but a goodie. The Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival was successful and his classes and lectures were good also. He said there were lots of husbands at his lecture; that always makes it fun for him, and instead of a lapel mike, he had a “rock star” microphone; that was fun too!

Here is a picture of another Storm at Sea Miniature John quilted this weekend. It is washed and blocked and ready to bind. If you are interested in the quilting pattern that John often uses for Storm at Sea quilts; Kate has drafted it and it is on the website now Website  Look in “John’s Workshop” and then in “Free Lessons”.

We still have vans to unpack but it is income tax time and I have an honest-to-gosh shoebox to sort through, so better get that out of the way. I’d rather help Kate put away the batik fabrics she just got.

Brooke

Another Author's Report

Kate and I are back from vending in Washington State.  We had a great trip, the weather was very nice, we got to see apple trees and daffodils in bloom and the sky cleared on Monday so we got to see Mount Rainier as we started our drive east.  I found goodies to buy, but Kate restrained herself.  It was fun to visit with all the quilters, many of whom already had the Multi-Frame and stopped by to give progress reports and encouragement.  It is good to be back in Montana; thank goodness most of the ice has melted out of the driveway.

John is still back East, teaching in North Carolina.  Here is a link to a very nice, informative report on the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Conference, lots of beautiful pictures of winners.  Take a look, there is a little picture of John at work toward the end of the article.  Meryl Ann Butler's Report

We have another show soon so time to unpack, repack and reload.  Pennsylvania here we come!

Brooke

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

Free Admission -Hurry!

Just a quick note - I have 2 Free Multi-Day Admission coupons for the 2010 Road to California Show in Ontario, CA.  The show is January 14-17, 2010 at the Ontario Convention Center.

The first quilter who emails me and asks for Free Tickets gets them!  brookeflynn@mcn.net  Please include your mailing address.

I can't wait to get to this Show..  it's snowing, again.

Brooke