Hello motivated do'ers and welcome to the weekly
Tuesday To Do party hosted by Quilt Schmilt
and Sew & Tell hosted by Melva Loves Scraps!
Who out there caught all of the the Instagram posts
on Paducah? Oh my gosh! Life goals!?! That is some
serious quilt talent and patience [that I'll never have]!
Before you say something cute like, "Oh don't sell yourself
short," know that I'm only half-kidding. See, I just got my
little booty back from APQS headquarters in Iowa!
(And yes, I saw Dawn Cavenaugh.)
and while the amount of info was so mind-blowing and
overwhelming, fascinating and frustrating, amazing,
discouraging and encouraging and so many other things
all at once, I came away pretty motivated to
tackle Quilt Path and become an expert asap.
Or before I leave this world anyway.
Or die trying.
Between class time, I did a little shopping:
Glide thread/prewound bobbins (Lemon Ice!)...
and a ladies'-cut quarter-zip for the golf course.
This should be a fantastic tool for connecting
with any golfing-quilters out there, right?
(Now wishing I'd gotten the white hat!)
Speaking of golf...
After the first day of class, I couldn't get to the golf
course fast enough. (You betcha I looked into these
things when I made my travel plans!) I'm finding that
so many of us have something we turn to when we need
to turn away from our studio, and for me golf is really it.
I knew that the 6.5 hour drive from the day before and full
day of class would have me going crazy from sitting.
The course was green and lush, the weather perfect,
the birds singing...a perfect way for me to unwind.
(Golf Nerd takes pics of memorable scenes!)
My round wasn't great, but not bad for being stressed
and not knowing the course. When I got a really fun
birdie, the stress really started melting away.
My biggest regret is that I came away from there with the
contact info of only one other quilter (who's not too far from
me and we've already been getting to know each other better).
I was so bogged with info that I didn't even think to try to
connect socially with these ladies. After two days of classes,
we ended with some really good and encouraging conversation
that that this morning I find myself kind of missing them.
What a great group of peers us quilters can be!
I'm going to throw out a plug for Angela Clark of
Thread Waggle Quilting in Raleigh if anyone lives near
there. She knows Quilt Path in, out, up, down and
inside out (literally--she helps with the programming).
She is also part of the trio that runs The Quilter's Academy,
an online community open to all--similar to Facebook...
without Facebook, if you know what I mean. It's all quilty.
Getting out of class at 4 made it a little too late to set off
on that 6.5 hour drive so I had made arrangements to
spend the night at a B&B in Hamilton, MO. This would
give me a little time to shop at Missouri Star and then
I could pick up my IKEA order in KC on the way home,
all at my leisure.
(The Shirley Room)
If you ever need to spend the night in Hamilton, I'd
like to recommend Mari's House B&B.
It's very reasonable, and so much better than a hotel room!
I arrived just before dark and received a warm welcome
from Mari and the other guests staying there and who were
playing cards in the main gathering room. Mari herself used
to be a longarmer for MSQC and we all had a fantastic quilty
conversation that began before, ran all the way through
and then extended well-beyond our breakfast!
(Again, why didn't I exchange social media info?)
Enjoying a coffee before the other guests made it down
Let me pause here and say that because I work at home,
this was all more quilt-social interaction than I have had,
well, maybe ever? at one time. It really was so fun.
After checking out, I did some quick shopping, found
what I was after and by the way, said "Hi" to Misty...
...but this time I chickened out on the selfie.
(I have a selfie with Jenny).
She seemed on a mission and I didn't want to bother
her for one but I did snap this pic sneakily so you
could see how darned thin and tall she is, and graceful.
Models. Sheesh.
Hourglass Wreath (tutorial avail.) I kind of like this one.
I always learn new things when I'm there, just by listening
to the employees. Do you know that Jenny only allows her
family members into her actual sewing studio?
(Not to be confused with the recording studio).
Just once she did let some fabric reps up there.
At least I think that's who they were?
Anyhoo, they were there for a learning of some sort,
or maybe recording or reporting...
You only get partial stories when you're eavesdropping,
you know. (I have no shame!) The point is that she
once made an exception. Some people out there are
big Jenny fans so I just thought I'd share. Personally,
I just appreciate the business accomplishments made
by the entire family together more than anything else.
Then it was time to head to KC to pick up my partial-order
at IKEA. Yes, partial. They ran out of the table top. UGH!
Back home, after logging almost 1,000 miles, I unloaded
first but then immediately set about packing up a quilt.
I forgot to put the Etsy shop on vacay so I had to slip
into FedEx before they closed.
(I take order processing time very seriously!)
Queen Beans Coffee Shop
"Follow me for more Carroll IA experiences!"
And so my little business adventure came to an end.
Btw, hubs was actually in Italy the entire time and
I don't really like being home by myself that much
so the whole thing was timed very well. If he heads
to Italy for a longer period of time, I might just tag
along (!) but for the short trips, I'll have to find
more quilty things to go to, and I'd like to get back
up to Carroll for more classes--and golf.
a few days later to grab the table top when it came back
in stock and I now have the full set-up I was after.
I'm working on a post with the details on it.
Well, goodness. All of that and we haven't even talked
about to-do's yet! When I made the list a couple weeks
ago, I knew I wouldn't get much done.
I'm just going to list the few things I got done:
Organize sewing room
Almost done.
Bind WP Stars 6; take pics
Binding done. Pics today?
Upload pics and create listings for the finished quilts!
DONE.
(And one sold already!)
Other things:
Now that my challenge quilt has been turned in
and the deadline is over, I thought I'd share it,
though I'm a little disappointed in it.
I had visions of coming up with something very
creative, making a good use of the fabric provided
and then doing some custom quilting--you know,
all the things that would make it stand out.
The gray print was the required fabric; I got lucky finding
that backing fabric (bottom yellow/gray dots) on the
clearance rack but after that, I really struggled to find
ANYthing to go with it, let alone get inspired by it
(it really is very pretty--the colors were just difficult!)
so I finally gave up and went with something simple.
"Welcome Wreath" 52X52
First, a wreath for a pic of the newborn baby.
Then a quilt for warmth in the months to come.
And something I was very familiar with.
(The third quilt I've made this year with this block!)
I just didn't have the time or energy to get all creative.
Afterall, the main purpose is to donate a baby quilt,
which I did. I am looking forward to seeing all the quilts
next weekend when they'll have them on display.
I've run out of time and I haven't even talked about
all of the gardening, furniture shopping and the
6478 other things I've been doing...but you get the
idea. I'll just skip on to next week's plans.
Next week's goals:
* * * Week 19 Priority * * *
Get pics of second West Point quilt and send pics of
both for customer to choose. List other quilt.
2) Finish Opening Day top
3) Quilt customer quilt
Happy quilting!
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