You may have wondered where I have been for the last two days. Or not. But if you have missed me this is where I was. With my new best friend!
On Thursday night Judy Laquidara of Patchwork Times in Missouri (for a short while longer) came to lecture at the River City Guild meeting. She did a wonderful trunk show of a ton of quilts. Some I have seen on the blog but some were from the two books she has written. (Which of course I bought!)
And even though I knew these workshops were coming for weeks and weeks I had not chosen my fabrics nor had I, by end of meeting on Thursday night, begun to cut out either pattern. So after the meeting I came home, walked the dogs their mile and a half and set about cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting. At 4:30 AM I finished cutting, took the dogs out for a potty run and settled on the sofa to catch a few winks before I had to get up at 6 for feeding breakfast kibble.
On Friday she held a workshop to make Connect the Dots. I was really excited about this one. I chose an African print for the border and found some fabulous hand dyes for the blocks. I sewed and sewed and sewed encountering some problems with technical stuff. Like I only had one bobbin for my mother's machine which had to be constantly refilled. Judy was patient with me, THEN she found out who I actually was. Ahhhhhhh! She said, And when were you going to tell me you are the GLEN/QuiltSwissy from my blog? It was then we became fast friends! The bunny ears I was wearing made me stand out a bit, so she could always look out among the sewing women and pick me easily out of the crowd. Best friends are like that, they can see each other from anywhere.
I got all my blocks done and when I laid them out, I didn't get the pattern I was supposed to do. Then she says, Oh, GLEN, you have to do the 168 OTHER blocks to get that pattern..........I nearly died. I got only one of them suckers done and will work on the rest during the week. I had other things to worry about.
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| These are my Connect the Dots |
That night we had a birthday party for Frank and Hunter at Las Palmas complete with balloons, tequila, the most fabulous coconut cake, a german chocolate cake, cards and gift cards galore. The guys always exchange gifts with each other since their birthdays are just a few days apart. Usually they give each other Home Depot cards, so I thought we would do something very different and get Hunter a Barnes and Nobles card. Which is what Hunter gave Frank! LOL. It was like they have ESP.
Then on Saturday Judy held a workshop for Morning Splash. I didn't think this was going to be to my liking. And I was so totally wrong. I love it. There were some new techniques she used to do some of the piecing and while they were not difficult, they were tricky to master. So I didn't get as many blocks done. '
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| These are my Morning Splash |
We said goodbye, my new BFF and I, in the parking lot of the guild's church. Like two buddies who have weathered hours of sewing and fabric and broken thread together we parted with teary eyes and trembling lower lips.
I will miss you Judy...........sniff..........think of me on your long trek back home to Missouri. I will never...sniff.....forget the fun we had together. Oh...... it is just too much........sniff.
Here are Judy and I as Best Pals to prove it!
Love, glen
Red Letter Day! Remember those in your grammar school readers? It was a day when exciting things happen. And this is a Red Letter Day for sure.
African Women, my name for a Judy Laquidara pattern called Connect The Dots, is quilted and off the frame. It is my first quilt on the new machine. I used a pantograph from Urban Elementz called Feather Twirl. It is the panto that ate my lunch! Feather Twirl is an open half feather pattern that gave me a couple of long straight runs and three feather bumps. Surprisingly, the long straight runs were way harder than the feather bump parts. Not perfect but the fabrics are busy enough so you don't see the shaky parts. 
I took the quilt off the frame and laid it on the floor to take the picture commemorating the event, and this is what I got.
It took both Frank and I to get the idiots off the quilt and Chloe barked incessantly which ramped the boyz up and i got this. See her just nonchalantly walking off? That is what she does. And if you look closely you can see each of the boys has the other's ear. They do this all the time too!
And in other, other news, here is my new mousepad! That is my sweet hubby freezing his patooty off at the Lobster Bay Lighthouse overlooking Western Point Bay in Newfoundland.
