Chicago Quilt Festival~~~ FABULOUS!

What a successful FABULOUS day! It didn't matter one whit that we drove through snow to meet the bus and then rode through rain all the way to Chicago. I'm sure the sun was shining inside on all of us. First I have to report that Flori ~ whose real name is Susan, is just as wonderful and warm and funny and sweet as she is in her blog. We met up right away and it was just as if we have actually known each other for ever! No kidding!

So this was the first quilt we saw as we walked in the door. It's huge and amazing!

Flori brought us each a cute gift bag filled with fabric!!! Look at my gorgeous pink flamingos and the coffee and chocolate fabric, and there is a bag of key lime Margarita mix with straws that have umbrellas on them! Sweeeeeeeeet!

I took loads of pictures, and Vanessa went through her entire photo card too! But I am so glad we did because now I can actually stop and see what I was looking at! Sooooooooooo many wonderful quilts! Here are Vanessa and Flori checking out cool notions at a vendor booth. It was sooo much fun! We laughed and talked and looked and had sooooooooooo much ADD going on! In the middle of one thing we would see something else we had to go look at. Sensory overload! I don't know if either of us could handle Paducah!

Now, here is a picture of me with Laura Wasilowski. (Gosh, could my hair EVER look good? I need help!)

I brought a copy of her book "Fusing Fun"to have her autograph.

Oddly enough, one of the reasons I REALLY REALLY wanted to see her booth and meet her is because we are related. She is my mothers cousin! Laura figured it out immediately, we are first cousins once removed! She has a fantastic style, and it's so interesting to me to see how she is influencing other quilters. All her hand dyed things are just gorgeous! I almost said "to dye for" but that would have been a real groaner!

Here is my autographed book!! How cool is that?

And here is one of Laura's quilts that was entered in the show, and won a ribbon, and Vanessa with it, because Laura figured out that Vanessa and she are second cousins. How did she know all that?

We are related to a prize winning quilt! um, I mean quilter.

Here is some of the booty we brought home with us, and when I say booty, I mean booty! Aren't those fruit ladies a riot? I love it! I am sooooooooooooooo seeing a totebag!

I have about 60 more pictures, some of which will be finding their way to my blog because these quilts were soooooooooo amazing! Flori and I were saying one second how totally humbled we were by all the talent and then the next second we were saying, "We could do this!" It really was one of those just gems of a day, it raced by so fast, none of us could believe it when it was 5:00 and Vanessa and I would need to go catch our bus home.