More Chicago Show Pictures!!!

More of the Chicago show to share! More of the Chicago show to share!
A writer friend of mine once said "Quilts are poetry in blanket form" How TRUE!!! Come on and enjoy the quilt/poetry from the show:



Look at this dandelion quilt! This is the absolute favorite flower of daughter number 2. She has a point really, it's the first flower each spring, and what is also the first flower every little kid brings mom? Yup Dandelions!
I can see myself doing one like this!
I didn't get the shot straight on with this one, but I got better as we went along.

This one is chicory! Which happens to be one of my favorite wildflowers. I SOOOO Want to do this! I love how it is pieced out of fabrics you wouldn't expect, and if you have ever seen Chicory growing wild, you will recognize it immediately!





Here are Flori and Vanessa taking close ups of the awesome beadwork and stitching on...............








This fabulous quilt! It reminded all of us of a Dresden plate. It was breathtaking and calming all at the same time. I'd like to think I could do this!











Okay another of the MANY very cool quilts! This one has a three D woven effect. Very gorgeous!




We wanted to see the back so we asked nicely for a white glove lady (okay we sort of yelled and tackled one but she was nice about it all) and here is the back! It's made like a bunch of long wavy quilts and then sewn together. Really COOL!! and the colors are soooooooooo vibrant! I want to do this!

Now look at this absolutely GORGEOUS flower quilt!!!!!!!!!!!! Is this just not FABULOUS????!!



and wait for it,

they hung it without a background so you could go around yourself and see the back! (the white glove lady is probably very glad!)


Look at the back!!!! It's as cool as the front!!! And it DOES have a sleeve on the top! The quilter did some cool thread work on the sleeve so that it looks just as if it wasn't even there! GORGEOUS!!! I want to do this too!! I want to do everything! Now if there was just two little things....... more time, and more money. ah the quilters lament!


As we were waiting for our bus to come in line to pick us up one of the traffic control guys spotted my camera and came over to tell me "this is my best side, just in case you get a picture of me".


How could I resist? He was like poetry also, but this I don't want to do! ;-)

They were incredibly organized and kept everything flowing sooooooo smoothly with all the buses. A very well run show! I SOOO cannot wait for next year!

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.

Two more sleeps!

I finally got to go to my regular quilt guild meeting tonight! And look what my super secret pal gave me! okay, she is not super secret, but she is my secret pal and she is super! I LOVE THIS PURSE!! Can you see the black patch with the adorable kitty on it?? I'm hoping she will share the pattern with me when she reveals herself. I have a few ideas on who it is, but I'm not saying anything just yet!

And here! Look inside!!! She filled the purse with some cool stuff!! Look at that sweeeeeeeeeeeet mini jelly roll! I love those bright colors! Plus there are some pretty pens - my youngest daughter is already campaigning for the one with the bamboo print on it- and there is a grocery list with a magnet on the back. Now how did she know I needed a new one??? And the pretty card! I will have to hide it in a drawer, psycho cat always finds ribbons where ever I hang them. Then he eats them, and if you have cats you know what follows the eating of indigestible items. Enough said on that subject.

Two more sleeps as soon as I get my behind upstairs and in bed! Here is the semi-dorky backpack I made for the smallest guild trip on Saturday. And just peeking out from under it is a book I'm bringing along..... sort of a little hint as to one of the booths I'm going to visit. Speaking of our guild outing- the Florida contingent had a VERY rough time getting out of Florida today. Seems 1000 flights were cancelled!! There were some tense moments via text messages during the day. As president I felt it my duty to text her constantly to keep her spirits up. I also tried to help out with wardrobe choices for the weather she is flying into. I did suggest socks with her sandals, and possibly a parka.

This is going to be rough for her. I'll have to take her mind off the pain and agony with lots of fabric choices and quilt ideas and many cups of coffee. I'm also bringing her cookies. Yes, that will help. Cookies always help don't they?

She doesn't care much for chocolate so I'll have to take care of that myself. Ahhh, the sacrifices we presidents go through.

UPdate and countDOWN

The countdown has started to the International Quilt Festival in Chicago.

YES! I am going! Actually it's to be a guild outing for "One of the Worlds Smallest Quilt Guilds". Which brings me to the update. "One of the Worlds Smallest Quilt Guilds" has expanded membership by 50%!!! Yes we are THREE people now!!! After much discussion my favorite cousin and I have extended membership privileges to our online friend from Quilty Indulgence, you can see her here: http://quiltyindulgence.blogspot.com/

Since I am the president, (by my own decree) and Anne is the vice president in charge of care-quilts, we either need to come up with an office for our new member or we need to make her be the entire membership and an automatic member of every committee. Ooops, we don't have any committees! Since we don't have dues, she can't be treasurer............ I've got it, she can be secretary in charge of coffee!!!! Perfect role for her!

Having never actually met in person we are still working out the logistics of hooking up. Since she is from Florida I'm thinking she should wear something with huge pink flamingo's on it. Of course that's only my opinion. I suppose if I start suggesting that she will make some silly comment about cheese heads and I'll have to remind her again that even though I live next door to Green Bay I can in no way be considered a Packer fan.

I'm taking the bus trip from Green Bay with my daughter. I think I have it the easiest, I can sit back and relax and let someone else drive through Chicago! It's been a while since I've visited the windy city and I sure wish we had more than one day. But for now I'm checking out the lists of vendors and such. I do plan to visit one in particular and blog about that later on, so WATCH for it!!

So, anyway the countdown has already begun, there are 4 more sleeps so I really need to go to bed so it'll only be THREE!!!

wooo hooo!

Presents!!

What a great week for mail! First is some COOL fabric that Brenda in Canada sent me!!! The lipsticks will be great for a makeup bag! Of course anyone who knows me would fall off their chair laughing to think that I actually know what lipstick is. I'm not a real big makeup person and I don't actually remember to put lipstick on unless it's a pretty important occasion. I do remember putting it on for our wedding, but that might have been because my mother brought all that stuff and handed it to me. I'm pretty sure I've worn it once or twice since, but I can't be certain. Anyway the fabric is so cute I might actually be inspired to try it again! But check out the green fabric!!! Brenda's mom hand dyed it!!! It's soooooo gorgeous and it's going to be great for applique. I have been trying to email Brenda to tell her how thrilled I am but they keep coming back. I'll have to resort to smoke signals and pony express.
All this lovely booty because I sent her some fabric with words on it! Who'd a thunk?

Now for the catch up on my gifts from my guild secret pal!!! I was waaaaaaaaaay behind since I haven't actually made a meeting since November. I'm pretty sure they all think I'm dead by now. My secret pal has been giving me these cute little patterns. Now I'm not a huge pattern person, but these things are growing on me, and instead of making each little item I'm going to use the ideas to make a wallhanging for the year. Some of them are coming with CUTE buttons and she always throws in some pretty fabric too. See those cute socks???? I missed wearing them in December so I'll probably have to try them out now in April. - see former blog about my dork-ness. There was also some chocolate which I already shared with people at work. They were a bit concerned looking when I put it in the candy jar, but I explained that it was "dark chocolate, it's good for you". I'm pretty sure from the chuckles that they also think I'm a dork. So those are my lovelies for this week!!!
tra la la la la la la
tra la la la la
And Happy Dance!

Three Finishes in ONE NIGHT!!!!

Here is daughter number three following in Mom's footsteps. When I visited Washington about 10 years ago, I had to have my picture taken like this.

I know it's sooooo corny, but as I may have mentioned before the term dork gets bandied around our house a lot. We sort of consider it a compliment.
I realize most people don't consider it as such, but...........
It all started when daughter number 4 was 7 years old and we were camping.
She bounced out of her tent one morning in true camping style, I believe she was wearing fluorescent green shorts, a Micky mouse sweatshirt in teal, rainbow striped toe socks under waterproof Velcro sandals, a Tweety bird denim bucket hat, and a Snoopy life vest. Her hair was in what we called "camping braids" about 23 braids all over her head so that she wouldn't have to actually brush it at any point during the camp stay.
Her 17 year old sister looked her up and down and said "Vanessa you CAN'T wear that, you look like a dork." To which Vanessa replied- without missing a beat or batting an eye....... "I'm 7 years old! I can look like a dork if I want to!"
Out of the mouths of babes! I have already drawn it up to turn it into a wall-hanging. I even have some of the right fabrics!


But you probably want to hear all about my THREE FINISHES tonight!!!
Here they are.............

I finished a burger.............

a bag of chips............

and a Corona...............................

Arr arr arrr

Cows and QuADD

Yes, cows on the purse! I have a friend who has cows, and chickens and she NEEDED a spring purse with cows on it! This may be a Wisconsin thing...............

I even made her a little Kleenex cover to match -check out inside the purse. I love the hay and egg fabric.

These are my bottle blocks for the wine wallhanging. As usual I am "winging it". Which for me, means making up the pattern as I go along. Sometimes this works very well and sometimes..... um... lets say I can learn from my mistakes.

Anyone who knows me or visits my house knows I love glass bottles. It was so fun finding hand dye and batik fabrics that looked like glass. I even found fabric that had areas that looked a bit like cork.

Now I bet you are wondering what QuADD is.......... it's something I have recently diagnosed myself with. Seeing as how I work with medical records I figure I'm qualified to self diagnose. Quilters Attention Deficit Disorder. I have it so bad that I have literally lost count of my UFO's. If you looked at my list at the bottom of my blog here........... that's not all of them. One symptom is fabric buying, those fat quarters can be sooooooo addictive, not to mention books, and magazines, and surfing quilt blogs, and, and, and,

There are some days, like today for instance that are just so darn Monday-ish that the only thing that will help is a trip to the local quilt shop for some fat quarter therapy. It's easier on my butt than McDonald therapy, which I also indulged in today. It was THAT much of a Monday. And of course now I am regretting the medium fries and the large diet coke. sigh.

So, I felt that a stop at the quilt shop was in order, and besides it's right on my way home............In my defence I have been meaning to pick up some more light colored fabrics for my 365 challenge quilt. I wanted some spring colors since it's almost April, and spring has to arrive at SOME point in Wisconsin. So here are the lovelies! It may be a bit hard to see them, but there are two soft light green ones, and then the pretty pink flowers that I am going to use from the back side to make it even lighter, and an ivory print too. Part of my QuADD symptoms are that I sew with one shoe or slipper or sandal off and never take the time to slip it back on so a lot of the time I am thumping around the house with only one shoe, slipper, or sandal on my foot without even noticing until some helpful member of the family points it out to me. The label dork gets thrown around a lot at our house. Another symptom of QuADD is buying doubles of quilt books because it looks so good at the store or online, and I'm sure I would LOVE to use it........... I'm thinking of starting a support group, maybe we could meet in various quilt shops!

"Hi my name is Mare and I have QuADD, my last fabric purchase was at 03:30."

I don't particularly wish to be cured, but maybe if I drink enough coffee and eat enough chocolate, and did you see those great scraps that are in my #3 basket of leaders and enders next to my sewing machine......... oops there I go again!