Bus Trip to LaConner!

On Friday the 24th, we all piled in a bus and headed north to LaConner. The trip was skillfully planned by Maura, long distance no less! She did a great job! Some of the gals from my local quilt guild came along for the fun and I was pleased to see everyone bonding. At least one of the Evergreen Piecemakers wants to join QuiltPocket now! Well, no wonder...it is such a fantastic group!









After the quilt museum, we all wandered around town a bit. Alice and I met up with long time friend, Pat, who had been at a quilting retreat not far from LaConner. We had a nice visit and enjoyed looking at the quilts together.


After having a delicious lunch by the water, we said goodbye to Pat and piled back on the bus. Off to a quilt shop in Country Village before heading back to the hotel!




This is my favorite bus trip photo: Dutch and Maura, having a grand time!

Quilt Jamboree Continued...

Thursday, April 23rd was the official start of Jamboree. Most of our group had arrived by that day, although poor Judi from Alaska didn't get in until Friday morning at 3:30 a.m.!

Tom, Peter, the Carols and I loaded up on Thursday morning. This was one of those times when I was glad Tom has a truck! Off we went to the hotel, where we set up all the quilts and goodies in the meeting room. One of our projects for this gathering was to make quilts in honor of our friend, Jennie Sherlock, who lost her battle with breast cancer last year about this time. I issued a challenge to everyone in the QuiltPocket, coming to Jamboree or not, to make a lap sized quilt and send it to me. All of the quilts, all 33 of them, were donated to the Seattle Cancer and Wellness treatment center. But more about that later...

Here is Carol from Australia with the pile of quilts we took to the hotel:


Goody bags for all, doorprizes and some of the Hometown Swap packages:




The gathering begins...





We sat around, stitching and talking--after, of course, they all got their bags of goodies! The items in the bags were an assortment of things to delight a quilter's heart. Everyone got a book, donated by Brenda Henning from Bearpaw Productions. Fabric from Michael Miller's fabric line. Some of the group even made presents for everyone else; into the bags those went! Everyone had a good time ooohing and ahhing over it all.
Here are the Jambo attendees:











Joan from Georgia, Carol from New Zealand, Carol from Australia














Dottie from Florida, Mattie from New York, Penny from Canada:














Susie from Florida, Diane from California, Maura from New York:















Janell from California, "Dutch" (another Carol) from Pennsylvania, me--from here:














Anne from Arizona, Linda from Canada, Pat from Massachusetts:














Judi from Alaska and Judi from Massachusetts:




Here are some of the husbands who were there:
Tom, Peter from Australia, Mike and Peter from Canada

Quilt Jamboree

The party's over...the mess is cleaned up...the last one to leave turned out the lights and shut the door...but WAIT! It isn't quite over yet! Carol from New Zealand is still sticking around to keep me company until May 11th. There are lots of other sights (and quilt shops) to see. She isn't awake yet, so I thought I'd work on getting my blog up to date.

Carol and Peter (from Australia) arrived on April 20th, a day after NZ Carol showed up. We'd met both of them two years ago at the QuiltPocket Jamboree in Connecticut. Tom and Peter got along so well, they were both hoarse by the end of the weekend! On Tuesday the 21st, we filled two cars and headed off to Northwest Trek. Yes, even I had to drive on the freeway to get there (I am not a freeway driver!) Both Carols bravely rode with me for moral support.




It was a beautiful day to be outside. NW Trek was a good choice for our first expedition. We took a tram ride around the park and spotted bison (even the new baby), reindeer, moose and mountain sheep (Carol said she had a hard time getting excited about sheep. Did you know there are more SHEEP than people in New Zealand?)

After the tram ride, we walked around the park on the trails and saw many more animals in their habitats. All species native to the Pacific Northwest. I think my favorite was the bear who obligingly took a bath while we watched!

Of course on the way home, we had to stop at a quilt shop...

Happy Birthday, Sheena!

Last night Jim and Sheena came over, to celebrate Sheena's birthday! Her birthday is actually in about two weeks, but since that will be while we still have company from Out Of Country for the Quilt Jamboree, I thought a birthday gathering now would be better. I didn't want it to get lost in the shuffle! Hopefully they can come over for dinner next week too so they can meet our Aussie and New Zealand friends.



My sons were very nice to us, when they each married gals who have their birthdays in April. How easy to remember daughter-inlaws' birthdays! APRIL! And wedding dates: NOVEMBER! Jim says he and Jeff didn't do this on purpose, but no matter...it makes it easier to remember so I'm not complaining. Other similarities in daughter-inlaws: an allergy to gluten....Utah as a birthplace...middle names that start with the letter "M," and of course, both are lovely, intelligent and wonderful women! (no brag, just fact)

Quilt Jamboree Preparations

In less than two weeks, the world is coming to my door step! Well, not all of the world, but a bit of it. AND not exactly to my door step--but rather to a hotel here in my hometown! Carol and her husband, Peter, are coming from Australia. They, as well as Carol from New Zealand will actually be at my house for a bit before our Jamboree. The others, from various parts of the U.S. and Canada, will show up a couple days later. It is pretty exciting! I've been putting the finishing touches on all the goodies I've gathered for them. Here is my pile of Jamboree stuff:

It has taken over the guest room, so now The Pile is inhabiting a corner of the livingroom.

The bags were donated by Cindy, a member of my local quilt guild, who is the driving force behind Innovations, a machine quilting conference, held in Tacoma Washington every year. You can read all about it here: http://www.mqinnovations.com/ Cindy is a fantastic machine quilter who also teaches classes in her home. (hmm!)

I have been having fun filling the bags with goodies!

The bins under all that mess in the photo contain doorprizes. I discovered a heretofore unknown talent for begging and had a great time writing to quilt companies and online quilt shops, asking for donations of doorprizes! Who knew it would be so easy to get goodies for my quilt friends?

Here is the pile of quilts for our Jennie Sherlock Memorial Quilt Challenge. I decided I'd better fold them and get them off the guest room bed, rather than run the risk of Carol and Peter being crushed under all these quilts. So far, there are thirteen of them. A goodly amount, particularly since I only made two of them! I've been told that more are coming. All will be going to the Seattle Cancer and Wellness Treatment Center, to be given out to women battling breast cancer.



I am, of course, planning a total collapse after Jamboree is over---but it will be a lot of fun and well worth the "bumps in the road" that I've encountered in the planning and execution of this event. Phew! I love my Quilting Buddies!!!

Kindergarten Auction Quilts

Every year a local elementary school has an auction to raise money for their school. My friend, Cathy, is a kindergarten teacher there. Each class has to come up with something to auction off. Last year, Cathy came up with the idea of quilts.....which lead her to think of me. Funny how that happens! It worked so well that we did it again this year. Here are the results:



I like these quilts much better than last year's. For one thing, I was in control of all the fabric that went into them, so we didn't have poly/cotton fabric as the sashing. (Cathy isn't a quilter...she didn't know any better...) I found that stretched differently in the frame than the muslin did, which resulted in the dreaded "puckers" that machine quilters cringe over. Also last year, I didn't have the HQ Sixteen, which gives me a lot more quilting area than the Juki/Grace Frame setup did. This year, besides the upgrade in quilting machine, the fabric was from my stash--100% cotton, although Cathy did go out and buy the muslin.

I love the pictures the kids did! I think the pink pig on the yellow quilt, was my favorite. Then there's the "princess making machine" on the blue one. Very cute!

New Zealand Stripes

Here's the latest quilt I've finished; made from a "jelly roll" of fabric strips, sent to me by friend, Carol. Carol lives in New Zealand--and the fabric is all strips of wonderful New Zealand prints. I think my favorite is the kiwi in the All Blacks rugby uniform.

Thanks, Carol! See what I made out of your fabric gift? ;-) I'm not sure Carol will see this post, but never mind...she'll be here at the end of April and THIS quilt will be on the guest bed where she'll be sleeping.