Field Trips in Fiber - Adventures in quilting, hand dyed fabric and fiber art.

Houston - Day 1 - Love at First Stitch

This post will probably be full of editing errors - it's late and I'm tired! A good tired though! Today was the all day design class with Jean Wells Keenan. What a super nice lady! The class wasn't exactly what I was expecting but it was good. I thought it was a pure design class but we actually did a lot of sewing. So it became more of a techniques class than a design class and that was fine too. Mom and I fell in love in this class with this

What a sweet machine! It's the new top of the line without embroidery. We both have the 7550 model and like it just fine but this one was a real dream to sew with. I'm not buying it but I did buy a new 1/4" foot. They finally made one with a blade.

Here's a photo of Jean teaching class with one of her art quilts behind her.

We did an exercise on identifying the colors and amount of colors in a photograph, some play with value using the 9 log cabin blocks (we picked the colors so I chose that odd palette!) and we ended the day with some curvy stitching.

It was lots of fun.

We left class and headed to the preview opening of the show. Mom and I made it though 8 of 21 rows of booths and we only accomplished that because we didn't stop much! On row 8 we found Sue and Terri at the MistyFuse booth.  Then we met up with Amy and Sophie at the Hoffman Challenge exhibit. We missed Debra and Rian. Hopefully we can catch up with them later. I have photos of everyone but I'm not able to upload anymore photos tonight so I'll try again tomorrow morning and also share my purchases - so far very few!!

We're here!

A smooth travel day. I knew it was all going to go well when my luggage was weighed. Chris weighed it before we left the house and I was a few pounds over 50 so I removed a few things and stuffed them in Mom's bag. Got to the airport and my bag weighed 49.5 lbs! Perfect!

We are staying in a suites hotel in the Galleria area. We are actually right across the street from the mall so we have a Friday or Saturday night activity close by!

Nothing else to report. We have a quilt design class tomorrow with Jean Wells Keenan - owner of The Stitchin Post. Hopefully I'll have photos to post tomorrow night or Thursday morning.

Getting antsy

Mom and I leave for Houston tomorrow afternoon! I have a couple of work calls tomorrow morning before I leave and I have to finish packing and straighten a little around the house. No problem though, I'll get it all done in the morning!

I've made a little shopping list for things I am looking for there:

• new cutting table - mine is old and the leaves are warped so I'm due a new one
• a quilt storage chest - I have a corner in the upstairs hall that doesn't get any direct light but needs some decoration. I've seen the ones with the glass fronts and top and I think I want one of those.
• a surprise birthday gift for my friend Anne
• anything else that strikes my fancy!

No budgets for this trip. I'm also looking forward to meeting Debra, Rian, Judy, Amy, Sue, Terri and anyone else I can find! Debra has organized a meeting for preview night for some of the bloggers.

I have to share this little bit of excitement that we had yesterday. We live on a small river and had about 3 days of rain last week. Apparently a group of 7 friends decided to kayak our river Sunday afternoon. None of them had been on the river before. Things didn't go so well. One lady (grandmother of 13 with more guts than I've ever had!) lost her kayak and was fished out of the river behind our house. Fortunately we were about the same side so I had some warm, dry clothes for her. All of the others got out about 2 houses down. What a mess. They left too late to really get to their destination anyway (it would have been dark), no one knew the river and they were not dressed for the cold. if you ask me, they were all very lucky!

It wasn't nearly as exciting as the guy that I saw down there on a very cold day 2 years ago. he was dressed only in his BVDs (white undies) and climbing through the briers on the little island in the middle of the river. He had taken his clothes off because the water was cold and, I guess, he wanted to have dry clothes when he got back to the other side. It turned out he was trying to get his hunting dog to cross the river. The man got over to the island and it took a long time to get the dog to come to him. He sat on a log for a while to try to get the dog to come to him. When he stood up he had a brown spot on the back of his undies. He finally got the dog and started carrying it back across the river. The dog jumped out of his arms and swam the rest of the way. I think I would have shot the dog at that point. (Not really, but....) The whole thing was hilarious to watch from the house! I don't think he knew that anyone was watching him.

Off to bed for one last sleep before we leave!!! I'm taking my PC and the hotel has free internet so I'll try to post each day with lots of photos.

Chinese Coins QOV Done!

I've been emailing with Terri about how we are having trouble concentrating on anything. It's all because of the excitement of going to Houston Tuesday. I just hope I can concentrate on work tomorrow because I have a LONG to-do list there before I can leave.

I finally decided that I could get the Chinese Coins QOV done - the remaining tasks didn't require any decisions or thought! So, here it is done. I really like it and I'm glad that I decided to start another in blues and browns.

The finished size is about 65 x 89. I plan to make the next one a little shorter - about 80".

Here's a close-up of the back showing the quilting in the sashing. The backing fabric is one of my hand-dyed fabrics and I really like the result.

I cut the leftover backing fabric into 2" strips and have enough for the center strip for another string quilt like the Heartstrings quilts. If anyone would like to have these strips (already cut) leave me a comment. First come, first served! (I already have another set to do one myself and don't think I would get this one done anytime soon.)

Last night I made 2 pillowcases for both QOV quilts that are done. Here they are ready to pack and ship when I return from Houston! Did I tell you that I'm going to the Houston Quilt Festival with my Mom?? I'm really looking forward to it, in case you were wondering.

QOV Booth in Houston

Does anyone know anything about the QOV booth at the Houston Quilt Festival? I jsut finished another QOV quilt and I could probably get one or both of these quilts in my suitcase and drop them at the booth. But I don't know if they are accepting donations of completed quilts at the booth. Does anyone reading this know?