Christmas

March 29, 2011

She said, "Yes to the Dress!"

The day before I left for my trip Kira, Kaitlyn and Myself met Angie and her mother, Becky in Salt Lake to help her pick out the perfect dress. It was fun getting together for a day of shopping and lunch. It's all about you, girl. Please check in here for your clerk. Angie had a really nice lady helping her out with the dresses and vails.
Even baby Teegan got in on the wedding shopping. What's a girl to do? There were so many options, it was hard to decide.
I think that's the one!
Yippy, skippy she said, "Yes to the dress!"
Now you have to wait until July to see what she picked out. Just a hint, it's beautiful!

March 28, 2011

A Winning Weekend!

We won, we won, we really won! As I was putting my tickets into the sponsor bucket raffle I told Stuart it was going to be our lucky night. And sure enough , it happened! Saturday night we attended the Sportsman and Fish Wildlife banquet and auction. V-Bar Guns and Ammo, as in the past has donated a couple of guns for their raffle. For this, they seat us and give us an envelope with different tickets for all the raffles going on. All of my sponsor tickets went into that bucket because I didn't need a new gun. Stuart did the same.

And the winner is.....................V-Bar Guns and Ammo! OMG, I screamed and just about fell off my chair. We looked at each other in awe. We had just won a four wheeler, we laughed about the preminition I had had earlier. It was meant to be wasn't it? We are still floating on cloud nine and can't believe it. This will be so much fun to use while we are out camping with the kids. They even outfitted us with bags and bags to go with and two shiny new helmets. Were picking her up today. It's going to be a great anniversary week already, I can tell.

March 27, 2011

Trip Treasures!

Here are a few of my favorite things I brought home from my trip.

First of all a wall hanging, showing the handwork of the Amish people from Sylvia's Quilt shop.

A few things from the Kettle Kitchen Village in Intercourse, PA. I found these cute bracelets for the girls. They are called Viva Beads. Check their website out, they really have some cute stuff. Of course I had to get one for myself too. Jams and salsa for Stuart from the Village Jams and Jellies and chocolate for everyone. My little purchase from Pennsaylvania Fabric Outlet. They had such a great selectionof button and the zippers were cheap! I think the buttons I got would make some cute vintage bracelets. I probably will regret not getting more. Oh well. Here are some things I picked up at the quilt show. From Attic Heirlooms I picked up a cute wool felt pincushion and bracelet kit From The Old Country Store I found chocolate bars for the girl's at work. Look at the cute wrapper. Chocolate wrapped in a quilt, can it get better than that? Yeah, eating it! This boothe had the funnest toys for quilters. The Quilters Toy Shop had any kind of gadget a sewer would want. I found these cute fat quarters, a new scissor leash and the coolest pocket eye glass cleaner. Perfect for the sewing drawer or bag. The Beckoning Cat shop was full of Japanese fabrics. Her diawabo selection was just beautiful. She had charm packs already cut. And look at this piece from Amy Butler. It's from a line called Sunbloom. I understand it was from her first line of fabrics printed in Japan. It's a nice linen, it will make a great bag.
A new ruler and quilt book from a wonderful quilt shop from Hagerstown, MA called Wilson's. This shop reminds me of the Corn Wagon, alot of the same features and fabric that we sell. This ruler has the same concept of the Twister ruler only you can use it on strip piecing and 9 patch blocks. When should I get started?
Are you into the civil war fabrics? OMG this boothe had lots of precuts. Lancaster Traditional was the name of the boothe. His website is http://www.quilts123.com/. If you are wanting precuts of some of your favorites check this site out. I think it will be time worth spent.
And from Quilts Plus I picked up some bag patterns and supplies. I'm hoping to do some of them in bag classes. The prices on her hardware were very reasonable. Connie had several purses made from Diawabo's. I am going to use my charm pack for one of her new designs, the Bogota Bag. Pictured in the front. Won't that be cute?
So there are a few of my favorite things. Of course there were little odds and ends along the way like my chicken pincushion from Lapps Quilting, my wooden quilt pin from Rob Nettleton of the Wood Quilter. He does some pretty amazing things with such tiny pieces of wood. Sorry I don't have pictures, to much stuff to remember. I'll try and get a picture for you. But check out his website to see an array of projects he has. Hope you have enjoyed my show and tell.

March 23, 2011

Friday, saying goodbye!

What a week. It's now Friday and time to say goodbye to my freinds. I have had a blast getting to know each and everyone of them. My bags are packed and ready to go, plus one more that was packed away in my suitcase. Sure glad I had it to bring all the souviners home. My roses won't be able to make the flight so I left them with the others to enjoy for the rest of the weekend. A rose every morning while I was here, what a lovely surprise from my husband.
It takes lots of luggage for 7 ladies, the van and car were loaded top to bottom. I hope they remembered to put mine on top!
The girl's will enjoy these on their travels the next few days.

We are at the Harrisburg Airport saying goodbyes. Goodbyes are always so hard to do, I have had the time of my life with these ladies. I will cherish so many fond memories of this trip. A once in a lifetime opportunity for me and I did it all by myself. I'm a big girl now! They are already making plans for my visit to the Netherlands. Now taking donations!!! jk
Or maybe this is a hello wave to all of you from, Hilde, Seinke, Yvonne, Cisca, Rennie and Yvonne.
One last group picture before I fly off into the sunset.

If it weren't meeting Yvonne almost a year ago, I don't think this trip would have been possible. She's the planner behind all of this. Every where we went people wanted to know how a girl from Utah got 6 ladies from the Netherlands here. I replied, "It wasn't me, she's the tour guide!" Then they wanted the whole story of our meeting.

Now I am looking forward to Yvonne and Alex's return to Utah in July. So we don't have to long before we see each other again. 4 months will just fly by.

Goodbye Pa,
hello, Ohio. I had a layover in Cinncinatti, so what do you do for 5 hours all by yourself? Well you have lunch, walk the airport and do a little shopping. Watch planes come and go and the best thing, people watch. And I read all of these patterns I picked up on my trip.
I'm read up and ready to sew.
Like I said, this has been one of the greatest weeks of my life. But the saying goes there's no place like home. So glad to be here.

March 21, 2011

It's already Thursday!

It's time to hit the road again to the quilt show. Yvonne's ready to go with her new JoAnn's bag and pie! Just in case anyone gets hungry, you know!!! My first stop of the day was the Wilson's booth from Maryland. Right off the bat I recognized the quilt hanging before me. It was my friend Terry's, from Thankfully Sew right here in Provo. They had the patterns there and were offering it as a class in their shop. I was so excited to share the news with the others. We have great talent here in Utah and it's neat to see it in so many out of state shops and shows. I can't wait to see Terry.
This was another quilt in that same booth. The reds and browns were beautiful. I went ahead and bought the book and ruler that makes it. When will I get this one started? This would make a fun class.
Break time, is that the pie coming out?
We all met back in the lobby to discuss afternoon plans. Everyone decided more quilt shops and the Kettle Kitchen Village. One last picture at the show.
Thanks to our awesome taxi driver, Yvonne, we made it to every destination without any problems. No GPS for this lady, she does everything from printed off maps.
Our first stop along the way to the village, Sylvia's. It was a sunshiny day and she had quilts hanging outside. What a great day for an outdoor quilt show. This is #7 of the trip.
Quilts hanging from the front porch.
And the clothesline.
More fabric in the garage. This is something they do while the show is in town. Everything is cut into 1/2 yard pieces. What a great idea and the prices were nice too.
Eating again! We stopped for a late lunch at a family resturant in Bird in Hand. What a treat to sit at the old fashioned lunch counter.
At the village and ready to go.
Our first stop, Zooks Quilting and Sewing.
Are we on #8?
This little shop stocked all of the Amish goods.
They carry everything from their hats, aprons, coats, etc. They have a fabric section with the Amish people in mind. The Amish wear plain solid colors. You never see anything sewn with a print. Everything is hand made.
We made it across the street to the Old Country Store. This is shop #9 of the trip. How many more can we get in a day?
While looking a books I recognized this one. A Piece of Pie from Pie Plate patterns. Another Utah company and great friends of mine. In fact I'm teaching at their retreat in a couple of weeks so I'll share this news with them.
Show and tell time and waiting for the rest to catch up.
Nancy's would be the last shop of the day and trip. We managed to hit 10 shops plus all the vendors at the show. Now that's alot of quilt shopping in four days.
The girl's had been wanting a taste of American ice cream all week. By the time we made it back to the village the ice cream shop was closed. We had passed a creamry in Strasburg on our way to the show each day so we headed there. They were just getting ready to close but offered us to come in and enjoy some of their homemade ice cream. At last!
Yvonne 1 & 2
Cisca and Seinke
Rennie and Hilde.
We all enjoyed our ice cream but we all agreed we were to full to have an early supper. We had a couple of hours to rest or as for me I had several souviners that needed a place to ride home so I did some repacking and then I put a little thank you together for all the gals. This fabric line came in the shop the day before I left and I thought it was perfect. A reminder of their trip to the US. It's the line Quilts of Valor. I rolled up the fabric and tied it with ribbon and ric rac then tied a scissor charm to it. Before we met for dinner I had taken them over to the resturant and put them on the table as favors. They were all so surprised.
We were just in time for the St. Patty's day party going on. Looks like Hilde brought her own date to the party!
Our final day was coming to an end. We said some early goodbyes and shared a few tears as we talked about the weeks events. This trip has been one of many new experiences, seeing new places, meeting new friends,(from the Netherlands), learning different culture styles. This trip will be placed in my memory for a very long time. I am so fortunate to have a friend like Yvonne clear across the globe. And now she has introduced me to five wonderful ladies that I call friends now. And to think it all came about from blogging. Isn't it wonderful?
Our last dinner together.
Tomorrow will come to fast. I will say goodbye to these fine ladies.