I went to Chicago but did not see the quilt show!

The back-to-back Chicago and Paducah shows created travel and logistics nightmares for many quilt show vendors, and we were no exception! Our solution was that Stacy drove most of her product for both shows and all of the booth paraphernalia to Chicago in a cargo van. Then, between shows, she would drive to Paducah on Monday. Meanwhile, I flew in to Chicago on set-up day and left early to fly home on Sunday so that I could drive to Paducah from Atlanta on Monday! Whew!

Our booth was the second booth from the convention center door, where we unloaded the cargo van. The same door was directly across the road from the hotel. Even the restroom was conveniently located at the end of our aisle. We didn't even get to see much of the show as we walked to our booth. In addition to being vendors, I taught two classes and Stacy taught one, and between us, we did three of the evening Sampler presentations. Thank goodness for Diane Gabb, who lives in Chicago. She is one of several show staff we really depend on. In her regular life, she is, among other things, a quilter, certified quilt appraiser, CPA and From Marti Michell educator. At shows, her steady demeanor and attention to detail keeps us balanced!

For the record, my students said it was a great show. If you visit Flickr and type "Chicago Quilt Festival" into the search field, you'll find many fun photos of quilts that were on display. The attendance seemed very strong, although I did not hear official numbers, and our sales were as good or better than last year. As always, the best part is the communication with quilters from around the world!

Speaking of Quilters Around the World
Back in February when I blogged about my trip to Holland, I showed a few photos of Belgium quilter Mieke Duyck's Sunburst blocks. She recently sent us a photo of the finished - beautiful! - quilt and I thought I would share it with you here. Click on the quilt for a larger photo.

Spring Day in Atlanta

Atlanta is blessed with perfect weather and climate for azaleas and dogwoods. Blossoms begin to peek out the last week or so of March and any time after the first of April, become magnificent! On Monday before Bettina had to catch her plane home, we toured some of the beautiful residential areas and then had lunch outside in the sun. She missed the show by just a few days!

Bulloch Hall Quilt Show

On Sunday, Bettina and I went to the Bulloch Hall Quilt Show. Bulloch Hall, in Roswell, Georgia, was the childhood home of President Theodore Roosevelt's mother, and it is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Bulloch Hall Quilt Guild meets there each month and holds an annual quilt show. It is always a very nice local show in a lovely setting.

A special treat this year was the exhibit of two of the six sets of the Vintage Revisited challenge quilts organized by Mary Kerr. "What would happen if a set of [antique] blocks was divided among a number of quilt artists and each was left to create a quilt in her own unique style?" I had seen three of the sets at the New Jersey State Convention when I taught there last year and really liked the concept as well as the results.

Here are two of the snapshots I took at Bulloch Hall. Click on the photo to go to a larger version. You can find the makers' names and see more quilts at the Vintage Revisited Website.



Bettina is the originator of the "quilt challenge" idea. She arranged the first quilt challenge that I ever knew of when she was coordinating the National Quilt Festival at Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO. The reason I remember it so well is that the challenge fabrics she selected were from the first Richmond Hill line that I designed for Springs Industries in 1986. (In case you are wondering, the Hoffman Challenge did not start until 1986.)

Atlanta was hopping when Bettina came to town

For some years, six or seven traveling quilt teachers, including Bettina and me, got together for a December slumber party in Iowa. It was a treat to travel without suitcases of quilts, share like experiences and enjoy our friendship. All of the others were within driving distance, I always flew in. I'd always say, "When is someone going to fly down to Atlanta and see me?"

So, a few weeks ago when American Airlines had a good sale, Bettina called and we picked a weekend for her to visit Atlanta. There was no agenda, just a planned get-together. we can't remember for sure our very first meeting, but our friendship goes back around 30 years. From 1978 to 1985, Bettina was a quilt shop owner in Columbia, Missouri, where she and her husband still lives. Richard and I owned Yours Truly, Inc., from 1972 to 1985.

The Terracotta Army
The day before Bettina arrived, Anne Dawson, my secretary, reminded me how much she had enjoyed the special exhibit of nine soldiers from China's Terracotta Army at the High Museum of Art. It was closing that weekend and became one of our non-scheduled events. I picked Bettina up around 1:30 and we drove past the Carter Center and the Martin Luther King Center to meet Richard. He took MARTA (Atlanta's rapid transit system) to Art Center Station and we had just enough time to appreciate both the Terracotta Army and the final of three exhibits from the Louvre.


We had dinner at Atlantic Station, a new live/work/shop area near midtown that was built on the site of an old steel mill.



The Greater Atlanta Shop Hop
Saturday was a busman's holiday*. Bettina and Stacy and I went on the Greater Atlanta Quilt Shop Hop. It was a first for all of us! The theme was Remembering Childhood and all of the shops created their own memory. Nine shops participated, but we were able to visit only five. It was a lot of fun, and, of course, we added some things to our fabric stashes. *free time spent much the same as one's work.

Tiny Stitches' theme was "Read Me A Story and tuck me in with a quilt!" and Maetha was the Princess with the pea:



At Little Quilts, Mary Ellen was the ringleader for Under the Big Top:



Intown Quilters celebrated Summer Vacations. Here's a photo of Cheryl with her new Aurifil thread display. Aurifil is my favorite thread and I am the U.S. spokesperson for Aurifil. All but one store we visited had Aurifil, but Cheryl had the most!



At Sweet Home Quilt Co., in Conyers, it was time to dress up in Grandma's Closet. Here is owner Melisa holding a picture of her at the age of four doing exactly that!



At our last stop, Karen and staff at A Scarlet Thread were celebrating a Birthday Party.



I'm sorry we didn't get to the other shops - Quilts and Fixins, Jonesboro; Red Hen Fabrics, Marietta; Patrick's in Covington and Heritage Quilts & Fabrics in Newnan. But I'm sure a good time was had by all!

Visiting Tifton

I left the office in time to drive to Tifton, GA, for dinner with some of the members of the Wiregrass Quilters Guild. Even though it was early spring, the azaleas were in full bloom in South Georgia, so beautiful!



My hostess, Caroline Benefield, had invited a few ladies over for dinner, and Margo Martin brought a really good baked bean dish. I asked her if I could have the recipe to share on my blog, and she photocopied her recipe card for me (it has the notation "very good" in a corner, and I can attest to that!). The recipe pushes my limit of 5 ingredients, but I don't count ingredients in cans or bottles! Thank you for sharing, Caroline. :-)

Ranch-Style Baked Beans
2 Tbs vegetable oil
1 lb ground beef or 1/2 lb ground beef + 1/2 lb sausage
1 envelope Lipton Onion Soup mix
2 (1 lb) cans pork & beans
1 (1 lb) can kidney beans, drained
1 Cup catsup
1/2 Cup cold water
2 Tbs mustard
2 Tbs lemon juice or vinegar

Brown the meat in the oil. Drain off the fat. Add the remaining ingredients. Mix and bake at 400 degrees for 30-45 minutes. I hope you enjoy this dish as much as we did!

I was happy to also have time to stop and have dinner with Suzanne Leimer, who owns Suzanne's Quilt Shop in Moultrie, GA. Suzanne has been one of our customers for a long time. I design the blocks for the online Patchwork Parties, and Suzanne's has been one of the 12 participating shops since the Party began in 2006. We talk on the phone, but it's all business, so I really enjoyed our visit.

Unless you live in the area, or are a fan of wild Burmese chickens, you probably don't know about the town of Fitzgerald has the largest population of these birds. They roam the streets at will. The Wild Chicken Festival, with antique cars, crafts and a rattlesnake roundup was the same weekend I was teaching in the area.

Friendship Quilt - Photo Update

There are now larger pictures of the quilt and 30 of the blocks on our Website. I hope you enjoy them!

My Very Special Friendship Quilt

In 2004, I was selected to receive the Silver Star Award at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. I was very flattered to be chosen for such an honor. The award is presented annually "to a living person whose body of work has positively influenced, promoted, and developed the art of quilting." The banquet was attended by about 500 quilters, many of whom I've known throughout my career, and it was a wonderful evening.

What I did not know was that many of the people in attendance had also made a block or sent a signed a brick for a friendship quilt that was hanging to one side of the stage under black curtains. It was so dark in that corner, I didn't think there was anything there at all. Just when I thought the banquet was over, Richard went to the microphone and Patti and several others left their tables to go toward the side of the stage. As they wheeled out the quilt frame and removed the curtains to reveal the surprise, Richard talked about the friendship quilt and how happy everyone was that the secret was never found out! There were dozens and dozens of phone calls, letters and packages going back and forth for months - I never had a clue! Nor did I have a clue that Richard was making me a quilt, too - his first quilt!


We recently hung my Silver Star Friendship Quilt in the stairwell at our office and everyone stops to look at it, but not as often as I do. It's so special to me, for many reasons.

It was the best surprise ever. I was so happy my family and so many friends involved with the making of the quilt had attended the banquet. They were able to see the quilt in person and I was able to say hello and gather hugs and enjoy the evening even more. I was so touched by everyone's thoughtfulness in designing their blocks. There are blocks depicting book and pattern covers from our Yours Truly days, even blocks made with YT fabrics, and lots of my favorite colors and block patterns. I can't list everyone here who participated in making the quilt, but the whole story and many more close-ups will soon be on our Website. Click on each block for a larger view.

This is Sally Paul's block. Sally and I have enjoyed a long friendship and I miss spending time with her. She is a high school art teacher.


Gudfinna Helgesdotter, who doesn't prefer applique, made a beautiful depiction of Iceland's volcanic landscape. We have been friends with Gudfinna and her husband for many years. They have a lovely shop called Virka.

Rita Weiss and Linda Causee at American School of Needlework put the cover of "Quilting for People Who Still Don't Have Time to Quilt" on their block. I did a series of "...Don't Have Time to Quilt" books with ASN.


The quilt is large and we didn't have a place to hang it, but we took it out whenever we had visitors who wanted to see it. It has always been fascinating to look at! We recently relocated our offices and the stairwell was the perfect place to hang the quilt - the way the stairs are built, we have a wonderful view of the quilt from upstairs and downstairs. I see it whenever I walk out of the sewing studio, and the variety of block styles, techniques and colors makes it "new" over and over again. I <3 this quilt!

I hope you enjoy these pictures of my friendship quilt. And if you're in the Cedarburg, WI area, you can see the quilt in person at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts, through July 19.










Update!
I just discovered an online quilt festival and posted this quilt there. To see over 400 quilts (!) visit Parkcitygirl's blog:

LaVeta, Colorado with Ricky and Alex and Sharon

When I returned from the Maryland trip, I had less than 24 hours to unpack, pack, sleep and catch another plane. This time my flight was to Colorado Springs, CO, the first trip I had ever made to that airport. Because I normally fly out of Atlanta, a big and busy airport, I have a great appreciation for the fact that I can fly direct nearly anywhere in the world. Changing planes seems like a hardship to me. Because I fly so often in and out of such a big and busy airport, I have a real appreciation for flying in and out of such a small friendly airport as Colorado Springs. They even have free wi-fi throughout the terminal. (If you travel with a computer, there is a wonderful list of airports with free wi-fi at http://www.wififreespot.com/airport.html)

I have to admit that, when Angel Hawthorne, the producer for Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson’s The Quilt Show on webTV, called to invite me to be a guest on the show, I was pleased. But, when she told me they would tape in the Colorado mountains in the middle of March I was skeptical. Is is really smart to tempt the snow gods? I guess so! When we landed in Colorado Springs it was the most gorgeous day I had seen in weeks – we are talking 72°, sunshine and blue skies! Now, there had been snow two days before we arrived and a week later they had 24”, but on March 14 it was beautiful!

Sharon Pederson, probably best known for Reversible Quilts, and I would both be taping the next day (the Ides of March) so we had planned to drive together to LaVeta. Sharon is from Vancouver, British Columbia, but had flown in from Tuscon and was waiting at the airport. It took only a few minutes to meet, rent a car, haul out the bags and be on the road to LaVeta. The two-hour drive gave us a nice opportunity to get acquainted. LaVeta is not the end of the world, but as people like to say, “You can see it from there!” This quiet little town is hardly the place you would expect to find a very professional crew taping a WebTV show with a live audience. But that is what we found. Sharon taped in the morning and I was in the afternoon. Ricky and Alex are both so poised and professional and easy to work with, and the audience was wonderful. It went all too fast! Here I am on the set with Ricky and Alex.



“My” show will air sometime between July 1 and December 31, 2009. You can bet I will keep you posted! For more details about all the shows, see

www.thequiltshow.com/.

A New Reference for Flat!

Being raised in Iowa, I always felt the brunt of people saying that Iowa was one flat cornfield. To me, it is beautiful, rich, productive, rolling farmland—a patchwork of corn, beans and hay fields, dotted with white farm homes!

When Richard and I moved to Kansas for his first job after college, I learned to defend Iowa by comparing it to Kansas, which is really flat, but tilted. I think driving to Colorado from Wichita, Kansas, you drive at a slight angle uphill all the way.

But, after enjoying several very nice drives around Easton, St. Michaels, Royal Oaks, etc., in Maryland, my impression was that the elevation never varied 5 feet. That is flat! I could probably ride a bike there!

Harris’s Crab House
On the way back to the Baltimore airport, Sherry discovered I had never “picked” a crab and decided I shouldn't leave without that experience. Before:

And after!


The most obvious thing about picking crab is that it is a lot of work for the amount of food. Locals and other afficianadoes know it is not just about the food, but also, and more importantly, the fun and the attitude adjustment that goes along with picking crab! It wasn’t the season for Maryland crab, so we were actually eating Louisiana crab. Sherry assured me that Maryland crab is the best! She was a great coach, but I’m not sure I could do it again without a refresher course! I found a great tutorial on picking crab here.

A Little History about Quilting Books

A nice bonus of my trip to Maryland was having a chance to catch up with Susan McKelvey. Our friendship goes back a long time. Today, quilters are easily overwhelmed by the enormous quantity of books available. Back in 1969, when I started quilting, there were virtually no current books about quilting. In 1972, my husband Richard and I started a patchwork kit company called Yours Truly, Inc. It quickly mushroomed into a full quilting supply company with fabrics, notions, batting, patterns and kits made under the brand name "Yours Truly".

The few quilting books published in the early ’70s by traditional publishing houses were not available to quilt shops. In 1975 Gail Giberson’s father, who published tole-painting books, published Primarily Patchwork by Gail and Marjorie Puckett, and it could be bought by quilt shops and fabric stores. Inspired by that book, we felt we could do the same. After all, at Yours Truly, we had Richard’s knowledge of the printing industry, my journalism degree and eye for talent, and Pat Wilens’ technical and editing skills. Pat was our graphics supervisor at the time.

By early 1978, we had become the first company to publish quilting books exclusively for quilt and fabric stores. Our first book was Successful Machine Appliqué by Barbara Lee.


Susan McKelvey was one of “our authors” with her first book, Color for Quilters.


We were also the first publishers of Marianne Fons and Liz Porter, Mary Ellen Hopkins, Jean Wells, Cheryl Bradkin, and Chris Wolf Edmonds, as well as several other talented quilters who are no longer active in the industry.

 

In the years from 1978 until 1985, when Yours Truly was sold, we printed and sold close to 2 million copies of books. Several of the titles remained available for another 10 or 15 years. We have always been very proud of the Yours Truly books and their impact on the quilt world.

The Bayside Quilters – Easton, “Delmarva”

Ever since I read James Michener’s book Chesapeake, I wanted to visit this area. A couple of years ago, Sherry Burke called and extended the invitation on behalf of the Bayside Quilters of Easton, Maryland, on the “Eastern shore”. It is on the Delmarva Peninsula that is shared by parts of Delaware, Virginia and Maryland. For many years, that long peninsula was not connected by bridges to either Maryland or Virginia.

Sherry and her husband Terry had been my hosts when I taught in Nashville, Tennessee in 1991, and would be my hosts again. I was not disappointed; it was a beautiful area, not to mention a beautiful home on the water! Sherry says they feel like their blood pressure drops 15 points when they cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

Cathy Morin picked me up in Baltimore and gave me a great tour of Annapolis on the way to Easton. It is a charming and historic town. If I knew, I did not remember that Annapolis was also the temporary capital of the United States during 1783 and ’84 and was said to have been George Washington’s choice for the permanent capital. The guild was great and very nice, and I had two great days.

I’m Afraid to Cut this Fabric!
In the Kaleidoscope class with the Bayside Quilters, Janie Kelting showed up with a fabulous 1974 Indonesian fabric. It had major family attachment. She was thinking of making a special project with it and thought it perfect for the Kaleidoscope block.


Isn't this a great fabric? It's going to make a great Kaleidoscope quilt!


Because of the very limited quantity, I recommended that Janie make multiple photocopies of the fabric from selvage to selvage and cut paper pieces to see if she liked the newly created designs before ever cutting fabric. This is a good idea any time you want to "try out" a special fabric, especially if the quantity is limited.

Another way to audition blocks before cutting fabric is by working with mirrors, as discussed and shown in our book Kaleidoscope ABCs. For one of the quilts in the book, I previewed a Jinny Beyer border stripe to see how the blocks would look:


Then I couldn't wait to cut up the fabric! All the blocks in my "Stunning Stripes" quilt came from that one border stripe.


The more I thought about Janie's fabric, and the more she and I talked about it, we both wondered if it is a textile that should not be cut, but treated as a whole cloth quilt instead. How do you feel about it?

Ever Had a Marionberry?

I first learned of Marionberries a few years ago at Don's Drive-In, a great restaurant in Portland. The Marionberry is a hybrid blackberry created by the Oregon State University Agricultural Research and Development team and released into production in 1956. It is distinctively sweet, yet tart, a real delicacy if you love berries! The Marionberry was named after the county where it was developed. If it had been named after the head researcher, it would have been the Waldoberry! 90% of the Marionberries grown in the world are grown near Salem, Oregon, in the Willamette Valley, making them a frequent delicacy on Oregon restaurant menus.

If you are ever in Puyallup for Sew Expo, or any other reason, and you would like to sample this luscious delicacy, then go directly to Don’s Drive-in just across the street from the Western Washington Fairgrounds, where Sew Expo is held.



One of the first years that we went to Puyallup, we went to Don’s for lunch and discovered that they are famous for homemade pies. I spotted Marionberry pie on the menu and a tradition was born! Ever since, we treat ourselves to piece of Marionberry pie on the day we set up our booth. Mmmm!

Got to See the Grandsons!

…and their parents, too! Our son and his family live in a Seattle suburb, so the annual Sew Expo trip always gives us a chance to see them, even if it is briefly. When we first put up our Website, we included this picture of me with the boys.

I’ve been meaning to update that picture and got a chance to pull them aside at a restaurant for a picture. This is what they look like now.

Ooops, the really tall one in the back is painted on the wall of the restaurant! There are only two grandsons. Carter just turned 17, and Conrad is soon to be 13. This picture is the proof of what I knew was coming - I am now the shortest one in the family!

How do you say "Puyallup"?

I go with "pew – all – up", but some say "pew- Al – up" What I know for sure is, it is not "Poo –al – up"! It is always viewed with fear of mispronunciation. I noticed when there was major flooding there in January, putting Puyallup in the center of national news, those broadcasters chose to say simply "Washington"!

Whatever you call it, Puyallup is the home of the Western Washington Fair Grounds. Several of the buildings on the fairgrounds are used for the Sewing and Stitchery Expo. Specifically, the Showplex building shown here is where you would find the From Marti Michell/Michell Marketing booth.



Our booth is always decorated with lots of quilts. This is one side of the booth:



The show started slowly as everyone in the Seattle area woke up to a surprise snowstorm on the first morning of the show. Traffic was jammed, school openings were delayed and some schools were closed. Many people’s plans for trips to Sew Expo that day were disrupted. Fortunately, the snow did not last long and it turned out to be a very good show.

One of the unique things about this show is the large offering of 45-minute lecture/demo classes. My talks were all held in this huge white tent.

Here are about half of the 200 people at one of my lectures.

And here are the other half! :) Thank you everyone for spending time with me!

The shows are hard work, but I have a great show crew. Each one brings different areas of expertise to the group, both quilting experience and “real world” skills, but most of all they bring smiling faces, good spirit and wonderful attitudes! They are great to work with.

Shown above, from left to right, are Brenda Asmus from San Antonio; Diane Gabb, Chicago; Marilyn Paul, San Pedro, CA; Me; Chris Kenck, Seattle; and Stacy Michell, Atlanta. All but Chris are From Marti Michell Educators and we are working on Chris! Stacy has her own company and her Shades Textiles booth is right next to ours, but at shows we think of ourselves as one team. Not pictured is Richard Michell, who came out for a long weekend. It was fun to have him help hold quilts at two of my lectures and be in the booth during some of our busiest times.

Quilting is a Passionate Hobby

You might have read in an earlier post that I was headed for the Sewing and Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, WA. This was the 25th anniversary event. The 25,000 or more attendees are dedicated sewers, quilters and stitchers. So dedicated that one gal was telling us that she had even included in her Christmas letter that she and her friend Nancy already had their tickets and hotel room for their trip to Sew Expo. Only problem was that the spell check feature on her computer accepted her typo bragging about her trip to the “sex expo”! Oops!

Another lady said she and her husband had hoped to be in Hawaii for their 40th anniversary this weekend, but it hadn’t worked out. "So," she said with a happy smile, "I got to come to Sew Expo after all!"

But, my favorite was the lady who said her husband was scheduled for hip replacement surgery on March 11 (Expo ended March 1). There was a cancellation and he had a chance to move it up to February 24. She said, “I told him, it is your choice, but I’m going to Sew Expo this weekend!” Then she smiled and said, “Besides, it gives him a chance to bond more with his children if I’m not there!”

Arizona in February

Next I was headed for the Thumb Butte Quilt Guild in Prescott, AZ. We have a rather mild winter in Atlanta, but I must admit when I booked these events some time back, I thought longingly about Arizona's February sun. Before I left the hotel in Vegas, I got a phone call from my hostess in Prescott, Susie Martin, saying, "It is snowing in Prescott - but we expect it to melt!" To get a decent airfare, I had to fly from Vegas to Salt Lake City to Phoenix. I could have driven this trip in about 5 or 6 hours, but one-way car rentals are very expensive, so I decided to fly. Susie, who used to travel a lot on her job, graciously offered to pick me up, so I did not have to take the shuttle 1 1/2 - 2 hours to Prescott.

A Long Sunday…
8:30 AM Leave hotel to allow extra time for the broken Tram at the airport.
10:40 AM flight. Leave gate and sit on tarmack 20 or 30 minutes before departure. Wonder if I will make the connection in Salt Lake?
1:30 PM (Mountain time) Land in Salt Lake at Gate B-6 and have 10 minutes to get to E-73. Yes, they were as far apart as they sound--further!
1:40 PM Miss my flight, it just left the gate! Call Susie. I'm on standby for the next flight in another hour and a half. The flight will depart from—-you guessed it--Gate B-6!
3:20 PM Make the flight.
4:30 PM (Pacific time) Land in Phoenix but only two bags are there. My third bag with my clothes will be on the next flight to Phoenix.
5:00 PM Susie and I soothe frazzled nerves at the Cheesecake Factory while waiting for the third bag.
6:30 PM Rescue the bag and start the almost-two-hour drive to Prescott in patchy rain and snow.
8:30 PM Get to hotel in Prescott. Whew!

A More Fun Monday
Prescott is a wonderful mile-high town (meaning its elevation is one mile above sea level). One friend described Prescott as a wonderful place to live year-round, but added her neighbor on the right was from Wisconsin and only came for the winter, and her neighbor on the left was from Phoenix and only came for the summer! Susie picked me up at 8:30 AM and we headed for the guild meeting and my trunk show lecture. The weather was looking rough and many of the people who live further up the mountain were not able to get to the guild meeting :( but we had a really nice Seven Sisters Simplified class. These are just a few of the blocks.



By the end of the day there was enough bad weather that we canceled plans for dinner, but the next morning was picture perfect!






Who would have guessed 8" of snow at the hotel and 18-25" the higher up the mountain you went! Only about half the class could get out of their driveways, and several straggled in as the streets were plowed. I have to tell you, I was looking forward to sunshine and 70, not snow and 30!

In spite of the weather, Susie and two of her friends, who had all participated in the Saturday Sampler program at Odegards in Flagstaff, managed a neat surprise for me. The program featured the blocks from a block-of-the-month quilt that I had designed. All three had set their blocks in a different way, and different from the arrangement in the BOM quilt -- Susie even duplicated four to make her quilt bigger -- and they all brought their quilts to show me! How cool is that? And aren't they beautiful:







Quail Country Quilters Guild
By late afternoon, the roads were clear and Mary Lou Evans, my hostess for the next guild, picked me up. She took the low road to Cottonwood, not the high road over the mountain. (Good move, Mary Lou - no snow!) Mary Lou is the Quail Country Quilters Guild program chairman, driver and hostess extraordinaire! She and her husband Mike have a lovely home and wonderful guest cottage. It was so pleasant and charmingly decorated that I threatened to stay!



In addition to another very good class group and a trunk show lecture, Mary Lou treated me to a visit to Jerome for a little shopping and dinner with some of the guild members. Jerome is a unique town hanging off the mountains. It's home to a store called Nellie Bly:



This has to be the world's best Kaleidoscope store, and I love Kaleidoscopes. Jane Lloyd, the manager, was informative, charming, patient, cheery and a good salesperson, everything a manager should be! She showed me how easy it is to take a picture through the eye piece of a "teleidosope", which has a clear glass marble at the end. She said she sends teleidoscope pictures to her grandmother for quilt designs! (Maybe she said her mother. It seems like whenever anyone relates anything about quilting, a grandmother is in the story!)

Of course, when I got home, I took a picture of my fabric collection with my new teleidoscope!




After class on Thursday, we went to beautiful Sedona for lunch. I can never see enough of the red rocks.




Later in the afternoon, we visited with Mary Beth Groseta, who owns Quilter's Quarters, and after a quick fabric fix, we were off to Phoenix. I was taking a red-eye home (flight time 12:50 AM Friday morning) and took advantage of a little free time to have dinner and catch up with my longtime friend Dee Lynn. Among other things, Dee and Audrey Waite run Quilt Camp in the Pines in Flagstaff. I have taught there so often, I've lost count, plus I taught on three wonderful cruises that they organized to Alaska, the Panama Canal and Australia & New Zealand. We had a good visit and soon after, I was headed back home to "refuel" for my next trip.