Easter Blessings 2011

The thing I realize around the holidays is how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family and that so many of us live in the same area.  My oldest, Ashley, lives in California and we miss her greatly.  Her absence is definitely felt.  Traditionally at Easter, my side of the family spends a night or two at a local hotel.  We have done this since the kids were babies.  When they were little we would have an Easter Egg Hunt and now that everyone is older we eat, tell stories from the past and hang out in the hot tub drinking margaritas.  Oh have times changed.  My oldest nephew is expecting their first child this week and I anticipate going back to Easter Egg hunts in the near future!  :-)

Wisconsin is blessed with talented quilters!

Yesterday my guild, North Shore Quilters Guild, had one of our own as a speaker.  Ethel White is a wonderful quilter with quite a prolific body of work.  She has a special interest in African symbolism.

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              The quilt below is my favorite!

Ethel owned her own shop for a while.

Show and Tell is always a highlight of of meeting.  We have a lot of contemporary quilters along with a smaller group of traditional quilters.  Everyone enjoys the variety.  The main reason I joined this guild was because of the wonderful speakers they bring in from all over the nation.  I am especially excited because in August David Taylor will be holding a workshop for us featuring his use of photoshop and then the museum in Cedarburg is having him teach a 3 day class on hand applique (his specialty!).  What a treat!

Eye Candy

I went to a fashion show at River Boutique & Yarns in Brookfield.
Not only was it fun, but it was motivating as well!
 

They have an amazing selection of yarns!
My favorite is the yarn used on the last picture, but at $94 a skein it
will not be coming home with me :-(

Lucky to Learn

I have been blessed recently with the opportunity to take landscape classes with two nationally known teachers. Our guild brought in Cathy Geier to teach her Aspen and Maple Landscape Workshop. 

                                         I still need to add borders and do some thread painting!                                                                     This was a really fun class and I tried some new techniques
                                                             including markers and pastels

On Thursday, I went to the Sewing Expo in Illinois with my friend and neighbor Susan Lash.  We had a wonderful time together.  I took the above landscape class by Barbara Soumar where I used Mistyfuse for the first time.  I will definitely be using this product more often.  It's perfect for raw edge applique because you don't have to reverse the pattern, you use freezer paper on the RIGHT side of the fabric so you see where your placing the pattern and it's easy to fussycut exactly where you want, and it's incredibly soft when applied. It's my goal to finish up one or more of these landscape quilts so I can bring them to show and tell my next guild meeting.
                                 

What? A completed project?!!!

Yes, it's true.  I have completed a knitted purse that I started last summer.  I am happy with the results :-)
I don't like not being able to close it, so after I sew the snaps on I purchased yesterday we'll be good to go.

  I am STILL working on my Trips X 2 blocks.  This is the last time I make a KING sized quilt.  You can quote me on that!!!

I woke up to LOTS of snow.  I didn't even know they were predicting snow.  It's lovely, yes, but I am so ready to be done with it.  Perhaps it will force me to stay home and work on the trips blocks???? Nah!

   

College Tour of Indiana University

Indiana University was AWESOME!  It was very old and had a lot of character. It is getting really difficult choosing which university is the best for Christie.  We are touring University of Iowa this coming weekend and hopefully will have a decision by the end of the month.

Christie's boyfriend goes to school here.  Trouble????  He is a very sweet guy but there's always the issue of what if they break up?  Grades go down the tubes.  Drama.   What to do, what to do.....                                

The drive to Bloomington, Indiana is approximately 5 1/2 hours long.  This gave me time to get some knitting done!  This is a Kaffe Fassett vest I am working on.  Very putzy, but it will look great when it's finished.

Procrastination..............

It's been a while since I've updated my blog. (I think I need to make another New Year's resolution!  Ya, like
that will make a difference :-)  I have been sewing up a storm, even before the blizzard struck, and feel very productive.  I've also taken photos from flowers I received for my birthday.

Last Sunday David and I went out to Holy Hill to attend mass.  The church is breathtaking!

If you get a chance to visit there....GO!  You won't be disappointed.