I have been home for over two weeks… I think it’s about time I posted some pictures from my trip to Des Moines.
Excuses first… I was having problems with my computer being too full to take the photos off my camera. There was an easy fix. One quick trip to the Naperville Apple store solved the issue quite painlessly. A new MacBook Pro (with a pink case of course!) came home with me last week. I have signed up for some classes, so I might even learn how to use it properly?
Well, back to Des Moines. The drive was good. After a little rain, a stop at Fern Hill in the Amana Colonies and dinner at Phat Daddy’s in Marengo, Sue and I arrived at our hotel in time for Grey’s Anatomy….
And that was Thursday!
Friday morning, breakfast at the hotel and a few miles into Des Moines, we parked in the $6 parking lot (an improvement on Rosemont?) and entered the Iowa Event Center. It’s a big place but we soon found the right exhibition hall and the workshop table where I was to claim my winner’s ribbon!! You would think a purple ribbon on my name tag would be enough excitement for one day?
I resisted the temptation to go looking for my quilt straight away and we enjoyed Jean Lohmar’s prizewinning quilts at a reasonably leisurely pace… However, I couldn’t hold off for too long and we found ourselves in the Wall Quilts – machine quilted section. There were 70 semi-finalists in the category and I was not in the first aisle, or the second…. or even the third! Imperial Blooms was in the second to last aisle… but there it was, complete with big yellow rosette!
(There weren’t really any people looking at it when we arrived but this picture seems appropriate to come next in the story…)
And of course I needed a picture alongside too…
Quilt visited, we were able to enjoy the rest of the show, do a little shopping, eat some lunch, look at some more quilts, do more shopping (just a little bit) and then pay one last trip to visit “the quilt”.
This time there really were people looking at it, so I was able to take suitable pictures. One lady taking a good look was Kazue Matsuda and her daughter Ami. Kazue was visiting the show from Tokyo by way of her daughter’s home in Toronto. She had a quilt in the Japanese Color and Form Exhibit. Ami took a picture of us by my quilt…
My name tag kept turning around. I need to work on that!
One of the fun things about traveling is meeting new people. Kazue and Ami were a long way away from home. Our 300+ mile drive really was not very far…
However the day was not quite over. We visited the Des Moines tourist kiosk before we left and decided the sculpture park would be worth a visit. Endowed by John and Mary Pappajohn (nothing to do with pizza!) there are art works from 21 different artists.
Sue enjoyed a quick rest on a rather hard stone seat.
And I needed a picture of Barry Flanagan’s Thinker on a Rock.
His hare sculptures always remind me of the sculpture park near Steve’s parents in Sheffield. Our children enjoyed several visits in years gone by!
So, enough fun for one day… we drove home saturday, via Kolona and Inspirations in Hills (just a little more shopping).
Good times!
I have been busy the last two weeks. More about that soon!
