Four days in Ohio

It’s a long drive to Green, Ohio! 390 miles… If you live in Texas you might be thinking “just around the corner”, but I was born in England where driving 390 miles lands you in the ocean…

But I did it. I made sure my podcasts were lined up, I set the GPS to fastest route and, six hours and five minutes of driving time later I was pulling up outside Sue Spargo, ready to unload my bags and get set up.

We had a full class room of students for Walking Foot Quilting – beyond the ditch, two days of walking foot fun.

There was no problem filling the two days, starting with straight lines, altered stitches, combined stitches, moving on to organic curves before four different spirals… yes four… I’ve added in the string art inspired spiral for those who want to try something extra…

Adding hand stitched embellishment finished the second day for a full experience!

I was determined to get a class picture. The weather co-operated for us to get outside with some of our favorite stitched squares.

That was Wednesday and Thursday. Sue was headed off to Italy for three weeks on Friday morning and we managed to get a photo together before she left.

Friday was free motion day. Six students were booked for both classes but there was no problem filling the empty seats.

Daring white on black made for some spectacular stitching!

Time for another class photo, this one inside…

One more day…

Beautiful Buttons took center stage on Saturday. After six hours of class room time I persuaded a few people to share their work… I spy Dorset cartwheels, Maltese crosses, six pointed stars, Austrian stars and twenty pointed shirt lace buttons…

And the graduating class of trained buttoneers. I’m not sure any of us could raise a family on our potential earnings but maybe with some practice?

Good times! I’m already booked in to repeat the experience next year. Before I left town I got the chance to look around the future home of the business, just a couple of blocks up the road. 33,000 square feet of amazing potential await…I’m looking forward to seeing it all built out when I go back.

I drove home Sunday. It was still a long way. But definitely worth it. I love my trips to Sue Spargo. We met in May 2010. (You can read about it here Keep reading to the end of the post!) Such a lot has happened since then 🙂

On a different note…

The observant of you might have noticed a few new buttons at the side of my blog. I have signed up for several affiliate partnerships. Some include a coupon code for a little discount if you choose to use them. Enjoy!