Really Catherine, where have you been? I didn’t realize quite how many places I’ve been since I last blogged until I started to organize my pictures.
Oh well, here we go again!
I drove down to Galesburg on the 15th of June. It’s about 18o miles from home. I had packed my bags and gone to breakfast with my friends on the west side of town in the morning. Google took me on the scenic route down to I-80 which was interesting…
Nevertheless I arrived in town with plenty of time to get set up before I checked into my hotel and then returned for the presentation.
It was a small select gathering for Lessons Learned While Quilting but we had a good time!
Christmas quilts are turning up in everybody’s Show and Tell at the moment. Here’s a lovely festive sampler. 
Some of the guild members had taken a portrait class with Karen Snow. If these two finished quilts are anything to go by it looks like they had fun!
And here’s a lovely little bag to put things in, using some tiny flying geese!
I had taken a selection of quilts for the members to have a closer look at, including After April Showers, an EPP quilt that appeared in Modern Patchwork magazine back in 2015. One of the ladies came up to me to show me her phone. A Facebook group she belongs to had been talking about it just recently. She was so pleased to see it in real life!
Here’s a detail…
The pattern is still available over at Quilting Daily if you are interested. (and it’s on sale this week!!)
It was too far and too late to drive home so I was glad of my hotel room to get some sleep before I made my way back on Friday morning.
Just time to sort out my bags and repack ready for a quick jaunt into Chicago with Steve.
Who doesn’t like a view of the iconic Chicago skyscrapers?
We wanted to go to the Art Institute to visit the Van Gogh and the Avant-garde exhibit and the only way we are guaranteed to get there on a Saturday morning is to go down the night before… so that’s what we did.
It didn’t disappoint. This is Riverbank in Springtime (1887). 
It is usually in the Dallas Museum of Art. Many of the paintings were from elsewhere, including some from private collections that are very rarely on public display. We listened to the complete audio tour and bought the book so you know we liked it!
Time for coffee and a pastry. This ceiling installation caught my eye but I didn’t make a note of who designed it 🙁
And then on to the Fresh Up exhibit by Gio Swabe in the textile gallery.
Fabric applique portraits with stitched details.
Steve went on to visit some of his favorite paintings and I had a bit of a sit down… It had been a busy week and I knew I had more adventures on the horizon.
Monday found me driving to Holland, Michigan. 180 miles in the other direction, including going through the construction on I-94 around the lake again!
There was a good crowd gathered for the evening presentation of Lessons Learned!
Looking right…
and left…
Show and Tell included quilts from a previous class,
A beautiful Christmas tree skirt (the trend continues…)
This amazing quilt inspired by the maker’s tomato plants (I wish I had been sitting where I could have got a better picture)
and a very cute Sunbonnet Sue quilt with an interesting history.
Holland is right on the western side of the eastern time zone so it wasn’t dark when we left the building. I had noticed this bird when I parked my car and now I got a closer look. She (?) wasn’t too pleased to see me. There were four eggs in the nest.
Her mate came to join her and tell me what he thought. I looked them up. They are Killdeer, a large plover. The nest wasn’t much more than a scrape in the ground. I wish them well with raising their family!
I was up bright and early to eat breakfast before I headed over to the day’s workshop. We had a full class registered for Walking Foot Quilting. Lunch was eaten outside with a beautiful lake view.
We were so busy I forgot to take any pictures until people were clearing up at the end…
They looked happy? We are talking about a repeat visit in 2025.
No time to hang around. I was back on the road and home by dinner time. Steve cooked dinner!
Next morning found me headed out again. Not so far this time, but the traffic was BAD! I had planned to go to Vermont Quilt Festival on the Wednesday but when it was canceled my schedule opened up to allow me to attend h+h americas, a craft industry trade show being held at the Rosemont Convention Center. Richard was exhibiting so I got to hang out in the booth. I signed Butterfly Stitches books with C&T on Wednesday afternoon and I did a Dorset Button class in the Learning lab area on the Thursday.
Before we began…
and with our buttons
It’s always good to catch up with friends. I stole this picture from Yazzii’s instagram…
I’m not sure what I was looking at…
And there were fireworks in the entertainment district on Thursday night! I could see them from my hotel room.
And that’s me about up to date.
We were set to go to Nashville to celebrate Jonathan’s 40th birthday with him on Friday, but Steve dislocated his elbow on the way to the gate, and we ended up at Urgent Care instead… that’s not a blog worthy story.
It finally rained at the weekend so our new landscaping is set to flourish. (Not today’s featured image… those plants were at the convention center!!)
My bags are almost packed for Quilt Festival Long Beach. I’m flying on Wednesday. I’m teaching a day long embroidery class and then I will be in Open Studios. I hope you’ll stop by and say hello if you’re there.
Happy Independence Day! It’s our first one as American citizens.
You sure are busy Catherine!!!! I was disappointed to see you aren’t at PIQF this year. Was hoping you would be. Hope you’ll get expenses from Stitches Events covered. Still can’t believe all that. Looks like you’re having lots of fun!!!! We have to move everything out of my sewing room and the spare room that has things in there too when they replace our cantilever deck so it is interesting to see all the things I have!!! And finding!!!!