Joanne always wanted to visit Battle Creek when she was in Elementary school. All her favorite cereals were made in the Kelloggs’ factory there! We never made it, although we did drive past on our way back from trip to Niagara Falls and Canada one time. Almost all the cereals are manufactured in Mexico now.
I drove East and then North on Sunday afternoon, ready to visit the Cal-co Quilters Guild bright and early on Monday. It’s just short of 180 miles and should take two hours and 38 minutes if the traffic conditions are right. They weren’t… Never mind, I had some podcasts to listen to and I picked the lane without the trucks so at least I could see where I was going.
I was booked for a full day Beading on Fabric class and it was a delight to be able to stitch our way through all the things. Often we just have three hours and I have to say we do need to pick and choose how we spend our time in those classes.
Here are the hardworking students, stitching steadily away.
I had prepared 4″ x 6″ mini quilts for everyone, along with packets of mixed beads… size 8 seed beads, bugle beads and a sprinkling of fun novelty extras. It was fun to see what everyone had accomplished by the end of our six hours (a few had to leave early). Some people needed help threading their needles and tying their knots at the beginning of class but everyone told me they had learnt some new tricks!
I had a couple of hours to regroup after all that fun and then it was back out again for the evening. First came the business meeting. There’s going to be a Quilt Show in July so of course there were lots of announcements about that. Then there was the moving to a new storage unit, and then came Show and Tell.
Lots of lovely creations, from the large T-shirt Quilt (it’s graduation season)
to the medium sized, (it was decided butterflies can be shown any way up!)
to the littlest quilts! (ready for the next time it snows?)
Here’s one of the super quilts that are going to be included in the silent auction at the Show.
There was also a parade of the round robin quilts that are in progress but they went past so fast that all my pictures are blurry! We rounded out the evening with my lecture The Language of Flowers. Most people obliged and smiled for the camera…
Looking right,
center,
and left!
We had a good time together. Flower colored threads were distributed at the appropriate time. The tech worked just as it should!
All that remained was to pack my bags, sleep well and then drive home again on Tuesday morning. This time it really did take two hours and 38 minutes! I will be back to Michigan in June, to Holland which is the same distance just not so far east. I will still have to drive around the lake…
Today is a big day for me and Steve. Pictures tomorrow?
I’m curious! What was the significance of the two yellow safety vests?
They are in charge of the Quilt show this year. They will be wearing the vests so we can find them quickly for questions. It worked great last year!!