Let’s get together!

Easter came, and with it the eldest and the youngest cousins…I am not an expert on egg hunts but fortunately the mothers came prepared and I supplied egg boxes to collect the spoils… Benjamin is now 13, Teddy was wearing a rugby shirt that once belonged to him!!

Fun times but then it was time to pack the car and get on the road to Akron, Ohio. Four hundred miles… It is nice to have a bit bigger car these days. I wish I could say the miles whizzed by, but I managed to survive the Turnpike and arrived in time to unload and check out my surroundings for the next few days.

It was the first time I had taught for Original Sewing and Quilting Expo and I wasn’t sure what to expect. It was great! All my classes had been showing “registration full” for a while so I knew I was going to have lots of students.

We started with a full day of Walking Foot Quilting in the Viking room. The show hadn’t started yet so lunch was included in the price of the class. What a fun idea!

Thursday morning found us hand stitching with an Introduction to Folk Art Stitching. I’m never quite sure where the class will go… we did lots of chain stitch. Participants particularly enjoyed adding beads when they wrapped their stitches.My lecture was not sold out!! We were a very small select crowd to take a Trip Around the World but everyone went home with a card of thread and one lucky winner also received a kit and a stitch guide.I had managed to get my sleep cycle on to Eastern time. I needed to leave the hotel at 7.15 each morning to be ready for an 8.30 start in the classroom.

Friday morning had me scheduled in the Janome room, right next to the show floor, for another walking foot class.

Looking right…and looking left…Just time for a protein bar for lunch before I needed to be ready in the BERNINA room! This time it was Free Motion Quilting – Steps to Success.

Just one more class to go. No time for the hotel breakfast on Saturday morning. The restaurant didn’t open until 7 because it was the weekend. Good job I had yogurt and apple sauce in the fridge?

Walking foot quilting in the Viking room again… Organic Curves and Super Spirals. Three hours gave everyone time to try everything and we had a quick demo of adding a few hand stitches too.Driving meant I could take lots of stitched samples and I thought they looked so good on the table that I needed a picture. It’s today’s featured image.

Done! Let’s clear up, pop up to the show floor, check out some quilts and say hi to Richard in the Global Artisans booth. Good times!

One more thing… I just can’t visit Akron without popping 15 minutes South…
I had a wholesale order to pick up and found just a few things in the store I needed. Sue and Aimee were in the classroom piecing a quilt and I might just have interrupted them for a few minutes. I hope it won’t be too long before I’m back. (Watch this space?)

I drove home Sunday. It had been a lovely spring-like week but never let that fool you. The temperature dropped as I drove through bands of heavy rain and the temperature dropped 30 degrees…

Meanwhile Kristine who was in my Yorkshire Button class for STITCHES at the beginning of the month sent me this picture. Wow! Isn’t it lovely? Kristine tried lots of different threads for her poppies. If you want to make your own buttons I do teach classes. My June class with STITCHES at home is sold out but if you are in the Minneapolis area I have a live in person class in August 8th at their Boutique event. Details here. I’m sure I will be doing another on-line class in the fall. I’ll let you know!

We are off to visit family next week. My sister heads up a charity in the UK and asked me to donate a pillow to their annual auction. I have one ready to go in my suitcase. It had to be butterflies?

The front…

and the back.Yes, it’s double sided!

The eagle-eyed among you might recognize it as an adaptation of a wall hanging I made for my Butterfly Stitches book.

I unpicked a few stitches, moved a butterfly and sewed the seams. A 14″ pillow form fitted just right!

Before we head overseas we have an important appointment in Chicago today and then I will be in Denver with the Colorado Quilting Council at the weekend. I still have some studying to do for the appointment. I’ll let you know how I do…