May Days

Yes, it’s June 6th and I am just now catching up with all the fun times I had in May… I had technical difficulties and then there was life…

I’m here now. Well actually, I am in a hotel in Davenport, Iowa but that needs to wait until my June round up!

May started with me packing my bags and heading east to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in West Friendship. I taught four classes including the very popular Dorset buttons…and the almost as busy Shirt Lace buttons…I missed taking pictures in the wool appliqué and Dorset feather stitchery classes but I can assure you we all had a good time!

I had never attended a sheep and wool festival before and I had been looking forward to seeing the sheep. The weather was abysmal on the Saturday so I only saw a few indoor sheep. The black sheep in this picture was a major prize winner.
There were sheep of all shapes and sizes with different hair styles… I’m sure the fairground is a wonderful place to be when the sun is shining but it was grim in the pouring rain. I’m hoping I’ll be invited back and that the weather will be better next time.

Home again to get ready for a busy weekend of Zooming.

I had four classes with STITCHES at home., two on the Friday and two on the Sunday. We made three types of bowls and more Dorset buttons.

Here are the students in the thread painted flower bowl class.And here we are in the EPP Pentagon bowl workshop! In between times I spent the Saturday with the Peninsula Wearable Arts Guild in the San Fransisco Bay area for an hour and a half of Dorset buttons and four hours of Folk Art Embroidery. No pictures!

Time to pack my suitcases again. Off to Hilton Head to the Palmetto Quilters Guild. I have to admit I had been looking forward to the trip since it first went on my calendar. I was not disappointed!

Thursday was the regular guild meeting. Lots of show and tell to enjoy.A beautiful embroidered Christmas stocking.And a quilt from Pokey’s Handmade for Ukraine auction that one of the members had won with the highest bid. This Sunflower Quilt was made by Marilyn Keichian and purchased by Virginia Michael. I had seen it on line and it was lovely to see it in real life!

Maybe you noticed that the meeting was being zoomed to some of the members at home? I did get a picture of the members who were in the room with me for Lessons Learned While Quilting.

There was time after the meeting for a walk on the beach. My pictures did not do it justice so you will just have to imagine a lovely walk along the sand!

The next day we had a full class for a Folk Art Embroidery class.It’s so good to be out and about again 😎

Just a couple of days at home and I was off out again!

Driving this time… 325 miles to Des Moines, Iowa. The car was packed full  for the trip.The Des Moines Area Quilters Guild have a day time and and an evening meeting.

They both follow the same format. There was lots of show and tell at the daytime meeting. here are just two of the quilts on display.

Beautiful butterflies,and fun flowers!We were in a big church sanctuary. Everyone had plenty of room to spread out. My daytime and evening pictures got muddled up, but you get the idea?Two Trips Around the World made for a very fun Tuesday!

If it was Wednesday it was Walking Foot Quilting. On Thursday we had a change of pace and stitched on the Pretty in Paisley panels.There was also a lot of retail therapy…I had initially been contracted to visit Des Moines in April 2020. I hope the quilters thought it was worth the wait!

The sun had been shining when I drove west on the Monday and then it rained for three days… It was a beautiful day for the drive home on the Friday. I stopped off at Home Ec. Workshop in Iowa City. I taught there in November 2012 (read about it here) and I always like to call in if I am in the area.
It’s just a lovely welcoming space, from the front room…all the way through the store.

It’s one of the featured shops in the current edition of the Better Homes and Gardens, Quilt Sampler Top Ten Shops so I made sure to pick up my copy of the magazine while I was there!

In other news, I managed to stitch a couple of small projects. This was my entry in the Riverwalk Quilters Guild one color quilt challenge in May. it didn’t win a prize but I was happy with it! (Shades of Beige, 20″ x 20″)I made a wool pincushion for a future class (watch the calendar… September STITCHES Expo at home)There will be a kit including the wool fabrics and appliqué threads available when the class goes live.Ruby sent me a text asking me if I could add an embroidered initial to her new backpack. She had a vision and I hand stitched a patch…My new sewing machine tackled sewing it on to the back pack, no problem. Ruby was very happy with the finished result.We have also seen Joanne’s family in May. Teddy is growing up fast!AND we made a trip down to Nashville for Memorial Day weekend.

It included Lilly and Lucy’s first trip to the American Girl store!We came back with new dresses…

Lilly with her wings 🧚‍♂️Lucy without her wings…I took some stitching with me…This one is a new class sample for my Bold Hand Stitching as Your Quilting Line class at STITCHES SoCal in Pasadena in November. (Registration is open)

You might have noticed a few buttons down the side of the website at the moment. There are links to Quilt Festival in Long Beach, AQS Quilt Week in Grand Rapids and STITCHES SoCal. Registration will be coming soon for Quilt Festival in Houston and enrollment opens for Road to California on July 2nd. (You can find a full list of the classes on the Road2CA website. I have seven half day/evening classes in 2023). If you are ready to travel you won’t be disappointed at any (or all) of the shows!

And now I’m in Iowa again after a fun weekend with the Chippewa Falls Redfords. It’s all go! Let’s see if I can report back on June before it’s July?