Home from Road

Ok, so I'm home from Road to California, a little bit poorer (one class, one pair of scissors, a night's stay at a hotel, and two rulers for my longarm).  I took a wonderful class from a longarm quilter named DeLoa Jones.  It was called Longarm Quilting for the True Beginner.  THIS was the class I should have started with two years ago when I first started taking longarm classes at Road.  But at the time they either didn't have a class like this, or it was already filled when I registered.  She taught us how to load a backing, batting and quilt top, how to use rulers, do simple stitches, including fill stitches, block fills, sashing and borders.  I learned a LOT and can't wait to try some of these things on my machine.  I'm sure I won't be good at them to start with, but hopefully I'll get better in time.

Joe, my husband, took the class with me, so he can be morale support, and more, from time to time.  That made a huge difference, having him there to work with me and encourage me. 

Anyway, Road was wonderful and I managed to get out without buying any fabric, and very few other things. 

I got home to find the indigos I ordered online had arrived.  They are beautiful and I'm so glad I wasn't tempted to buy more at Road.  Alright, I WAS tempted, but I didn't succumb.

I did two more Northern Wilderness blocks... they still need the edge stitching, but here they are in raw form:

 

The outhouse block... I love the log cabin piecing in this one, and the colors... But I wish I had more different greens to choose from for trees.

The orca block... He was a lot of fun to make, but I think my dark teal should have been a few shades lighter... it looks almost black... Still, it's what I had and I'm trying not to buy more fabric.

I also finished putting the borders on my third Hidden Wells quilt,  I decided on the turquoise kokopellis because the quilt looked kind of southwest-y to me, what with the gold, coral and turquoise.  So it is what it is now.... Decision made.  Maybe I will get to quilting these Hidden  Wells quilts myself now - on my own longarm maybe?  We'll see...