Gaga at Glendale

So I went a little gaga at the Glendale Quilt Show.  After swearing off spending money on quilting, too. 

I took a machine quilting class from Harriet Hargrave.  She's a hoot - had some great stories, and really made traditional quilting fearless.  I was amazed by her incredible quilting all done on her DSM.  She took a lot of the intimidation out of the process. 

Of course getting there was a total panic.... here's my story:  I was supposed to take classes at Glendale for all four days of the show.  Harriet's class (two days long) and two other one-day classes, plus a Saturday night class.  The two one-day classes were cancelled, and somehow I got it in my head that Harriet's class was on Saturday and Sunday.  I spent most of last week slowly prepping for Harriet's class, so I had SOME of the stuff we needed ready.  Still getting ready for the class, on Thursday morning at 8am, I cut out my show badge and looked at the letter that came with it.  The letter gave the dates of the class, which I glanced at but didn't pay much attention to... When I was done prepping for class, I sat down at the computer to fool around for a while.  This was 8am on Thursday. That's when I realized that 3/18 WAS Thursday, not Saturday.  I dropped everything, tossed a few more tools and supplies in a bag, ran off to shower and dress.  I grabbed a quick breakfast and raced off to Glendale. It was 8:30 am when I left the house, and I arrived, breathless, at 9am and slipped into the classroom.  I was already an hour late... sigh...  Not an auspicious start.. and I was embarrassed as hell walking in so late... but I made it...

Finally got into the swing of things by the time we started actually sewing, and on Friday, I brought the rest of the supplies I hadn't had time to gather up on Thursday.  I hate showing up unprepared for class.  So humliating.
Anyway, after two days of classes, I went back to the show on Saturday to actually attend the show itself, look at the quilts, and shop.

I fell off the no-fabric-buy wagon and bought two panels, a piece of cat fabric, a small piece of dark teal for the borders of my OBW quilt.  I also bought a kit of fabric that had bunnies, possums, raccoons, and squirrels - I'd been looking for this fabric for months and the only way they had it was in the kit, so now I have a kit I don't need that has fabric I wanted.  I bought a ruler and an iron cozy and a Laurel Burch bag, too. 
Most important, I had fun with Kathy and Debbie at the show.  We went to lunch at Momotaro's - awesome sushi.  And there were some really nice quilts at the quilt show, too. 

I'm glad I went.  I'm glad I'm home...

Today I am grateful for beauty in the world... in MY world... blue skies, the dark orange and pinks of sunset, the beautiful green of the trees that shade our house, for all the things that inspire what I do and what I love.

Road to California

I spent 3 days at Road to California... had a mostly great time.  I went with some girlfriends of mine.  Five of us shared 2 hotel rooms not far from each other in the same hotel.

The show itself was a lot of fun - the quilts were beautiful.  I had a lot of difficulty choosing my favorite.  It didn't seem like quite as MANY quilts as at previous Road shows, but they were all amazing.  A few really stood out though - one was called 'The Quilt Show', a pictorial quilt of viewers at a quilt show, looking at the quilts - which were all little real 'quilt-lets' done in miniature, including a crazy quilt.   Another that really impressed me was 'Medea Escaping' - an amazing pictorial quilt with an beautifully rendered dragon.  'Seasonal Sisters', a cooperative quilt made by three quilters across the world from each other also impressed me a lot.  There was a pictorial quilt of a prowling puma that I loved.

... and then there were the vendors.  Now that I have a longarm, I look at the vendors completely differently.  Booths I passed by with little interest before are now completely riveting.  And I bought two pieces of fabric - one as a gift and one a sepia hand-dye for a special project... that was it!  Usually I come home with a lot of fabric.  This isn't to say I didn't buy things... I spent way too much on thread, and a little on some plastic rulers for the longarm... and a little on jewelry.

I will post pictures soon - my software got corrupted, so I have to find something new to crop and edit them.

Today is Monday and it was POURING rain all day... the kind of rain people call 'driving'... it was coming in hard all day, at strange angles because of the wind.  Lightning wasn't visible but the thunder was evidence it was there.  Suddenly at three or so in the afternoon, the rain stopped, the clouds cleared, the sun came out (leaving a lovely rainbow).  It's 4:30 now, and I hope it stays dry until my DH gets home from work with dinner and Starbucks.  We have forecasts for heavy rain for the rest of the week.  We need it badly to mitigate this drought we are in, but I worry about my loved ones out in the rain.  (Me, I stayed home and played with my longarm all day).

I am grateful today for rain.  Water is in such short supply in southern California right now, and we really need to fill our reservoirs.  Rain makes rainbows and makes our hills green and lush.  Rain fills our arroyos and rivers and leaves the air smelling clean and fresh.  Rain brings life.  Life is good.