The Ladies of Worcester

I'm back from the last show of the Expo season, in Worcester(pronounced WOOSTER, and they teased me about my lack of any charming accent????) It was a really fun show with lots of laughs and many new quilty lady friends, not to mention the awesome shuttle drivers.
We had a HUGE booth and tons of great stuff.This trip completes my first year of teaching with the Original Sewing and Quilting Expo. After 8 shows....it still amazes me that we come into a large empty convention hall, and by the end of the day on Wednesday, the entire space has been transformed. We are surrounded by creativity at every turn.Dozens of sewing machines and sergers appear in every imaginable corner. Fabric, patterns, muscle relaxing tools, cutting,measuring and pressing tools, nail, fabric and glass paint (yes, I bought every color!) Food vendors (especially the ice cream guy) beautiful handmade jewelry (OK...I bought lots of that too).The classrooms are set up and ready to go!!! It would just seem like magic, except that we, The Cotton Candy Women, are right in there unloading and setting up too.(Oh gosh....I hope we brought enough Do-Sew this time!!!) Wednesday night we somehow manage to drag our sorry selves back to the hotel, and pray for enough energy to go back in the morning! Overnight, a miracle occurs. At 6:30 a.m. the alarm goes off and we're up and running.I have no idea where the energy comes from. (Mr. Folger and Mr. Starbuck perhaps?) Most of my energy comes from the ladies in the classes. We come together for a short time, but I hold each moment close to my heart.The shock of the 6:30 alarm fades quickly in the warmth of laughter and sharing. I feel extremely blessed by this wonderful opportunity.

The "MAGIC" continues until the final BIG DRAWING on Saturday afternoon. Mark draws the names of the door prise winners, then...the whole expo begins to dissolve like a chalk drawing in the rain. Within 3 hours...the vibrant creative space turns back into a pumpkin!!!It would be fun too see a time lapse video of the whole process. It's always shocking that everything get done in such a short time!!I expect that as time goes on...I won't be as amazed by the whole thing, but for now, I feel like the country mouse in the big city. At least I don't walk around with my mouth hanging open any more. ( If anyone sees me doing that, please let me know! I'm trying to look COOL!!!!!)

Partners In Crime Quilt

I finally got permission from the second of two"Partners In Crime". We tried to get together every couple of weeks to plan and assemble our guild challenge quilt.
Teri, Barbara and I had so little free time that we would get together for a couple of hours to plan, and assign homework. Then, we took our ideas and basic guidelines home to do the actual work. A few weeks later, we would get together again, cross our fingers and assemble what we had so far.
After another evaluation, we could move onto the next part. This one turned out WAY better than we originally planned.
This quilt was for our guild challenge "Months That End In ER". Well....We decided that all of the months end in "ER" SOMEWHERE in the world. If the photo of the whole quilt were larger, you could see the detail in the hanging down fringy stuff. We made long charms with each month spelled out, in a different language. We hung the month names hidden in the fringy stuff above the season panel that the month is in.