Saturday, April 19, 2008

Update on Rosemont!

Sorry I haven't written before now about Rosemont but I have been pretty sick. In fact I was sick while in Rosemont! I have Viral Bronchitis. I have been coughing for the last eight and a half weeks. While I was in Rosemont, my viral bronchitis came back like it was back at the beginning. This cough has been horrible! I am trying to rest, drink lots of fluids and take musinex.

On Thursday, I woke up at 4:30 AM and left to meet my friends in Silver Lake, WI and then we went to Rosemont for our first class. We took a quilting class with Linda Fiedler. It was okay. I already knew a lot of the information that was presented but it is still good to get another person's view of quilting...also it's practice, practice, practice. I enjoyed spending time with my friends and seeing them learn more. I did pick up one or two tips such as pulling the bobbin thread up to the top at the end of the line of quilting. She also went over pulling the thread up at the beginning...something I have done but sometimes not. We practiced e's, stippling, meandering, wavy crosshatching (which was pretty neat), etc. It was a whole day class and it was fun to spend time with my friends.

Friday we took a mystery quilt with Debbie Caffrey. It was fun. I like the way it is turning out. Once I figure how to download the pictures from my camera, I will take a picture of the block I finished. We used Baby Lock Espires. They were really nice machines. Only thing was I didn't have a good scant 1/4" so the pieces were wider so I have to go and resew all the seams with my home machine. I am sure with this the viral bronchitis I wasn't as careful as I should have been.

Saturday we took "The Bag Lady" lecture. We went station to station and learned about all the purses and how to make them. It was fun. We also went to see John Flynn for a lecture and luncheon. It was interesting ... I really was impressed with his hand quilting. WOW is all I can say. I would love to be able to hand quilt that beautifully! Later that evening we went to Meet the Teachers where you go from teacher to teacher and learn about their topic. You can't meet all the teachers due to time constraints but we saw quite a few and learned a lot. That night we celebrate my friend Kathy's birthday. We had a really good time except I got really exhausted. I did go back to our room between the luncheon and Meet the Teachers Sampler. It took a while with all the coughing to sleep but I finally slept!

Sunday I finally went shopping ... I bought a yard of fabric and I had bought a book and pattern from Debbie Caffrey. I guess with as tired and sick as I was ... I really didn't get a chance to shop as much as I would have liked to. We also went through and looked at all the quilts... there were so many beautiful ones. In fact, we talked with the person who won the Viewer's Choice. She was such a nice lady and her quilt was very pretty.




Your Slogan Should Be



Maureen. Uncommonly Made, Uncommonly Good.



What an intersting slogan...What do you think?

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

International Quilt Festival in Rosemont

My friend Sherry gave me a book called Quilter's Guide to UFO's. She is so cute she showed me a picture in the book which shows a before and after picture of the author's studio. Sherry said it should make me feel better because mine isn't that bad. I think once I get back from the International Quilt Festival in Rosemont, IL, I will have to take pictures of my studio and figure out how to get it to look better.

I leave on Thursday for the International Quilt Festival in Rosemont. I am taking a class on Thursday with Linda Fiedler called Creative Machine Quilting...it should be quite a bit of fun. On Friday I will be taking Undercover in Chicago IV with Debbie Caffrey...it is a mystery quilt. On Saturday I am going to a luncheon called Confessions of a Non-traditional Quilter by John Flynn and I am going to go to a Saturday Night Sampler where 15 teachers will be demonstrating various techniques. I am looking forward to it! Sunday is our day to go to and check out all the quilts and to shop. I am going with my friends Kathy and Kristie! We have had a great time the last two years we have gone together and I anticipate this to be even better.


Saturday, April 5, 2008

Ohh No I Made Changes & Lost Stuff

Well I tried to make changes all by myself and guess what I lost all my stuff on the side like me Weather Pixie and my counter at the bottom...WHAT HAVE I DONE! I am so mad at myself I know I can fix the Weather Pixie but the counter is something I just don't know how to do...so for a while my website will be under construction. I knew bad things would happen when I deleted a "widget" or something like that. Well I guess it's a done deal and there is no crying over the spilt milk or lost stuff! Wish me luck fixing it...

Update - I added quite a bit back...unfortnately I do not know what number my counter was on but I did know it was over 5000 so I figured I could easily set it at 5000 and know that it was correct. Well I hope it looks okay...I tired for now and am planning on watching TV and finishing laundry... Tomorrow I have an open sew day and I need to finish some of the blocks for Wendy's Block of the Month Club at Frank's.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Working at Getting Projects Done

As the title says I am working at getting projects done but unfortunately it is not quilty projects...it is projects around the house. This past weekend I did a lot of cleaning in our home and since then when I haven't been cleaning I have been either fixing dinner or working on some other household projects. I am hoping to wash dishes and start making dinner as soon as I am done typing this. I have been so sick to my stomach...probably from coughing so hard.

With this cold I had, the doctor told me I would be coughing for 4 to 6 weeks...I am on week 5 and I think I will be an overachiever and go 7...just a guess as it's not going anywhere. My mom suggested I call the doctor next week if I'm not better but I will be going to Rosemont for the Quilt Festival. I am soooo looking forward to that. I hate to leave Emma home but she will be okay. I may ask my dad to stop over and check on her during the day...Mark will be home with her at night but I know she gets really weird when I'm gone. Mark said she moped and moped last year.

I am going to take two classes and go to a couple of lectures. I will blog more about them after the festival.

I am hoping to finish my fabric coiled bowl this week. I thought I would get it done by the end of March and well it didn't quite happen...ohh well that's just the way things go.

I've been kind of down because I didn't got to Weight Watchers this last weekend and I know that this week I have not been eating well....well I havn't been eating much. My stomach and ribs hurt so much from coughing that I haven't been able to eat much and what I do eat bothers my stomach...okay I admit it ... even mashed potatoes hurt my stomach last night and they are bland! What's a girl to do?