Kaffe Fassett

Internationally known knitter, quilter, and fabric artist Kaffe Fassett spoke in Minnesota today, and I was there. A group of friends went together, and we had a grand time. Let me tell you, the town of Zumbrota, Minnesota knows how to throw a party!

The quilt shop in town, All in Stitches, was open for the quilters who came to hear Fassett speak. We got a door prize and our names put in several other drawings, too. In addition, several other stores, not normally open on Sundays, opened up for us and also donated some wonderful prizes to be awarded after the lecture. That little town has some beautiful shops! Little artsy shops in which one could browse and shop for long hours.. and more than one of those. You should see the shoe shop in town! I have never seen such unique, attractive shoes in all my life. Prepare for sticker shock, but also prepare for a FUN tour of some very nifty shoes and boots.

We ate lunch at the VFW -- "Tankers." I had a good burger, and we watched part of the Vikings-Rams game on the TVs there. After lunch it was off to the Kaffe lecture. He was very entertaining and interesting. None of the pictures I took there turned out, but I did get one of Kaffe signing books after the lecture:

Back at the quilt shop, there was a small quilt show of quilts made from Kaffe Fassett fabrics. They were beautiful!

I have been stockpiling Kaffe fabrics for a while; I hope to get to them and make a glorious quilt some time in 2016.

Shop Hop Fun

A group of us went on a metro-area shop hop. We stuffed ourselves into one car, and off we went. I had planned to buy very little. Oh, my good intentions... where did they go??

These three quilts are hanging in one of the shops. They were made by someone named Carol (obviously, with a name like that, she is highly talented). She is a member of one of my guilds.

I bought some raffle tickets for this beautiful quilt. I love it! I won't win it until October, just in time for cold weather when a new quilt will be the perfect thing... (crossing my fingers).

I won three door prizes!

We stopped at a coffee shop and showed each other our purchases.

Fun day! Not too hot, not too cold, so schlepping in and out of a car all day long was not a problem. I think most, maybe all, of us completed the whole round of metro shops. Maybe we'll win more prizes!

I Won! I Won!

I am so excited and amazed! My quilt won First Place in the Viewers' Choice vote at our recent quilt show!!! This is the first time I have ever won anything through my guild shows or challenges! It feels great!!! I won a $25 gift certificate at a local quilt shop. Fun, fun, fun!

Here's my winning quilt. The books are made from selvage edges with fabric titles that sound like book titles. The 2nd picture shows a close-up, sideways view of some of the "books."

Now that I have won a guild quilt prize, I can die happy!

Here is another thing that I am celebrating: it, too, is amazing! This post at my humble little blog is POST #1600! Can you believe it?? I have been posting my thoughts and ramblings about quilts, and even book reviews, since January 4, 2006. Who knew I'd still be happily posting away in 2014!?

To celebrate, I am going to do my usual Blog Celebration. Please leave a comment here. Answer this question: what do you enjoy about reading other people's blogs? For each blog comment, I plan to donate $1.00 to my favorite charity, Ampersand Families. Please make me donate a LOT to Ampersand Families! And thanks for reading.

Shop Hopping

Two friends and I signed up to do a two-day quilt shops bus tour during the Minnesota Shop Hop; this took place on Friday and Saturday.

I was curious about these bus tours. They go around a specific section of the state and visit all the shops in that section. It saves me from driving too many miles, and I get to see some shops I had never visited before.

Nice idea. I don't think I'll ever do it again.

On Day One we visited six shops. All but one I had been to before. We had to be on the bus for a 7:30 AM departure, and we returned back to our starting point at 8:00 PM. Can you say Long Day??

Day Two was similar, but I had never seen 4 out of the 5 shops we went to, so the novelty of these shops was fun.

a tiny shop in a tiny town; I had never heard of this shop before. It is nice but is only 900 square feet - barely room for half of the 44 bus riders. They are in the process of expanding, so in the future they'll be able to accommodate a crowd.

The problem with this bus tour idea is over-dosing on quilt shops and on spending. I know, I was not required to buy anything at all. However, they gave us a $10 gift card to each shop, so I wanted to at least get my free $10 worth of stuff. Sneaky, eh? It gets us in there looking around, then we get sucked in by the pretties and buy a little more. I really didn't do TOO badly. I only spent a small wad in one shop; the others I tried to stick to my "ten dollars free" limit or slightly above.

By the end of the two days I didn't want to see another quilt shop or think about shopping again for a long, long time. Too much!

Now it is Sunday morning, I got a good night's sleep, and I have all that beautiful, new fabric waiting for my attention. I'm going to go play in my sewing room! The fun begins!