Quilting Cadets

I spent Monday through Wednesday at a quilting retreat with the Fox Valley Technical College, with demonstrations and assistance from my friend Renee's Aunt Donna.  Aunt Donna is 82 years old, and the mother of ten children.  Here she is:

That tells you something about her personality!  I'll try to get photos of some of the projects she demonstrated (and which I actually made) and post them.  She's both an engineer and an artist.

We stayed and sewed at a lovely chalet owned by the Experimental Aircraft Association in Oshkosh, WI:   www.eaa.org

It was a light, airy space with a glider suspended overhead.  That's a new quilting retreat phenomenon.

We visited an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink fabric shop called YDS near Omro, WI.  This is also run by an 80-something year old woman.  Her prices are fabulous because she has no overhead to speak of.  It's incredibly crowded (and there were twelve of us in there), and nothing is organized according to a system, but the fabrics are good quality (e.g., Moda) and she has excellent thread, etc.  She also has kitschy stuff like doll dresses with full skirts made from milking machine filters.  I found a perfect backing for the brights quilt for my new step-granddaughter.

The high point of the retreat is that after standing for about nine hours over two days, I finished all the cutting for the pieced blocks for the Pieces of Time class, using a more efficient cutting method.  I have gotten so far behind, and class meets again next Wednesday.  Now when I get ten minutes to sew, I'll actually be able to sew, instead of auditioning fabrics for each block and cutting it one piece at a time.

Gratitudes:

time with good friend Renee

all those blocks cut and bagged

home safe in spite of a flat tire