Yes!! Spring!!

It’s about dang TIME! It’s about time that the rain stopped, the snow stopped, the cold temps stopped and the flowers and sunshine and warmth STARTED!

Yesterday morning it was actually spitting snow when I went to class. This morning dawned chilly but clear…and by lunch time? Oh, sun, oh glorious long-awaited sun!

I took a moment at lunch time to take a pic of the bradford pears in the parking lot here at the convention center. I’ve been watching them since I arrived on Sunday, and I think…..finally…..they have reached peak bloom!

Just LOOK at this beauty!

The one thing I forgot though, is how they STINK! Really….to me they don’t smell good at all..it’s just a funky dirty-sock-kind-of-smell for a lack of way to describe it! That’s okay! We’ll take it, stinky and all! It is GORGEOUS!

Update---For those of you drooling over the Cherry Red Featherweight I showed pics of yesterday—I saw it leave with its new owner! I am sure they are thrilled with it. At last look, the green one was still there. Oh Temptation! ((But I am NOT caving…I promise!))

Today’s workshop was Scrappy Bargello! You know, this is day FIVE of workshops this week…and I have to admit we were all kind of dragging when we started off. These are SERIOUS quilters! there are 6 full days of workshops offered, and several of the ladies fill ALL SIX DAYS! SIX! That is SIX UFOs in the making, all in one fell swoop…it’s like a “Full House” of projects if we were talking in card speak! One lady said it was okay….her guild retreat was this NEXT weekend and she is leaving her projects packed up in the car so she is ready to go…LOL! THAT’S THE SPIRIT!

Our energy increased as the day went on and we saw progress on our bargello panels. You can not go wrong with this quilt…EVERYTHING works!

		Scrappy Bargello Pigeon Forge, TN 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Sunday Morning is a half-day Hidden Spools workshop. We’ll be working with 2” strips and the companion angle ruler to kick out scrappy blocks left and right….I’m curious to see how many we can do in half a day…and just how awake we will be since the time changes tonight. Don’t forget to set your clocks 1 hour ahead! I already did my watch and am trying to convince myself that it really IS nearly 10:30pm instead of only 9:30 pm as I type this. I’m fighting a losing battle. I’m packing up the car so it is ready to leave after the workshop…

I’ll be taking THIS drive through the Smoky Mountain National Park to my next destination: Franklin, NC!

It should be a beautiful day for a drive through the park again. I’ll be going the same route that Dad and I went to Cherokee where we stopped for lunch last Monday….I wonder how different it will look with the frost line gone! We shall see!

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign!

Do you ever wonder about the signs you see sometimes?

Some of the signs seen around Quiltfest here in Pigeon Forge have been interesting to say the least….and we KNOW there is always an event or mis-hap that happens FIRST….to require the NEED for such a sign to be made in the first place!

Take this one for instance:

IRON on WALLS?!? Really?? It seems that in a previous year, someone didn’t want to wait their turn at the ironing board, and decided any flat surface would work with a hot iron!! Bye Bye plastic coated wall paper!

How about THIS one:

Okay..this I can understand too, and instead—they supplied us with nice carpeted design walls for each class room to pin to. It was very helpful!

But this one? Who would do THIS in the first place?

Yes, this is on the back side of the stall doors in the women’s restroom! I have to admit when I first read this….I thought it said “FLUSH CLOVES!” I couldn’t figure out why anyone would want to flush CLOVES in the first place, but then I couldn’t figure out why CLOVES would be hard on the system? Maybe it is a TN thing? It’s a clove-free-zone? And then it hit me..they meant the plastic gloves that the quilters are given so they can “touch” the quilts. Still…WHY would anyone flush them in the first place? As I’ve heard it said before….It only takes ONE idiot, to require a sign for ALL!

Then there is a sign that you have been asking for since I posted about the FWs yesterday…

Calico Cupboard is out of Mountain View Missouri. I don’t believe he has a website, but he has been vending here for years and is sort of an icon! I had to snap another pic of this wonderful display:

Such beauties! And those who asked --- These are not “new” machines, they are reconditioned “old” machines with new hot paint jobs. Sometimes when a black machine’s finish is worn and chipped and beyond help, a new paintjob is a way to give an “ugly” machine a face lift and a new life! Price wise, these machines are much more expensive than the original black ones, just because of the time it takes to strip all the old finish off clear down to the aluminum, and apply a new finish and reassemble the machine. It’s much like getting a new paint job for your car…..but they sure are beautiful, aren’t they?

Today’s workshop was My Blue Heaven! I loved teaching this class with the easy angle rulers and the companion angle rulers….especially fun since Darlene Zimmerman is here teaching as well, and there is her name, right there on the Companion Angle! I’ve told her before how much I love these and teaching with these….

Most everyone in the class was doing BLUE of some shade or another, but there were a few renegades in the bunch:

		My Blue Heaven Pigeon Forge 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Dad left back for AZ today….and I’m now on my own! It’s not quite 9pm yet, so I might just get a bit of sewing at the machine in! Whadya think? Should I go for it?