Hello from Saginaw!

I arrived yesterday afternoon via Chicago....my flight was an early one, I had to be up at 4:30am to leave for the airport in Greensboro by 5:30am. *YAWN* Luckily, I was able to sleep most of the way to Chicago. SOME hexies got stitched, but not many!

You wanna know a funny? How often does it happen that 3 friends who live in Oregon, California, and North Carolina all end up at Chicago O'Hare on their way to various destinations within HOURS of each other?

But our lay overs were too far apart for us to even share hugs! How disappointing is that?

I landed at O'Hare at 8am. My flight left just after 11am for Detroit. Randy was at O'Hare late afternoon for a flight that left around 6pm! Lori was on a red eye flight last night that arrived at O'Hare in the wee small hours this morning. Isn't this a crazy world of traveling quilters? Maybe next time we will be lucky enough to be there at the same time.

The guild meeting in Saginaw was wonderful last night and I'm having a great time! Guess what came with me this time?? The "IN THE PINK" Dear Jane! I had requests to bring it to Clarkston when I visit them after Saginaw..there are a lot of Dear Janers there. I didn't think I could fit it in the trunkshow because I am only alotted two 50 lb bags, but I decided that a couple other quilts could stay home, and I can take some time to show a hand quilting project in progress as part of the trunk show, can't I? :cD

So I'm able to tuck myself in to my cozy hotel room and put on some girly tv and hand quilt the next several evenings! So...maybe even a bit hand quilting project can become a traveling project to stitch on in the evenings so that I can make more progress there, and I can show how far it's come as I travel place to place. WHY NOT?! Don't quilters like to see things in progress too? I know I do.

Today was the Star Struck class, and we had a ball. The shop next door is fabulous....there are 3 restaurants within walking distance and we ended up at a place called "CRUMBS" how perfect is that?! I had the turkey sandwich on homemade cranberry walnut bread...OH. MY. GOODNESS. Talk about a taste treat.

I don't have any pictures to post, the day was just too busy, but I wanted to share with you a pic of the Crumbs quilt that Regan sent me!



Isn't this awesome!?!?! I love it so much. What a great use of scraps, color and value! She writes:

I discovered Quiltville at exactly the right time.....as I had just 'inherited' an entire quilting stash and crafting room contents from a friend's mother who had just passed away. Her stash, combined with mine, totally overwhelmed me! Then I started refolding, cutting, and binning, and now it's totally organized, I can find EVERYTHING, and I have been cranking out the quilt tops like a maniac!

I love love love making pieced backings, and have used your block method several times now. Love the easy math!!!

Attached are pics of the Crumby Quilt front and back I just finished for my father (the back is a bit blurry, but you get the idea). It's the second one of these that I've made; this one is twin sized, and the other is a queen (just the top so far). You'd think that these would have made a dent in my crumbs bin, but no! Why is that? Crumbs multiply like bunnies!

I so agree! I'm not sure why it is so much more fun to re-purpose someone else's fabric scraps into quilts than it is to play with my OWN fabric, but I love playing with the goodies I bring home from other people's cast offs. I love playing with color and texture and strange combinations and just coloring outside the lines. I'm so glad I'm not the only one because it is so much more fun when we can play and create together!

Here is the back she pieced...cleared out a bunch of reds:




Thanks for sharing the pics, Regan, they are great! It's about 8pm here. I napped before dinner so I've got a few hours yet to get some hand quilting in on the "In The Pink" before I turn in. Tomorrow's Class?? Crabapples! I'll try to remember to take pics this time!