Tucked in and Laying Low....

I arrived home from Michigan last evening...I tell you what, this whole traveling on a day when time changes, and dealing with setting my watch back once in the hotel, back once again to put me on Chicago time and forward once again (back to Eastern time in NC) has me a bit loopy! It's only an hour! It shouldn't be that bad.

Either that, or I was just completely worn out because I couldn't believe it last night...I was looking at the clock, it said 8pm (Which was really 9pm body clock time) and yet I felt like it was 1am.....and I gave up! I crawled into bed, beneath three quilts, one cat on either side and went comatose until 6am this morning.

Maybe I needed it, maybe I didn't...but I still feel kinda crummy and I'm just taking a mental health jammie day.

Around here even jammie days don't mean "lie around and do nothing"....so a certain amount of puttering and unpacking has been going on. I did some hand quilting while sipping tea, hoping the crummy achy feeling would pass, and found myself watching "Notting Hill" on netflix streaming. ::::SOBBING::::: Why does this movie get to me so much?! I should have watched something funnier! Or something with zero-emotion-triggers like "Sell this house" or "Tabatha's Salon Take Over" :c/ OY! All in all, it's a good ache...and it has a happy ending :c)



The quilters of Oakland County were FABULOUS! (look at them waving their rotary cutters around!! LOL!!) I was a bit frazzled as I missed my connection at Washington/Dulles due to weather. This meant I had 4.5 hours until the next flight to Detroit and I was worried that I would be late for my own lecture Thursday night! But there is a reason I take the absolutely first flight out on my way.....even if it means getting up at 4am to be at the airport by 5:15 am for a 6:20 flight. I was able to get another later flight that got me into Detroit by 2pm!

I was greeted at the airport by Ruth who came with her own luggage cart and we wound our way to the parking garage, two big canvas duffels of quilts, my luggage suitcase, my laptop bag, and both of us steering....trying to remember where Ruth parked her car!

It was raining in Dulles which was the reason for my delay....it also meant that my luggage spent 4.5 hours sitting on a wet cart. When we unpacked the quilts, we found a few of the quilts had bled. SO...we've air dried them, and I'm going today (as soon as I feel less ugh) to get some dye catchers and hopefully get the bleeding out. I don't care how many times you pre-wash something. If something else sits up against it wet....for hours....color can transfer. So I'm asking good wishes in getting these clean!



My classes were held in the same hotel I was staying in which meant there was nearly zero lugging around to be done. This helped so much! Quarters were close...we had two full classes, and only one mishap with overloading the circuits with one-too-many irons which put half the room in darkness for just a bit of time.

After that, we moved the ironing stations outside the room on a different circuit and we were good to go!



Friday's class was Star Struck...of course with the ultimate challenge of using ONLY stash fabrics in your quilt...you should have seen the variety, and some of the fun ones they really dug deep for! My favorite line lately has been: "If there is still MILLENIUM FABRIC in your stash, it's time to get it out of there!" And they really did bring some fungly-uglies to play with. And they are all going to be fabulous quilts!

Here is a cute little SmileBox that Judy sent me! ((Be sure to click PLAY to get it started)) Thanks Judy!

Saturday was the "My Blue Heaven" workshop, and of course we had Black/Orange heavens, and green heavens, and rainbow heavens and red heavens...and a whole lot of fun learning to use the Easy Angle Ruler and the Companion Angle Ruler as well. Great class, all from 2.5" strips.



My special thanks to Ruth for taking me not once, but TWICE....to indulge in my favorite Midwest Obsession: CULVERS! If you have a Culvers and haven't tried their pumpkin/pecan concrete mixer, GO NOW! It's fabulous! (and I'm sure CONCRETE is exactly what going-twice-in one-trip is going to be what my hiney turns into!)

I also had the pleasure of meeting Barb, who belongs to a terrific gym close by, and she offered to take me so I could work OFF the above concrete buns mixer by spending some time on the elliptical trainer, and using the floor area to do some stretching. MUCH NEEDED!! Thanks so much, Barb, for your thoughtfulness and your cheery smile and fun conversation, and for the ride back to the airport yesterday morning!



So...my return trip included MUCH of THIS! I've attached 2 of the smaller border sections to the quilt center already...and I found it easier to use a real section of the border as my MAP for the new section instead of relying on a small drawing on graph paper. I can actually lay my new pieces on there as it grows and see what color I need to add next and where. Three of the smaller sections are done, two are attached, the third done one is my map, I'm piecing on the 4th border section and it's coming along! There are two kinds of border sections, one uphill, one downhill, and I'm doing the downhill ones first so I don't have to constantly switch gears and re-think which one I'm supposed to be working on. Makes sense?

Oh! And this is an exciting week! Be sure to come back by on Thursday...it's my blog hop visit for Quiltmaker Magazine's 100 Blocks magazine! I'll have up close photos for my block in the magazine, and a give away of a copy of the magazine for those who leave a comment on the post! Exciting stuff!