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Sunday, May 22, 2011

Huntsville Alabama….


My time in Huntsville is winding down! Today I am off to Athens Alabama for a Sister’s Choice workshop this afternoon! But checkout time isn’t until 11am, and I’ve got plans to get the borders on this baby quilt before packing up and leaving. I’m sure the maids will be glad to have my snippy thread mess GONE!

Yesterday after our workshop, Lisa took me on a bit of a tour through some areas of Huntsville – it’s amazing what can be noticed when you are riding shotgun and not driving! Wonderful old homes, historic cemeteries, and a church that looks like Jesus is riding in a wire-whisk egg beater….I guess it was perfect for the rapture-that-never-occurred!

eggbeaterjesus

We also drove past the US Space & Rocket center! If I had enough time, I’d tour this today, but I've got to be in Athens by noon!

ussoacerocketcenter

I also had a lot of fun visiting Patches & Stitches Quilt Shop! I was in search of some border fabric possibilities for the baby quilt I’m working on with the African fabrics—and some more black on white to replace what I’ve used and build up some more variety…and they didn’t disappoint!

I was also thrilled to spot THIS in their book selections:

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I was happy to be told they are moving like hotcakes and they keep having to reorder! Thank you thank you for carrying my books in your shops!

So a bit about the texas braid workshop! What a fun group of ladies! Maria had brought in bags of donated scraps, and it was a feeding frenzy when we dumped the bags on the table and started pawing through ((And yes, that includes me too!!))

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Wouldn’t you love to come see what goodies were on this table?!

I believe the ladies had a great time sewing their braids, and building up variety by trading rectangles with each other. It was fun to see how different they all were!

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You don’t want to mess with the “SEW SERIOUS Corner”! These ladies had their duelling featherweights just a humming in their portable featherweight card tables….Just look at those braids coming out of their machines!

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And the lovely Miss Diane was just treadling away on her beautiful old Pfaff treadle! I loved hearing stories about the last retreat --- when the power went off and everyone else was at a standstill and Diane just kept a treadling away!

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DIane has taken my new hand crank home with her and is giving her the once over – She’ll be ready to start sewing on when I arrive in Winchester TN next week! YAY!

My Hotel sewing has gotten me THIS far on the baby quilt:

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There was no good place to lay this out in the hotel room, so where did I go? In my jammies? Down the hall, past the elevator, into the area where the ice machine and vending machines are! Nice tile floor, lots of light…a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do when late-night-sewing in the hotel room!

20 comments:

  1. I just love that baby quilt!

    : )

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  2. That is one bright baby quilt, I love it. I'm sure that the Baby will love it too. Thanks for sharing your adventures. I am getting lots of ideas for hotel sewing.

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  3. Love that baby quilt! And glad you had a good time here. Enjoy the rest of your southern trek! I hope to sew more braids today.

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  4. Had to laugh at the treadle machine story.... power outages are a perfect reason to have a treadle machine!

    Love the baby quilt... a friend/coworker is expecting and wants a bright quit. I think I'm gonna have fun...

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  5. love the baby quilt. You are having soo much fun. enjoy it.

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  6. Bonnie you are too funny! I can just see you in the hallway in your jammies, quilt in hand, searching out the best place to get a great shot of your quilt! Would love to have seen a picture of THAT! :-} And a lovely surprise to see Diane the Treadle Queen!

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  7. Eggbeater Jesus! Funny, funny

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  8. LOL! Fun, fun, FUN! That quilt is GORGEOUS.

    Lucy~

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  9. Anonymous12:50 PM EDT

    My brother used to live in Huntsville, and we visited the Arsenel many times as he used to work there. Also toured the Antibellum homes .... beautiful!

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  10. When I first moved here from Maryland, along with all the other culture shocks, I found I definitely needed to declare an allegiance with either the University of Alabama or Auburn University. When I saw the "eggbeater Jesus" and thought that it was the Auburn church, because of the orange and the blue AU (alpha/omega) symbol on it. I remembering thinking, "Wow! These people really do take their football seriously!" :)

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  11. Love the baby quilt! Your fabric choices are magical!

    I have also sewn in hotel rooms; lots of time available when I didn't have to make supper. There is usually an ironing board available or one can be requested. I, too, wonder what the maids think. I would guess, Bonnie, that your "thread snip mess" would be easy cleanup compared to the mess left by some hotel guests.

    It must be rewarding to see your books displayed at quilt shops. Love your blog!

    Lorraine

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  12. Hang on a little quilty quick-sewing-baby-quilt moment! I recognise those fabrics!! Did I miss a post or two? I'm sure I know where they come from and they look even better than what they looked like before LOL.
    That is one GORGEOUS baby quilt!

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  13. The baby quilt is perfect! So bright and happy.

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  14. I have a couple of hand-crank machines I brought back from England...need to take them out of storage and figure out how to use them!

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  15. Would have loved to be a fly on the wall of the hotel hallway when you were out looking for a photo op. What a hoot!

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  16. Bonnie you are one energetic and talented gal! I love that baby quilt! Have a safe trip. Karen

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  17. Loved seeing Ms. Di and her Pfaff Treadle. It looks a lot like the one that keeps popping up in Pottery Barn's adv on my Facebook acct. Over the course of several days, Pottery Barn and I had a conversation about their cannibalizing of these machines that ended with their comment that "While we do not know for sure, we suspect these were determined to no longer be functional and have been successfully repurposed." Not!
    Glad she's going to have your new-old machine in working order when you get to Winchester!

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  18. Good post, Bonnie.
    hugs.
    Gerry

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  19. That mama and baby are going to love that quilt! It has soo much wonderful color to it. My heart goes out to all those who have been effected by the tornadoes and all. A local minister from here in Utah is going to Joplin this week with a semi that's been donated to drive a load of clothing and etc. down plus another one next week. My daughter and I and her 3 little ones went and helped out for a bit sorting. Good to see people help out that can! My friend and I had just taken in 7 quilts to the Humanitarian services of our Church and were told that SLC called up and wanted as many as possible to get to different sites where they wre needed. They sure need our prayers.... all over the world!

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  20. I love the pics of the ladies digging through the scraps, and the pictures of the braiding... I've always loved the faux braid effect! I posted a link to this post on my blog here: http://thecreativeartist-jordan.blogspot.com/2011/05/link-collection-number-two.html if you want to check it out!

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