Quin·tes·sen·tial: [kwin-tuh-sen-shuhl] adjective:
1.of the pure and essential essence of something: thequintessential Jewish delicatessen.
2.of or pertaining to the most perfect embodiment ofsomething: the quintessential performance of the BrandenburgConcertos.
I really couldn’t find any other adjective that described my experience with the Quest Quilters of Little Rock! I came Questing for a great time, and found it!
The building you see here is the library where we met. It’s a beautiful building, both inside and out. The rooms were spacious, the tables were MANY so we had room to spread out, there was a kitchen attached for snack storage – everything right there where we needed it --
And beautiful art right outside the window!
I loved this fountain in the courtyard. I was entertained with tales of other traveling teachers who tried to photograph the fountain in all it’s ---ahhhemmm---glory --- by a strategic placement of finger in the photo to block out the delicate bits, but you know what? Art is beautiful as it is, and I prefer mine unenhanced by fig leaves!
Our class room was just beyond those windows and we could see the burbling fountain while we stitched. So pretty!
This was our My Blue Heaven workshop day ---and at lunch, many of us made a walking pilgrimage over to the River Market!
I was fascinated! What started out years ago as an open air market for farmers to sell their wares, soon became a beautiful building housing ethnic restaurants in food court fashion, every kind of cuisine you could ever want under one roof --- all independent vendors, no big chain entities to be found:
The place was mobbed with people --- of course it was lunch hour, and there was a high school art fair going on with several schools participating, so of course the food court area was full of young life.
What to choose for lunch? There was BBQ and Burgers of course --- pizza, mexican food, sushi ((already had my share thank-you-very-much!!)) greek gyros, ice cream, italian --- you name it – it was here…oh yes, Indian, middle eastern, and then….
THAI!!!
Since the evening before was Flying Fish with everything in the deep-fried shade of golden brown –I opted for a fresh veggie stir fry with tofu.
This week we have also talked about “Biggie Sizing” blocks, due to the Winston Ways block that was blown up into a baby quilt in a recent issue of Quilts from 100 Blocks! ((You still have time to enter HERE for that --- the drawing is on Sunday and I’m giving away 2 free copies!)) and one of our quilters decided that she wanted to double the scale of the pieces in the My Blue Heaven quilt --- and make 16” blocks instead of 8” blocks!
Wouldn’t this be great out of some of the bigger modern prints? Here are some of her blocks laid out on the floor:
Isn’t this going to be fun?
Bigger pieces feed easily through the machine!
These ladies made for such a fun workshop with several of them driving from hours away to join us in Little Rock. Plans are under way for us to do it again in 2015!
I’m rested and ready to start meeting a new group of ladies this morning in the “Shirttails!” workshop here in Burbank for the Glendate Quilt Show!
Have a great Thursday, Everyone!
I like the biggie blocks. Fun. But the frog fabric is really fun. lol
ReplyDeleteHave a great day.
Maryella
I like the BIG blocks too! Great Idea!
ReplyDeleteWe have a market like that here in Columbus, OH. Farmer's Market, right downtown and every vendor is just set up there. NO walls, no partitions, their freezers, stoves and ovens create the separation between booths. And AWESOME food.
I often visit the Thai lady who makes soup that is absolutely delicious.
Paul
www.OutnumberedQuilter.com
What a great market.
ReplyDeleteI love the slide shows. It always amazes me that I have so many of the same fabrics these quilters have. Hey, I have that and that and that!!! Hey, I need to use those. :)
I love markets like that...had several nearby when I lived in baltimore...
ReplyDeleteMy Blue Heaven looks great in greens and reds and browns and every other color--even biggie sized!
ReplyDeleteGo Bonnie Go! Am loving your travel adventures and pics of the students blocks. I need a new king size quilt for my bed and biggie sizing that block sounds interesting..maybe out of Kaffe??!!
ReplyDeleteMy MIL used to be a children's librarian at that library! And we usually end up at River Market whenever we visit. A couple of Christmas's ago we all went ice skating at a rink they had set up between River Market and the river.
ReplyDeleteGlad you had fun in Little Rock!
Little Rock sounds like a great town - now on my list of places to visit 'someday.'
ReplyDeleteNice blocks happening there, ladies!
I love the "blown up" blocks. I have 5 children, 2 which we recently adopted that are 6 & 4. I don't get a lot of time to sew, so the bigger blocks appeal to me.
ReplyDeleteHey, another adoptive mom-I often refer to myself as a "recycled" mom as I have a grandson almost the same age as 2 of my girls. (I have been blessed with 4 beautiful children adopted from Russia in the last 5 years.) Great retirement plan God had for me. MamaBev (kwiltpharm@aol.com)
DeleteInspiration struck when you showed us the double-size blocks of one quilter. I have started the tree quilt from your Leaders & Enders book, but was balking at making so many of those blocks. Now I am planning a double-sized tree block as a medallion and surrounded by eight smaller tree blocks. Sashing around the medallion will have to be 1.5 time larger rather than double according to my graph paper sketch. I will send you a picture when I finish the quilt. Given my record, expect it early next year.
ReplyDeleteIt was even more fun that it appeared in the pix! We learned tips that are already making a difference--Bonnie, I found a seam guide for my Featherweight on e-bay--and now the list of Quilts I Must Make is even longer. Very inspiring, and well worth the wait (two years!) to get on Bonnie's schedule. There was a high attendance rate for the lecture, and both the half and the full day classes were enthusiastically attended. I only finished one block, but it was my own fault--I tried to make the Featherweight sew with Bottom Line, and it kept jumping out of the bobbin thread path. Live and learn.
ReplyDeleteI must report that in making the blocks bigger I now have 5 completed blocks and 7 that just need the units sewn together...( that will happen while NASCAR is on ). And I have not even started cutting up the new bright color fabric I got in little rock. I see a full day of cutting up.....lol
ReplyDeleteI must report that in making the blocks bigger I now have 5 completed blocks and 7 that just need the units sewn together...( that will happen while NASCAR is on ). And I have not even started cutting up the new bright color fabric I got in little rock. I see a full day of cutting up.....lol
ReplyDeleteI must report that in making the blocks bigger I now have 5 completed blocks and 7 that just need the units sewn together...( that will happen while NASCAR is on ). And I have not even started cutting up the new bright color fabric I got in little rock. I see a full day of cutting up.....lol
ReplyDeleteSorry for the multiple entries. New iPad training.lol. 12 blocks complete more in the works..
ReplyDelete