Playing with Jacks, Kirksville Style!

This is the kind of fun you have when you gather 33 quilters from all over the midwest – from Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois and other outlaying areas in Kirksville, Missouri for 3 days of workshops!

We kicked off our weekend’s festivities yesterday afternoon with the Helping Hands Quilt Guild of Kirksville hosting us ---and what a bang up job they are doing.

The door prizes are never ending and over flowing!

Several of these ladies I’ve had the pleasure to meet on previous engagements and it is like a family reunion when that happens.

Gals I’ve had in workshops in Iowa are meeting those I’ve had workshops with in Indiana, and they are becoming fast friends!  That just tickles me to no end.  And this is why we do what we do isn’t it?

 

Gossip around the ironing stations!

The Ottumwa gals discussing pressing matters!

Do you think these gals got much sewing done?  Hahaha!

Yes they did!  Red hats and all!

Hold them high, ladies!

Our workshop, Playing with Jacks, is great for a half day workshop –just enough time to get the hang of the Easy Angle Ruler and play with different block arrangements, and playing with the values and colors in each block as well.  6” blocks are a favorite to play with!

Sew Much Fun!

The free pattern for Playing with Jacks is found under the Free Patterns Tab at the top of the blog.  There are several different layout ideas to go with it.  I love these little asymmetrical beauties!

Click the image below if you are unable to view the slide show on your mobile device.  You’ll be taken to the photo album for viewing.  Or head to a real computer where viewing is best!

Playing with Jacks, Kirksville MO 2015

After the workshop was over we headed to Thousand Hills State Park and their restaurant on the lake for dinner:

Lovely at sunset, isn’t it?

We arrived at 7pm as the sun was setting, but what we didn’t know was that a storm complete with tornado sightings was just to the west of us moving directly east.  We were sitting right in the path and were encouraged to take shelter.

One of the gals at my table lives 2 miles up the road – she said she was heading home to her basement and she invited any of us who wanted to to join her.

Mind you, food had been ordered, hadn’t been delivered yet, and here we were abandoning the restaurant for safer ground.

Kirksville in the path of the storm!

This was really scary!  With the help of the ladies I was able to get the trunk show bags with all of the quilts out of the trunk of my car before the rain pelted even harder…My fear was that the trunk would leak and all of the quilts would be damaged, so they were safer inside.

I also brought inside the borrowed featherweight and my workshop bag – because those needed to be safe too.

We hunkered down and had an impromptu show and share of tops our hostess had finished but not quilted yet, all while lightning and thunder was wildly flashing outside.

Storms are scariest in the dark!

When the worst of the storm had passed, we headed back to the restaurant, picked up our food in to go containers and headed back to the hotel.

It was still raining pretty good so the quilt bags were left at the house instead of getting the bags soaking wet getting them back to the car.

They will be brought to the workshop this morning and I’ll have them ready for tonight’s presentation.

Stitching down a binding.

Since the featherweight was still in the safety of the house with the quilt bags I tucked myself into new jammies and worked on stitching that binding back down over the new hanging sleeve.  Mindless work, but after all that excitement it was all I could manage until I was unwound enough to go to bed.

At breakfast just a bit ago I heard that water had been running over the floor of where our workshops are being held.  I’m a bit heartsick…I have several cases of boxes sitting on the floor.  I’m afraid I’m going to go into a room full of wet and damaged cases of books.

Please keep your fingers crossed that that is NOT what I find..I’m hoping someone would have picked them off the floor and set them up higher if there was water leaking into the building.

And while I feel heartsick about this possibility I have to remind myself that we were NOT hit by a tornado.  We didn’t lose lives, no one is injured, and it’s only books after all……

Today is a new day, with Jared Takes a Wife as our workshop.

And as I type this I can hear a raucous group of quilters already hooting it up at the breakfast area that is right outside my room door.

All is well.

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