A Day with Texas Tumbleweed, Pride of the Prairie Style!

I love the resilience of women!

In any group I visit, if I stop to think about it, there is a wealth of knowledge, an ocean of compassion, a force of determination, and a mountain of friendship and open arms ready to welcome in visitors and members alike. This is what quilters do.  This is who quilters are.

Now, I know someone might say that “well, MY group isn’t like that…..”  and my answer to you?  If you find that your group is lacking in any area – BE the thing that is missing yourself!  BE the one that welcomes, that encourages, that helps, that shares, that smiles.  It all starts with ONE person. YOU.

In the four years that have passed since I last visited with the Pride of the Prairie quilters of Plainfield, Illinois there have been many changes.  There has been loss of loved ones, end of employment, illness, cancer scares, BIG life changes for many.  And I love it when I walk into a room and catch little bits of caring conversation and hugs, laughter, conversation and connection.

BELONGING.  And I’m so happy that this group has made me feel part of them.  I can’t wait to come back at some point.  We had an amazing 3 days of workshops, but more than that, we built friendships.

You can’t beat these smiles!

I really truly believe that deep down, quilting is LESS about the quilts, and MORE about the people.

I love the faces.  These ladies have so touched my heart and my life over the past 4 days.

Thank you for coming to spend the time with me!

I loved every piece of our time together!

The blocks are beautiful, but you ladies are AMAZING just as you are.

Keep on, stitching on!

You’ll find the rest of our day in photos below.  I hope you enjoy them!  If you have this project as a UFO, hopefully these photos will encourage you to pull it back out and get started again. 

Texas Tumbleweed is found in my book MORE Adventures with Leaders & Enders!

We had our drawing for the May Quilty Box last evening…2775 entries!  YOWZA!!  I was so happy to draw our winner, Kathleen Wade.  

I wanted to share with you HER response when she found out that she had won because it really made my evening.  She writes:

I'm so excited! I was having a hard day today, and sat down to check Facebook. I clicked on the Quiltville post to see who won, and it was me!
Thank you so much! 

It made me smile from deep down within to imagine Kathleen after a hard day, clicking into Facebook, clicking the link to the blog post, reading the post, scrolling down to find that it indeed WAS her that won.  Kind of like the moment that Charlie & the Chocolate Factory peeled back the corner on that chocolate bar to find he had a Golden Ticket.  Heart warming to my toes.
 
Congrats, Kathleen!  And thanks to Quilty Box for the opportunity to continue to offer goodies like this to you!
 

I’m heading home today, and I’ll be touching my feet down in Greensboro about 7pm where son Jeff will be picking me up at the airport.  I’ll be treating him to his favorite steak place for dinner as a reward for always being so willing to be my chauffeur. 

 

I’m home for a bit more than a week this time!  There are some quilts waiting to be longarm quilted, there are some deadlines I’ve got to crank out and get off to Quiltmaker, but I’m thinking we’ll be able to do some Quilt-Cam this week!  I’ll let you know which evening will fit best, so be watching for that update.

 

 

Quiltville Quote of the Day!

 

The more I live, the more I learn that this is true on all levels.

 

Vintage 1950s nine-patch quilt found by my friend Irene in Kentucky.

 

Happy Sunday, everyone!

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