44 quilters giddy with excitement over EVERYTHING at the Grand Hotel!
Sew all day, dress up for fancy dinner, every need catered to in GRAND style – what could be better?
This is my third opportunity to teach for the Grand Hotel Needle Art Seminar, and GRAND is just not a big enough word for this fabulous place. Such a wonderful event in a much more than wonderful spot.
The room we are meeting in – was once the card playing aka gambling room. The story goes that through prohibition there were even hidden compartments in the walls to hide the hooch. Can you imagine the Grand Hotel back in the speak easy days?
And this week we’ve filled it with 44 quilters!
And chandeliers that twinkle from above.
Triangles and String Blocks!
It was a good thing that we mass produced triangles during our Sunday afternoon head-start session, enabling us to dive right into the string block construction for Emerald City (String Frenzy book!) at the start of class yesterday.
And not all strings are green!
Debbie is making hers an Amethyst City!
Reds as in Ruby Sliippers!
Aquas as beautiful as the waters around Mackinac Island!
I think she’s got it just about right!
I’m not sure how this table got this messy -
It just sorta happened! LOL!
Much block trimming!
Oh the exciting part! Block quarters!
Well done! Now make more!
So glad I got extended time with this group!
I love being surrounded by Bonniacs!
(Thanks for the shirt, Nola!)
And yes – room service will bring a bottle of wine at 4pm!
And you can keep sewing, and sewing and sewing -
For the rest of our day’s fun – enjoy the video below. Click to Play:
After Hours!
The best view from the hotel – The Cupola Bar!
Deciding against another 2 hour fancy dinner after a long teaching day, we headed into town for ribs and fries at a local pub place. Some days you just have to say ENOUGH to fancy and go eat with the locals.
When we returned we headed up to the Cupola Bar at the top of The Grand Hotel to sit and enjoy the view. What had started out as a rainy fairly miserable weather day turned into THIS by evening time.
Such a beautiful evening!
Oh, I love this chandelier –
But I’m so glad I don’t have to dust it!
We switch gears today – Punkin’ Patch from String Frenzy is up at bat! All three workshops for this event are from String Frenzy – so there are a lot of happy string piecers in our midst. A onw day workshop – we move into Straits of Mackinac tomorrow!
Quiltville Quote of the Day -
There are people all around us who do little things as well as big things everyday that go unnoticed.
Today is a good day to start taking notice of those who make our daily lives a better place to thrive.
Let them know they are appreciated!
Have a lovely Tuesday, everyone!
It's a real treat in life to experience the Grand Hotel. It's like the Titanic on land. Such history and grandeur. I've been lucky to sit in the Cupola Lounge and enjoy the view many times and have wondered about the people who did the same thing a hundred years before. Thanks for the pictures Bonnie and taking me there again.
ReplyDeleteMy granddaughter and her fourth grade class from Michigan are heading to Mackinac Island in a week for a field trip. So glad she gets this great experience of such a grand place!
ReplyDeleteEmerald City is next up for me, thanks for the serendipity...and oh, to be able to experience Macinac first hand! sigh... thank you, again, for sharing with the rest of us, Cats in Carlsbad, CA
ReplyDeleteIt looks like such a fun time, and the venue is GORGEOUS!
ReplyDeleteI used to work at a lighting manufacturer and showroom, one of my tasks was to clean the chandeliers! One was hanging from the center of a two story spiral staircase. In San Francisco...earthquakes were always on my mind!
.........hummm...hidden compartments in the walls...sounds like a quilters stash storage dream
ReplyDeleteI love the way your mind works!!! Sounds perfect to me too!!!
DeleteOr hide away in piece and quiet & just sew, sew, sew...
DeleteOur sunset was just gorgeous last night in the eastern U.P. I hope you got a glimpse of it, Bonnie.
ReplyDeleteI don't travel as much as you do but a few years ago I begin telling the cleaning attendant in the airport bathroom thank you, or good job. Most of the time they're shocked that anybody's even spoken to them but I do appreciate the job they do.
ReplyDeleteWhat a magnificent place to be stunning views gorgeous rooms the decor so extravagant and beautiful, and then happy quilters what more could anyone want or need.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this wonderful adventure Bonnie
Love and quilty hugs
Anne xxx
Ditto from me!!
DeleteWould love to see what all the (not) Emerald City quilts look like when they are finished - there were so many different colours, I think they are going to be amazing.
ReplyDelete