A long but fun Saturday

I got up at 5:15 a.m. on Saturday and left the house at 6:15 a.m. I got home around 10:15 p.m. It was a long day, but I had a blast. And no, I did not go over to the "dark side" and become a quilter.

I went to the quilt show with Georgia, Ellen, Carla, and Terry. Georgia and Ellen work with DH (and have to endure all the guys and their deer hunting talk day in and day out). Georgia is an avid quilter. Carla and Terry are avid quilting friends of Georgia. Ellen has never quilted before and the other gals had her buying quilting patterns and fabric before the day was out; they turned her to the dark side.

Although I was sorely tempted by some beautiful reproduction flour sack fabric, I resisted the temptation to take up quilting.

The quilt show was phenomenal. There were tons of fabrics, gadgets, sewing machine vendors, and on and on and on - all for quilters. I thoroughly enjoyed looking at all the display quilts and fabrics. And I learned that cross stitchers and quilters are a lot alike; we're all sisters in needlework.

Did you know quilters are into variegated threads like stitchers? When we dropped her off at her house, Terry showed us a lovely wall quilt she had quilted with variegated thread.

I was drawn to quilts and fabrics from the 1930's. Terry taught me about flour sacks, both authentic and reproduction. I really like them. I also like the older traditional quilting patterns.

Some of the longarm quilting machines are beyond belief. Terry has one that is fourteen feet long! Some of them cost upwards of thirty- to forty-thousand dollars! And the computer programs that go with many of them are very cool. There is even one (like cross stitching) where you can import a photo and have it make up a quilt pattern for you!

I picked up a couple of skeins of floss - one was a new silk company originating out of South Africa. They were on The Online Needlework show last week. I also looked in the Sulky booth for the Sulky Blendables thread all the stitchers are raving about over on the 123MB, but they didn't have any 12 weight, only 30 and 40 weight. The colors were very pretty though.

I also bought a very sturdy portable sewing machine table (I'll post pictures once it's delivered). Right now, when I want to sew, I have to use the kitchen table. It's a flimsy plastic one that starts bouncing up and down rapidly if I sew fast at all. DH had planned to build me in a sewing table when he finishes the office area of the bedroom sometime in the distant future. However, this table really caught my eye because I can set it up and then fold it down and stick it under the bed when I don't need it; it won't take up space I don't have.

All in all, it was a fun day of looking at colorful fabrics and all things quilting. And I'll probably go again next year!

DH spent the day hunting with no luck. He did get the last bit of tiling done, but no grouting. Here he is setting the LAST tile!