Finished Room

The guitar room and quilting room is perfect!

 Jerry loves it and I love it and we are in there ALL the time!

 AND there is lots of quilt stuff happening... still working on my ship quilt.  It's not quilted to death...YET!

This is the center of the quilt.  I love all that blank quilting space that is calling to me.

It's pretty much still divided in half, quilting on my end and guitars and cars on his end...

But that's just until I get my new sewing machine!  Then I'll be in his half a bit, which was partly the reason for taking out the wall.

My Story Celebration at Work

We got to work about 6 am and started filling helium balloons for the big bash.

 Then all of the employees filled our entry way armed with silly string.  Fourteen Quilters had been chosen for our ad campaign this coming year.  They each wrote their quilting story and submitted it.  They were chosen from all over the country and got an expense paid trip to a retreat at our studio.

 It was pretty fun when they came in and each one got introduced.  That was just the start of the fun.

 Every hour or two they got a new gift from a vendor or Handi Quilter.  They got fabric, rulers, magazines, batting, scissors, calendars and day planners.

 All the Rulers was the one thing that really brought them to tears, but then they got "Go Baby's", which cut fabric in shapes. Anyway, they were all overwhelmed and really a great bunch of people. Now they will each be in quilting magazines all through the coming year.

This is just part of the "loot " they got one day!

The last day we had a class on how to quilt your quilt and each of them brought a quilt top.  This was my favorite.

picking OUR own PumpKins

I met up with Jami and the girls Saturday night after we closed down the show and cleaned up. 
 friends/coworkers stayed at the hotel for dinner and watched all the gay getups and had a great night.

We went to Italian dinner at NW 23rd, Sals.  The girls shared an order of mussels and then the typical spaghetti and pizza for dinner.  They crack me up how much they love mussels. I had butternut squash ravioli!  It was awesome.  And of course since there was a Ben and Jerry Store right next door, of course we had to have dessert.  Jami got a room at the same hotel as me and the girls did get a chance to swim.

We started the day with breakfast at a little ma and pa restaurant in Jami and Kolby's old neighborhood.  Beaterville.  It was like a little old house with a few tables in every room.  A restaurant like you would have found in the old days in Park City.  We drove around their old haunting grounds where there are so many cute little houses and yards.

Then we got this big idea, which turned out to not be so unique.  We went out to Sauvie Island to a Farm.  We had gone there with Maddie for Preschool when Amelia was just a baby and Jami took a picture of her just like this... propped up in the pumpkins.  It turned out we weren't the only ones with this idea.  Half of Portland came for the fun.

We took the hayride behind a tractor out to the field and found the PERFECT pumpkins. Yes, there were plenty of picked ones that were not in muddy fields, but not as fun as finding the ONE just your size.

Maddie picked one so big she couldn't carry it. Jami said "Next year the rule is you can't get it if you can't carry it."  We'll see.  She's pretty much a push over as you will soon see....

"Oh, mom, Look! They have elephant ears and caramel apples!"

And man were they good!  Jami and I bought a couple to share with the girls but by the time they came back from climbing all over the hay stacks... well, let's just say we had to get in line again.  Somehow they disappeared.

And one of the best things about Portland is the bridges.  I really like Portland.  It was really hard to say good bye to Jami and the girls.  I kind of felt bad they had so far to drive from Seattle, but so glad they did.  It made my trip worth while!

Portland Quilt Show

I went to Portland for the MQX West Quilt show for work.  I left on Monday and didn't get home until Sunday... Jerry missed me lots.  I hate leaving him.  The best part of this show was that I got to spend a day with Jami and the girls.  I also bought some really cool stencils and didn't have to pay sales tax.  Our hotel was very close to the convention center and was also the hotel for the Drag Queen Event.  Not fabulous gays, just men in drag.  BIG hairy guys in ball gowns and wigs.  AND when I got on the plane to come home I sat next to two gay guys.  It was killing me to ask if that is what they went to Portland for.  It was.  Just before we landed the guy next to me told me they stayed at the same hotel.  They really booked all of us old grandma quilters with the gay gatherings.

Favorite QuiltsThis crane flying was incredible.  Every feather was stitched out and it was sewed with different thread colors on the back side.  It was beautiful! 

This quilt was nothing really without all the quilting! 

 I love quilting on plain fabric and especially on white.

Favorite Teachers.  Claudia Pfeil is from Germany and she brought chocolate from home to share. She was so good and she did not spend any time just chatting... all teaching. 

Dawn Cavanaugh writes a column about machine quilting in one of the magazines, I love her articles.  I got the chance to be in her classroom and I was so excited.  She taught for 2 hours straight without stopping.  Then the next 2 hours she helped students and did demos.

I spent about half the day on the floor in the vendors booth talking to quilters... and selling quilting stuff.  I  had time to look at all the quilts in the exhibit.  We hit the mall, walked in the pouring rain, ate at Burgerville, but I didn't really see Portland until Jami got there.

A GQ Make Over

I need more room for a bigger better quilting machine....

And he loves me.

 So, he said he was going to knock out the wall between his Guitar room and my Quilting room.  I kept thinking it was not the best idea... what if we EVER sell our house and the new people want bedrooms.  Like we are EVER going to move.

And in true Eldredge spirit, once decided, it has begun.  AND I love the bigger room.  It looks great all one GQ room.  We're excited to have space for us to be together to enjoy our hobbies.

Springville Museum of Art Quilt Show

I entered a quilt in the Springville Quilt Show because I love this little museum and I've gone to quilt shows there for years and been amazed and awed at the show.  This wasn't really a "Show" quilt but it was the last one I finished.

QNNtv.com Filming at our Studio

Quilt It!  The Long Arm Quilting Show.

We moved all of the sewing machines out of our studio and filmed about 18 upcoming episodes, plus my boss, Vicki does a short take, or a 5 minute spot for each guest.  The guests are professional quilters who  did teaching and demonstrations about quilting with Jodie Davis as the  host.

It was pretty cool to see the TV monitors and the lights and camera guys.

This is Lisa Calle, she showed some great ways to quilt your quilt to death... Beautifully.  Here's another quilt she did.

This is Vicki, my boss.  She is great to work with.  It's been incredible.  Every day is something new.  She is a natural.  She really knows her stuff. And all of her takes were done pretty much with no stops... AND she showed a couple of my quilts in her bit on thread choices... it's all so crazy new to me.  I'm blown away by all of it.

Check out the detail she has quilted in ....

Trucking through Life... New Job and a Road Trip!

These are the Educators in the Salt Lake Handi Quilter Studio...

 UNTIL JULY 18th.  And then I joined them.  It is my dream job! Quilt EVERYTHING! These are the people who trained me.  I rented in the studio for 2 years.  I made 25 quilts going up to quilt once or twice a week and then they moved to a new studio and quit renting time on machines and I had to BUY my own machine.

So I had only been on the job about a week when they asked if I could go on the road.

MILWAUKEE Quilt SHOW...

I wasn't so sure about the whole thing.  It meant I had to make all my flight connections by myself.  No one else went from Salt Lake at the same time I went.  But I got it figured out....

THIS IS HOUSTON.

Houston is where they have the big International Quilt show every year.  When I got my laptop computer I put a picture of Houston on the wall paper.  My goal... get to Houston on quilt business.  Pretty cool everything worked out the way it did.

Most of the time in Milwaukee I was in a classroom with 12 of our sewing machines set up.  I made sure everyone had a good running machine, thread, bobbins, good tension, etc. AND  since I was in the classroom I got all the good quilting ideas and techniques the teachers were doing.  A couple of the teachers gave me their books.  I learned a lot, good stuff.  I also spent some time in the Vendor booth selling and demonstrating and answering questions... but mostly just had a great time talking to people who love to quilt as much as I do.  I think this job might turn into a job at some point, so far it is just a whole lot of fun.

It could be worse.  I may end up with my mug on the back of a moving truck, so I have to tell myself ...It could be worse.  Although, I'm pretty much loving everything about this JOB!