Roof, Graduation & Road Trip

The last few weeks have been absolutely crazy. Crazy good and crazy bad.

The roof started leaking, so there was no more putting off getting a new roof. The good news is there was hail damage, so my insurance covered it. Got new gutters as well, but this picture is before they were put up.

Miss Sydney graduated high school!

Then there was a Quilting Road Trip with my sister.

• Fabric Outlet, Springfield, Missouri – great prices before sales. The day we were there everything was 20% off. They have fashion fabric in the backroom.
• FM Stores, Springfield, Missouri – great prices and the largest variety of minkee type fabric I’ve seen.
• Ozark Patchwork Peddler, Mountain Grove, Missouri – The owner has seen my sister only once before over a year ago. She knew what my sister had bought! I bought a few FQs and if I decide I want yardage, she’ll be able to pull up my order and tell me what I bought.
• The Sewing Connection, West Plains, Missouri – good prices. Also the local Gammill dealer.
• Six Sisters Mercantile, West Plains, Missouri – Just opened May 12th.  Great prices
• Hancock of Paducah, Paducah, Kentucky – An employee took the picture. Apparently that happens a lot. All those women shopping… they weren’t shopping for themselves, but were employees shopping for YOU. Yes, you can go into the backroom – that’s where the pre-cuts and kits are.
• Naturally there was a stop at The National Quilt Museum. – Pay the extra $3 for the guided tour.
• Sew Many Ideas, Jackson, Tennessee – This wasn’t on the list, but since we were driving through…I can’t remember which type sewing machines they sell.
• Sew Carefree, Jackson, Tennessee — A few more FQs were picked up here as well.

We were headed to Mississippi, to the June Gathering of the Mississippi Quilt Association.

The guest instructor this year was Bonnie Hunter!

I had a whole table to spread out on for my  Carolina Chain class.

There were 50 students spread out in 3 connected classrooms. By the end of the day we had enough blocks made to make a quilt.

The class was actually the day before the gathering.  The trunk show was Friday night after dinner. There were door prizes. I won one!

Bonnie taught Winston Ways Friday and Chunky Churn Dash on Saturday. Saturday if you were not in one of her classes there were other classes being taught or you could just sit and sew — which is what I did. There were also 3 vendors at the venue. Stitch-N-Frame from Vicksburg, Mississippi; Main Street Fabrics from Ackerman, Mississippi; and Featherweight Works from Columbus, Mississippi. Yes, I left some money at those shops as well.

I totally forgot about the shop pictures at the local shops.  Continental Sewing Center in Jackson, The Cotton Blossom in Madison, and Bernina Sewing Center in Ridgeland. I think all 3 of these shops were with in 10 minutes of my sister-in-laws home where we were staying. We even made it to Tuesday Morning where fabric came home with us.

Yes, there was just a tiny bit of shopping going on.

If the shop didn’t have FQs, or the bolt price was less than $9 (much was less than $6) I purchased  1/2 yard, unless the bolt was on sale. Then I purchased 1 yard as that was the minimum cut. I needed a new mat since my Olfa mats are nearly 30 years old. I was going to get one at Jo-Ann’s with my birthday gift cards and coupons, but saw this one by QuiltersSelect in use at the shop in Ridgeland. When a QuilterSelect ruler is used the fabric doesn’t shift, but yet you can turn the ruler/fabric to get that second cut. I opted for an 8″ ruler, but I think I’m going to want a smaller one as well. The bags, Wonky Wishes and the 2-1/2 x 6 ruler I bought from Bonnie. Everyone got some of my money. Now I don’t have any!

The trip home was done in one day as I had appointments on Monday. But I’ve setup the Genie and I’m sewing away on my blocks. I wonder if I can get the quilt top done by Sunday evening? I’m going to another Bonnie Hunter trunk show next Monday!