International Quilt Festival of Ireland

A friend asked about my last post and what I needed Euros for.

Well when Bonnie Hunter was here last October she talked about 2 tours she was doing with Sew Many Places, a tour company that caters to quilters.  One was an Alaskan cruise in August and one was a 10 day tour to the International Quilt Festival in Galway and a tour of Ireland.  A friends wanted to do the cruise but I work at a college and that was scheduled close to the start of classes. And she wasn't sure about traveling abroad, so I am going on the trip by myself.

To alleviate the chance of problems with connections, I'm flying to New York early to have a visit with my niece and take advantage of her spare bedroom.  In New York I will meet the lady that I will be rooming with who is from Illinois.  We both agreed we rather have the extra $1,000 to spend on fabric than to room by ourselves.

So I am very excited about going.  I have been to London now about 5 times, but never Ireland.
We will be in Galway for 3 days.  Then Killarney, Adare,the dingle peninsula, Blarney, Avoca and County Wicklow.  Then on to Dublin, Belfast, Lisburn and then return.

I am looking forward to traveling with a group instead of by myself.  I know it can sometimes be a drawback traveling with others, but all in all I think it will be a good experience.  Will try to make entries on the blog while I'm gone if the hotels have business centers.  Otherwise you might not hear a lot until I return.

Quilt show and stuff

The Capitol City Quilt Guild show was last weekend.  It was the first time I have vended at a quilt show.  I have set up at the local antique mall Sunday fleamarkets for a couple of years now.  In the summer they have an outdoor fleamarket the 3rd Sunday of each month until October.

I have managed those pretty well, including setting up a small tent by myself.  I just about have it down to a science.  So I thought the quilt show wouldn't be much different.  Below are pictures of my booth at the quilt show.  Listening to what people were looking for there were items that I didn't bring that I probably would next time, like antique buttons and trims.  But I did pretty well.  I made back my booth rental and made a little so I was ok with that.  So this was my set up at the quilt show.

 

 

During the show I was working on these, indigo and shirtings stars to make the time go faster.  I have them packaged into 1 block per baggie to take on my trip to have something to do on the plane and in the airport.  I may have to cut and make up a few more.

Picked up my euro's from the credit union today.  Hard to believe it's only 3 weeks away.  Now I'm nervous.

Tomorrow is the wedding shower for my niece, Jennifer.

Craft class

Saturday I took a class at the MSU recycling center of how to recycle wine bottles.  The class taught us how to cut the bottom's off of bottles, add mosaic tile and use them as shades on votives.  Though expensive the class included a bottle cutter, mosaic nippers,  safety glasses, nippers, the copper hanging aparatus and 2 wine bottles. 

I took stained glass classes through MSU Evening college 30 years ago, but was living in an apartment to couldn't really do it much.  There were about 14 of us in class.  This is a picture of the class sample.

I'll put up a picture of mine when I finish the mosaic.

The new recycling center on campus is really a neat place.  Near the bathrooms was a sign showing how they use collected rain water for the toilets to conserve water, and there was this display in the lobby area.

Estate Sale Find

I gave my nephew and his wife a queen size quilt for Christmas.  In the photo they sent me of it on their bed I noticed that they didn't really have any bed size tables.  So I started taking notice at the estate sales I went to.  I found an excellent candidate.  A really good piece of old furniture that just needed a face lift.  I forgot to take a before picture.  Here she is...

Problem is they live in the Chicago area, and when they were home for Easter the vehicle they came in was too small to take it home.  Guess I will have to plan a trip to Illinois.

Spring Slowly arrives

Just a little post today...

Advice from a Garden

Cultivate lasting friendships
Sow seeds of kindness
Listen to sage advice
Don't let the little things bug you
Be outstanding in your field
Take thyme for yourself
No vining!

Estate Sale Finds

Part of my weekly habit is checking Estatesales.net for local estate sales.  I'm kind of addicted to looking at the homes and seeing what treasures people had.  Some sales are very organized and some are just a wreck.  I have my favorite vendors whose sales I never miss like Richard Bloomquist, and others that I have totally sworn off.

If the sales are really close, I will often go on my lunch hour on a Friday.  Just to scope things out and see if it's worth getting up early on Saturday to come back for half-price day.

Last week on Friday I ran to 2 sales.  One had a quilt pictured in their ad so that always interests me.  And it was obvious from other pictures that she was a quilter.  So I went.  There were a couple of well worn pink and white quilts there.   I wasn't sure I could resell them at the price they were marked so I decided that I might come back on Saturday. 

Luckly they were still there.  So I decided what to heck.  Get them.  I was disappointed that the bigger multi color broken star which that had been pictured in the ad was gone.  But as I was looking down at a table of glassware something caught my eye. Looking up, there were 2 great quilts hung over the drapery rod in the living room.  I had completely missed them and so had other quilters who were there.  While looking, one of the guys running the sale asked if I was interested.  I said not at even half the price he had marked on them.  So he gave me his bottom price and after some thinking I decided why not.  A quick run to the credit union and I walked away with 4 quilts.

The pink and white will be for sale in my booth at the Capitol City Quilt Guild Quilt Show, May 4 & 5.  As well as the broken star quilt.  My brother and I will be sharing a booth selling sewing and quilting related items, some antique, some just collectable.  [NOTE: as I edit this I realize that maybe the print quilt was a practice before making the multi color quilt because the are the same pattern only one is solid pink fabrics and the other is multi.]

The wagon wheel quilt I think will be a good research project for me.  It has hundreds of names embroidered on it in the same hand and fine embroidery.  Since I am a genealogist it will be interesting to research.

Busy Times

Things have really been hopping lately. Late last month I took mom to the CCQG quilt retreat here in Lansing as a Christmas gift.  She had been to one of our small group retreat at Hankerd Inn, but that is usually 12 or less people.  The CCQG retreat was 69 ladies at the Quality Suites Hotel.  The set up was great and the hotel staff were very accommodating. We were set up in the atrium and the three floors that opened onto the atrium gave us a great place to put quilts as there were finished.  All the hotel guests appreciated and enjoyed the impromptu quilt show as well. We decided that we would spend the weekend working on one project, the wedding quilt for my youngest niece.  And we got it done and not a moment too soon as she just got engaged on a trip to Paris.  Great job Jason!

Have been picking up more items for my booth at the CCQG quilt show in May.  I am going to have mostly antique sewing related items.  I will have a couple antique quilts and a few modern quilts for sale.  Will also have items I have been picking up at estate sales, like a large batch of old iron embroidery transfers.  These really remind me of the transfers my mom used to teach me embroidery when I was a girl scout.

I will also be thinning out my collection of sewing related items, mostly pincushions.  Will also have a couple of sewing machines for sale.

Spend some time a a friend's home last night going through bins of sewing related items that she has collected and then decided to thin her collections.  I think I picked up some good things.

Now I am working on coming up with a way to hang a bunch of quilts.  Think I have come up with an idea using pvc pipe.  Will have to experiment one of these weekends.

Have a good weekend.  Spring is just around the corner!