On the road again

We're home from our spring trip, after driving through a blizzard in Wyoming -- in May, for heaven's sake! I asked a gal at a truck stop what the deal was having blizzards in May and she said, "Welcome to Wyoming!"

We had two great shows - International Quilt Festival in Chicago and American Quilters Society in Paducah, KY. We changed our booth layout a bit and had two demo stations going all day, every day. We demoed Angelina, our new foiling supplies and Paintstiks.

On the way out, I worked on my Grabbag 2008 challenge quilt. Here's a picture of my traveling design wall. It's a cardboard tri-fold and sits on the kitchen counter in the fifth wheel.

Across the aisle is the dining table, which serves as my cutting station. When cutting is done, it's my sewing station. I have a Bernina 1630 and it has been hauled and bounced around for over 30,000 miles and is still a workhorse.

In the aisle is my ironing station - a chair with a June Tailor Cut n Press. Cayenne, as with all kitties, likes to help.

While mom is sewing, the other babies are napping. Aniu is the dog, an Alaskan husky, and the kitty is Tarjais, aka Butthead.

I can't show you any more pictures of the Grabbag quilt because it's going to be on a CD and sold through Fiberart for a Cause. Tomme Fent organized and managed it. She did a terrific job!

The day after we arrived in Paducah, a pair of birds started building a nest on the fifth wheel tongue. Note the fishing line. We cleaned it off because we were afraid the babies would hatch about the time we had to leave. They started another one. We cleaned that one off as well and they stopped building.

Here's a photo of friend and talented designer, Cathy Arnett, demoing Angelina. Check out her Fabrications Retreat.

And here's Dawn Stapinski of Pittsburgh, also demoing Angelina.

And her husband, Walter, running the cash register.

All of them great folks!

Angelina Portfolio Class

I took an online class called "Artful Creations with Angelina" at Quilters Keep Learning taught by Bente Nysaether Malm, a Norwegian designer. I'm always interested in seeing how others are using Angelina, and need some more samples in the booth. I managed to finish it while on "weather hold" in Brigham City, UT. It was a lot of fun and uses Angelina, wool roving and tulle.

This is the front:

This is the back:

This is the inside. Her class called for making a bunch of pockets on the right hand side. I chose to make a holder for a note pad instead.

IQF in Rosemont, IL

We're on our way to our next two shows of the year, International Quilt Festival in Rosemont, IL (Chicago) and American Quilters Society in Paducah, KY. I calculate our travel time averaging 300 miles per day then add 2 to 3 days for weather and/or breakdown time. Good thing I added 3 days this year . We got stuck in Pendleton, OR because it was "chains required" in the Blue Mountains, then had to stay an extra day in Brigham City, UT due to "chains required" in the Wasatch pass and I80 in Wyoming was closed due to bad weather in three spots. We finally got to Rawlins, WY and here's what it looked like.

Aniu is doing her snow dance.


This is about a 2' deep snow drift.

Sewing and Stitchery Expo

Our first show of the year is in Puyallup, WA. It's the Sewing and Stitchery Expo and draws about 30,000 creative people. Here's Greg hanging Angelina. He's know as the company pack mule and booth eye candy.

My new blog

Happy New Year!!

I've decided I need to get going on this blog thing. Seems these days that you don't really exist unless you have a blog! Be patient with me, please, until I get this software figured out!!

My husband and I own Embellishment Village, a company that sells supplies to the fiber art, scrapbooking and crafting communities. You can see what we do at http://www.embellishmentvillage.com/.

To market our wares, we attend a number of shows every year. We drive, pulling a fifth wheel full of booth display, product and pets. Here's a picture of what we travel in. It was taken at an RV park near Capitol Reef National Park, on our way to International Quilt Market and Festival in Houston last fall.

It's a 35 foot fifth wheel with 3 slideouts. One slideout is the kithen and entertainment center, one is the sofa and dinette and one is the bed. It is really quite comfy for the two of us, the dog and the two cats we travel with. It has a huge storage space in what we refer to as "the basement", which is where we carry all of our booth displays and goods.

Sorry, I can't seem to get the photo to load here, so the picture is at the top.