Ginger and World Quilt & Textile Show

Our application for the puppy was accepted. This is Ginger. We will be picking her up next Saturday. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas!!! I don't know how I will make it until Saturday! The rescue society we went through is from Maine and they rescue dogs from shelters in Arkansas. So when we pick Ginger up she will have been travelling for 3 days on a USDA transport with a truckload of other dogs and puppies.

She is somewhere around 4-5 months old. It's amazing how much you forget about training a puppy. I picked up a book to review obedience training and crate training.

I had a blast at the World Quilt and Textile Show. I'm not going to post any pictures from it because of all the problems with copyright. Better safe than sorry. When I get further along, I will post a picture of the quilt I made from the class with Linda Cantrell.
Thursday, I drove down to Manchester and took my time going through the show. I ran into Carmen from my art quilt group. It was nice to go throught the show with someone. Usually I go to shows by myself. I found the exhibit by the Seacoast Association of Fiber Artists very interesting. The quilts from the UK got my attention. I'm not really sure why. I was hoping to get back and look at them again but didn't get the chance.

There was another exhibit of smaller art quilts that Carmen and I really liked. I can't find my brochure so I can't find out who did it. When I do find the brochure I will put down who did the exhibit.

That night I had planned on doing some sewing up in my room while I had no kids or husband who wanted my attention but my allergies made me so tired that I went to bed early!!! How pitiful that was!!! So much for my plans.

The next morning, I had room service, something we never do. Since I was by myself, I figured I might as well eat breakfast in my room watching tv instead of eating by myself in the restaurant.

"Still Life with Bottles" with Linda Cantrell started at 9. It was a fun class and I really enjoyed it. She talked about her quilts and showed how she made them and went over the applique technique that she uses. Then let us go and encouraged us to go ahead and start cutting bottle shapes out of the freezer paper without drawing patterns first. She said she used to have patterns for this class but wanted people to make their own design so she stopped having the pattern available. She was there if we needed help but let us go at it. What's really funny is as much as I hate hand quilting, I really love to do hand applique and find it relaxing.

The class ended at 4 and I had to head home. I was really tempted not to return home!!

I never found a website for her but if you go to this address you will go to a page with the classes she taught. Go to the description of "Still Life with Bottles" you can get to pictures of her bottle quilts.

http://www.quiltfest.com/workshop_detail.asp?id=579

Still need to learn how to do links! I don't know why but for some reason this started double spacing. I really hate using Gary's laptop. It tends to do some funky things on me but it's the only place I could down load Gingers picture from since it is no longer up on the rescue site.

One of the things I bought at the show was a kit for making silk paper or cloth. I had today off and played with that. It is fun. Will have to do some more playing with it.

Goodbye Tuffy

Last Monday we had to put our dog, Tuffy, to sleep. It was a very hard day for all of us. We took pictures of all of us with Tuffy. It now seems so weird not to have a dog great me when I get home from work.
We do have an application in for a rescue dog. A lab mix. We're just waiting to see if we get approved. I know they want to make sure the dogs go to a good home where they will be taken care of but they sure make it hard. You'd think we were trying to adopt a baby! We're still waiting to have someone come out and do a home visit. Alot of the rescue societies that I looked at wanted a home visit plus they want to talk to your vet, etc. The local humane societies are just as hard to adopt from.
The kids made stepping stones with Tuffy's foot prints in them. We also stuck his dog tags on them. Alex's is on Tuffy's grave and Kara's will go in the garden.
I went to the World Quilt and Textile show in Manchester on Thursday and Friday. It was fun! My own private retreat. I took a class with Linda Cantrell on Thurday called "Still Life with Bottles". It was a fun class. I will post more in the next couple of days, I have to leave for work now.

Computer Troubles and Quilty Stuff

I've been having trouble connecting to the internet on my computer. Very frustrating!! I'm hoping we can get things figured out. Until then, I guess I will have to use my husbands laptop. I have to figure out how to get my pictures downloaded from his laptop. He has things set up differently. So, no pictures today.

I'm almost done with my Grab Bag quilt and then can start working on some new things or I should say finish some things I've put aside! The busy season will be over at work after Labor Day weekend, so I will have more time to quilt!!!!

This Friday, my quilt group, Fiber Art Friends, will be meeting again. We haven't been able to meet for a while due to everyone's summer schedules. We are meeting at Lynn's cabin on Lake Winnepesauke. I'm looking forward to this. I have really missed getting together with other quilters.

Next week I will be spending 2 days in Manchester at the World Quilt Show. The first day, I will be attending the show and then going to a lecture by Marjan Kluepfel. That night I have a room at the hotel and will watch tv and quilt to my hearts content. The next day, I'm taking a class with Linda Cantrell, called "Still Life with Bottles".
I would have liked to take a class with Marjan Kluepfel, but the class I wanted to take was on a day I couldn't be there. I used 2 of my floating holidays at work to go to the show and we have to pick out all our floating holidays and vacations in January. So I had picked Thursday and Friday to come to the show and had to arrange lectures and a class according to this. "Still Life with Bottles" sounds fun and I love the pictures of the quilts she has done.

I'd better get moving and get some things done here before I go to work. I'm working a 6 day week which doesn't leave much time to get stuff done around home.