On the road again

On the road again, this time Nut's and I left home on the 28th April for the US of A.

The plan was for me to go to the HMQS show in Salt Lake City.

Well, I have already been there and it was amazing. But first, we arrived in New York on Wednesday morning and all I can remember of that time is that I managed to get hold of my cousin Val who lives in Toronto, we had a lovely chat and I sent her some pictures from Russell and Anna's wedding.

Also had a wonderful meeting with my friend Anita again, she has just come out with her new book and I bought from her 5 signed copies for 4 of my lucky friends.

Friday I left to spend shabbat with Keren in Chicago and left Nuts in NY.

I arrived at her home at exactly the same time as she, well timed.

As always we had a great time together, did manage to get to Joannes for a bit, bought a couple of new books. Just nice to explore familiar places again. and spend time with my friend just "being" together.

Monday I was off to SLC, the flight coming in was spectacular over the snow tipped mountains, but surprisingly the weather on the ground was very warm, after settling in to the hotel, I walked across the way to get some grocery supplies and it was pleasantly hot.

Tuesday morning bright and (too) early I was eagerly off to the show,I was the very first one there. I thought I would have to stand in the queue to get my package. but it was nice to meet the ladies as they arrived.

All in all the classes were great, I had a wonderful time and met wonderful people.

Nuts arrived on Thursday afternoon, just in time to pick me up from the show with all my shopping bags full, and I didn't even have time to see the quilts, so, we went back the next morning to see the exhibit of which I have posted the pictures on my facebook page.

Can you believe it, I needed a nail repair and it was right across the road from the hotel, what luck.

we had a wonderful weekend with Anna's family, they came flying in at the nth hour before shabbat came in, just enough time to get everything ready. Corinne outdid herself with all the wonderful food that she had so lovingly prepared for us all, what a treat it was.

On Sunday we hit the road and made our way South through Utah towards the town of Moab Close by there we took a drive through the Canyonlands Nature reserve and again these wonderful pictures are on my facebook pages.

We slept over in Moab, a very pretty town and on Monday morning we toured the Arches National park with spectacular rock formation sites to see.

Thereafter we drove along a the Colorado river for most of the way towards Grand junction and the I-70. where we turned off at Glenwood springs, we thought to go through the Rockies and Aspen on our way to Salida, but, fortunately and timously we had to turn back as we saw signs that the Independence Pass was closed. so we backtracked and went around on another road, but that too was a very pretty drive. Unfortunately we had to travel at night and it was getting late, but we made it to our hotel by about 9pm

Today Tuesday we were in a more leisurely mode and with less mileage to drive and made our way towards Colorado Springs along a charming scenic route and the Arkansas River for the first part of the journey, then the clouds started to roll in and it became cold, so, we decided to give the "Royal Gorge" a miss. I am sure if you google it you will see what it is all about, mostly a re-creation of days gone by, western style, and a drive or walk or train ride over the bridge. Had the weather been bright and sunny we would certainly have done it. but I was not warmly enough dressed.

Never mind.

Instead we continued and stopped of at quilt shops, perfect weather for this, two of the places we stopped at were closed down altogether, sign of the times I guess. the others were well worth the stops.

We arrived in Denver in good time this afternoon and have settled into our hotel nice and early. and it being cold and rainy outside serves it's purpose for an early night for us.

We went to a Kosher Deli/restaurant/grocer store for a nice meaty dinner, and hot cuppa soup.

It started to snow as we returned to the hotel, maybe it will snow more tomorrow it is expected to.

Tomorrow is another exciting day for quilt shop hopping and the quilt museum and whatever else the day will bring and this weather is perfect for it, we will stock up with fresh sandwiches from the kosher Deli around the corner, and return for another delicious hot meal tomorrow night.

I am sure I will have some more pictures to post by then, so.

Till then,

Bye for now.

Terry

Whatever happened to 2008 and 2009

Wow, whatever happened to 2008 and 2009, certainly in my blogosphere I have been away for a helleva long time, too busy quilting, traveling, quilting, traveling marrying off our son, quilting, getting ready to marry off our daughter, traveling, quilting, you get the picture.
I have been away from blogging for a long time now, and I think it is time to get back to it.
The TV here is awful so I am spending more time on my MacBook Pro learning new things all the time.
Of course this is over and above my days spent in my studio.
Now that I am back from our 2009/10 vacation in South Africa and a short stop over in Australia to meet the new arrivals Gabi and Mia Mowszowski (sisters to Dan) born on the 18th January to Raffy and Mandy,and have started to re-settle back into the routine of home and into my studio again, there is quite a lot happening in there.
Zvia and Carol both have had a few quilts they have been working on and have been doing amazing stuff.
I need to get back into some piecing and quilting again but, it is forever the weekend and getting ready for another Shabbat and time just seems to be running away and I am having a hard time trying to catch up with it these days.
OK, enough grouching, time to move forward.
After a wonderful 2 months away from home, but still at home from home. some thing I have been working on.
While we were in Wilderness I managed to complete quite a lot of stuff.
I started by making these round jewelery travel pouches, and got quite carried away, I think I made at least a dozen of them. My friend Pam came to visit and took 6 back with her for her family, so I made some more. Gave one to my sister in law, and took some with when we went to Cape Town for the weekend. I was left with only two. which I gave one to Anna(new daughter in law) when we got back.
Also on the table was a lovely Aleph Bet quilt wall hanging in blues and golds,and a large fun scrappy quilt for the floor, took some pictures but for some reason the camera just did not flash, so whatever pictures I took then just did not come out great.
While still in Wilderness I needed a couple more baby quilts for some close friends having grandchildren, So I made a few more. I also managed another tote bag from some pale yellow japanese fabrics.
A fun quilt from a roll of fabrics I took with me to make from the book "Happy Hour" and at the moment I am putting together the quilt that comes about from the leftovers that is on my worktable at the moment. They will make great batmitzvah gifts. Also a Raffle quilt project I started last year. I took it with me in the hope of working on it , but it just seemed to get pushed further back with every other thing I was working on. It is actually working out better here at home as I have the design wall to put it on instead of crawling around the floor. It is all ready in a tray next to the sewing machine and the first 4 rows have been completed. At the same time as the strippy quilt which I hope to complete the top before I get to bed tonight.
I have to re-learn a few things here like how to post the pictures again then we will be fully back on track with a lot of catching up to do.
So till next time
Bye for now
Terry