I suspected that I would be out of touch for awhile, but not THIS long!

Denver was great!

The SAQA conference was one of the best, though I do much prefer the location of Athens, OH for it’s proximity to Quilt National and small town ease of getting around. The local art quilt group “Front Range Quilters” went all out to make us welcome and arrange a gallery tour. The Breakout Sessions and Keynote Speakers generated new ideas and enthusiasm and the food was pretty good too!

Meeting up with Del Thomas (it’s been too long since our last road trip) was wonderful and we enjoyed our return trip to Kansas via I-80 through Nebraska in order to avoid the possible tornadoes in Kansas. Still the skies were glowering at times and we found a little rain.

We took some side trips looking for Sandhill Cranes, but apparently we were too late. We did find this interesting rest stop in Nebraska, though.

We stopped in Lincoln to visit the Quilt Museum and I did take some pictures, none of which came out, unfortunately – because the quilts were exquisite!. Photos without flash were allowed, but I guess I didn’t set the camera right. They were mounting a new exhibit, so we only got to see – Nebraska Quilts by Nebraska Quiltmakers.

We had considered traveling on east to the opening of Quilt National, but the weather and resulting trip through Nebraska took too much time. We arrived home on Thursday evening, I think, it’s all rather a blur.

Friday we went to Kansas City to visit the Steamboat Arabia Museum as I thought that Del would enjoy it and she did. It’s really a very interesting stop which I highly recommend to anyone in the area or driving through. They say to allow an hour and a half but we spent two and probably could have stayed longer, if we weren’t so worn out. It’s all about the recovery of a steamboat that was en route to settlements to the north, hit a snag in the Missouri River and sank in the mid 1800′s loaded with all of the necessities of living at the time. The boat sank into the mud where it lay buried deep in a cornfield due to the fact that the river changed it’s course. The museum contains portions of the boat and lots of restored cargo. It is quite amazing to see the pristine condition of the things that were recovered and it is estimated that there is another 10 years worth of restoring to be done on things that are in the meantime kept frozen.

Del left Sunday morning to continue her trek home and I have much catching up to do here. The weeds have really gotten out of hand!!

The workshop finished today and everyone did such a good job! I am always amazed at the beautiful coneflowers in all different colors, and the variety of wonderful fabrics that are piled on the tables. Everyone did Coneflowers except one–she had already taken that workshop and so wanted to do the bluebird instead. I hope to see many finished projects soon as they really got a good start!

It took two shots to get everyone in, there were so many participants!

I have been busy putting away and getting ready to take off early in the morning for Denver and the SAQA Conference. Doubt very much that I will post during the trip, technologically challenged as I am!

Monday evening and Tuesday morning, I did the programs for the Kaw Valley Quilter’s Guild in Lawrence, KS. Kaw Valley is my home guild and this is the third time I’ve presented there! It was the first time I’ve presented with the new Keynote setup and it went well. Especially in the evening one. The room has skylights so we couldn’t get it dark enough for the morning one and everything was real washed out. Too bad because no one could really appreciate the colors and details in the quilts. But I did bring some actual quilts to show as well. After lunch we started the Coneflowers workshop that runs through today. Everyone got a good start and I’m anxious to see how things come together today! One lady flew in from Boston to take the workshop with her friend!!

Two of my quilts were awarded Viewer’s Choice prizes at the recent quilt show, but I think one of them had been put into the wrong category and the prize should go to someone else. “Just Dandy” was VC in the wall category and “Spring Encounter” was VC in the lap/crib category and it is NOT a lap/crib quilt. I am trying to get it sorted out.

Early tomorrow morning I fly out to Denver for the SAQA Conference. I will meet a friend there and we will drive back to KS together next week, so I may be rather out of touch for awhile. Oh, wait! I HAVE been rather out of touch for awhile!!! I have just too much to do!

Yesterday I taught a Picture Piecing workshop in Topeka, that ended at 3 o’clock, which is exactly the time that my very first great grandson’s first birthday party started. Everyone was kind enough to hold up the important parts til I could get there. I am not at all sure this will work, but maybe— I tried to take a few photos with my new iPhone  (because I forgot the camera AGAIN)  but I don’t know what I’m doing and I got videos instead!  Nope, sorry, that didn’t work, I don’t know how to post videos. Why would I even think I could?

On a brighter note, I was able to get a good start on the Keynote program and some other computer glitches are getting worked out.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Yesterday I settled in to get serious about learning to do a Keynote presentation on my new MacBook Pro. It is so different from using a keyboard and quite frustrating! A couple of hours in, I got a weird error message that I couldn’t take care of myself, so, having paid for support, I called the Geek Squad number. My impression of the lady who answered was that she didn’t know about Macs as she insisted that my installer should return and take care of it. That is scheduled for Wednesday so I can’t do much til then.

So we went to town and got a couple of books that should be helpful when I do get back to working on Keynote!

And 10 more bags of mulch which I AM qualified to work with!! For the past two nights we have had frost so have been covering certain things that I am especially concerned about. Most things, however have to fend for themselves. The new peach tree has ONE peach – I hope it survives!

What a week this has been! The computer guy had to come back and redo the set up, I told you there would be bumps in the road! Hopefully it is ok now, but I have not had time to check it out! I had lots of administrative stuff to attend to and entry deadlines to meet. Finished “In The Bleak Midwinter”.  32w x 34h”.

My husband had surgery (nothing serious), so I am cooking again, temporarily, I hope!

We drove to Lawrence Friday to deliver “Longhorn Splashdown”, Spring Encounter” and “Just Dandy” for display at the Kaw Valley Quilt Guild Show. I will have to go by and pick them up this afternoon. It’s always a nice show and I am looking forward to seeing it. Yesterday was the annual Kansas Art Quilter’s Conference – also in Lawrence- and what a wonderful day it was!  The theme was “Compositional Strategies and Personal Vocabularies” with presentations by Barbara Lee Smith and Carol Ann Carter. I think everyone came away with renewed enthusiasm!

Strange weather this spring for the morels, they have been hard to find. I think we’ve had 3 meals, with only a few at a time. This is probably the last of them along with asparagus from the garden. Isn’t that a weird curly one? The curl was very woody and had to be discarded.

I cooked them up in butter with some red onions and the asparagus. Quite good, but we decided they are better dredged in seasoned flour and fried!