Home

I'm home as of yesterday evening. My plane arrived on time in Billings just after noon and I made a Costco and grocery store run before heading home. It is so good to be here. I've been gone an entire week--I had a wonderful time staying at Kelly's but it was a long week. I think my ability to enjoy myself at Kelly's and the quilting convention was jaded by Jazzy's illness.

Kelly is the most absolute hostess. Where else could you get homemade egg McMuffins or homemade scones for breakfast. And coffee delivered just as I am getting out of the shower. Throughout the week, Kelly cooked ribs, crab cakes, chicken enchiladas, steaks and twice baked potatoes. She loves to cook and it shows. Kelly once said her dream job would be to have a TV cooking show. On Thursday night we went to a restaurant Kelly and Tom enjoy. The food was French and very good but Kelly's ranks right up there! The weather was nice enough to eat outside and I was successful in snaring the check!

Kelly on Mother's Day with the Coconut Cake that was to die for!

The Machine Quilter's Showcase was incredible. The classes I took from instructors such as Jodi Robinson, Myrna Ficken and Linda Taylor were awesome. I learned so much and am anxious to put it all into practice. This is a photograph of one of the quilts entered in the show, a wholecloth quilt, one color of fabric with intense quilting either in a matching thread color or a contrasting color. The photo does not do it justice, it was a beautiful golden green color.
On Wednesday afternoon, the vendor portion of the show opened for the first time. People started lining up an hour before the doors opened. The vendors were very busy those first four hours of selling. I managed to leave a few dollars there, too. Kelly joined me later and looked through all the show quilts. APQS, the manufacturer of my longarm quilting machine, was there and I got to show Kelly what my big Millie looks like!

A photograph of my first class on Monday morning. Longarm quilting machine manufacturers provide machines for many of the hands on classes. It is a huge effort to get 10 of those machines to Kansas City and set up for the classes. The whole event is a huge effort and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

But it is good to be home. Jazzy is very ill, all you furkid parents out there, think about us.