I'm Home!

I arrived back home from Vermont yesterday. It was a wonderful relaxing trip with my Mom. It was so nice to get away from work and all the chaos with the house sale/search. I didn't take too many pictures, but I'll try to add some to the post some later tonight or tomorrow of the projects we worked on at the quilt festival.

We visited the Vermont Teddy Bear Company, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream factory, Cabot Cheese, Green Mountain Coffee, Lake Champlain Chocolates, ... (hmm do you see a theme here - never know I was pregnant and finally eating again, huh?). Plus - the highlight of the trip of course was the Quilt Festival. It was a great deal of fun - we took three separate classes:

1. A hand applique class from Jo Morton. This was extremely interesting - I learned a much simpler and less time consuming way to applique without having to use templates. I'm not sure that I'll finish the accompanying blocks to the applique. They were small (really really small) churn dash blocks. Cute - but too much bother to piece something that small if you ask me.

2. Scrappy Hunter's Star from Merry May. This class was a lot of fun. It was a 1/2 day and you finish a 13" block. It is so nice to take a class where you learn a lot and actually finish something. I'm going to make 3 more blocks to create a nice lap sized quilt. I actually have them all cut out and just need to assemble.

3. Scrappy Bear's Paw from Marti Michell. This class was by far the highlight of the show. This lady is an icon in quilting history. She's been quilting since the 1970's and started before there really was a quilting industry. She's been innovative and creative since the start. It was a lot of fun to hear her talk and show a variety of techniques. We completed a 17" block in class that is a combination of a drunkard's path and bear paw. It was completed using some of her company's acrylic templates. Never thought I would prefer the templates over other types of assembly - but this was really easy and accurate.

This week was so good for me. Though I still tire pretty easily it was so nice to feel crafty again. I feel like I found myself (corny I know). I managed to start knitting again as well. I finished two baby hats and started a sweater - not too shabby when you haven't done anything in forever. I had to go buy some yarn and needles since everything is in storage. Oops. Well you can always use more yarn and needles, right?