ROAD TRIP PART DEUX

I don't usually post this often. I like to give people some time to catch up. However, there is much to blog about lately! As many of you know, my friend Kim issued a challenge to bloggers on Friday to make my little Trees on the Table quilt. First of all, let me tell you that I have never met Kim. We just hit it off in blogland. Now she is my biggest promoter! Thanks to Kim several people have completed the quilt or are in the process. I have posted pictures of the completed ones on my website. I have gotten a huge response to this design! I got a sweet e-mail from Veronica in Chile who is teaching her friend how to make it. Luckily she is doing her own translating into Spanish! Muy bueno! Isn't that exciting? Keep 'em coming my friends! That is Kim's cute quilt in the photo.

I would be remiss if I didn't continue on about our road trip! I neglected to mention our new friend, Suzie. Suzie is my friend Joan's GPS navigational unit. Her last name is Garmen. Oh my gosh were we happy to have Suzie along for the ride! Suzie directed us through the back roads of Virginia without a hitch. Well, sometimes she got her left and right mixed up, but who doesn't? Suzie amazed us! If you plug in an address, Suzie will take you there. At one point Suzie said, "Are you indoors? I am turning off the satellite connection". If we missed a turn, Suzie would say, "Recalculating", and turn us around! Yes, we got quite used to hearing Suzie say "Recalculating". In fact, sometimes Suzie would sound a little miffed with us, but she always forgave us and redirected us to where we were headed. As we drove down the road I had an epiphany! Have you ever wondered how God hears the prayers of so many people at once? Well, Suzie kind of does the same thing! There are so many roads in the world, and so many people looking for directions. Think about it and you draw your own conclusions.

On to the quilt shops! We stopped at a lovely shop in Madison, Virginia called That Little Quilt Shop, located in a restored 1800's church! The shop owner wasn't in on Friday, but the shop certainly reflected her excellent taste in fabric and design. The three shops that we visited all participated in a shop hop just before we were there. Each had a beautiful quilt of original design from a group of challenge fabrics. Each quilt was amazing! On top of that, Gay Kulenguski, the owner of That Little Quilt Shop, has designed many other patterns that she has for sale in her shop. I have a feeling that Gay and I could be great friends, just based on her designs! Some of them have a similar flavor to what I design. Joan and I decided that next year we will plan a trip to correspond with the area shop hop, just to visit these three shops again, and maybe see some others as well. And YES, we bought fabric!

But wait! There's more! I haven't told you about Cottonwood! Our travels took us in a circle and we were lucky enough to get back to Charlottesburg before Cottonwood closed. Mary Humphrey, the owner, had met Joan a couple weeks earlier in Virginia Beach while visiting What's your Stitch N Stuff. She expressed some interest in my patterns, so I somewhat nervously approached her. I hate blowing my own horn and I hate putting people on the spot about buying from me, (see why I love Kim?) Mary actually did buy a bunch of my patterns and we are making plans for a trunk show! I am excited! Cottonwood is one of the primo vendors at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton in February. I am walking on air! Joan is excited too. She happened to bring her Fish Creek Cabin quilt that she just finished from my pattern. Mary has borrowed it to hang in her store! You have to understand that this is the shop/vendor that Joan rushes to the minute we arrive at Quilt Fest! (Mary, if you are reading this, excuse us while we gush!) We were so excited that we forgot to take a picture of Cottonwood! Oh, and it was dark by the time we left.