Another blog giveaway

The Vintage Workshop is having a great giveaway over on their blog...check it out. Really cute stuff!

A little quilt for a big accomplishment

Last Friday I went up to Lawton, Oklahoma to witness my baby sister receive her master's degree hood. She completed this accomplishment in 3 years while working full time as a middle school teacher, wife and mother of 2 teenagers...no small feat! Here she is receiving her hood from one of the professors whom she admired most.

Here she is with her beautiful family.


And with my mom...

And with my mom, my brother and me. We are all so proud of her.


I only realized about a month ago the this was happening now, so I decided to finish one of several works in progress to give her as a gift. She is a big Mary Engelbreit fan, too, so I thought this one would fit the bill. You may recognize the fabric from a decade or so ago.



The ME page a day calendar had this illustration on it a few days earlier for Teachers' Day, so I scanned it in and printed it on some fabric to make the label. So true...

MEHC Workshop in St. Louis

You all must know that I am a huge Mary Engelbreit fan, so when the first (hopefully annual) Home Companion Workshop was announced last year, I immediately signed up for it. I had hoped some other people I know would have gone, but that didn't happen. The theme of the workshop was "Bring a friend, make a friend," and while I didn't bring one, I made several! I found a roommate on the Yahoo Group that had been set up ahead of time. Jen and I got along fabulously. She is one very talented lady!


The first thing on the agenda was a tour of the Mary Engelbreit studios. I had toured her old studio back in the 90s. This one is much smaller, but still very cute.



I felt honored to sit on the Queen's throne!


This is the print that Mary did to benefit the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. I bought one as soon as it was released and received number 2/250. I found 1/250 in the studio! I have a lot more pictures of the studio on Flickr if you are interested.

We had the opportunity to take four workshops with some very talented instructors. My favorite one was Charlotte Lyons.

This picture of me was taken in her workshop when Mary came around to inspect our work. This is what I made...I love how it turned out. Who would guess it was made from a corn flake box? I was pretty excited to see it (and my nametag) on Mary's blog!


And this is the bracelet I made with a kit from Kaari Meng. You may be familiar with her Rouenneries fabric from Moda.




There was a panel discussion entitled "The Future of Handmade" during lunch on Saturday, followed by a book signing and photo ops.


Amy Butler was just a sweet as can be...it was a thrill to meet someone whose art you admire.

Mary was very gracious about signing books and posing for the camera.



And this was the "goody bag" everyone received. It was a fabulous weekend...can't wait for next year!