What a Wonderful Day!

Hope you had a wonderful National Quilt Day!

I was very lucky today. I had the pleasure of spending the first part f my day with some lovely quilting friends... Doris, Brenda and Giovanna. We went into NYC for a day of quilt inspiration. First we headed to Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T) for the Empire Quilter's, Urban Inspiration Quilt Show. It is a great two floor show with wonderful quilts and some really nice vendors.

The nice thing about this show is that the quilters who enter must be guild members, so as a result the quilters range from beginner quilter to international quilt artist/teacher/publisher. As you can imagine the quilts varied tremendously in composition as well as construction execution. To be honest, it really made me feel that I could enter my work in more shows then I do. Kudo's to the guild for showcasing all of their members work. I say this because quilter's like Paula Nadelstein and Anna Faustino belong to this guild. So hanging my work along side of theirs would be very daunting to me. But if this is the common thing, then hey, why not?

I did take a few pictures and normally I would share them with you, but for some reason, I can't get the pictures to load on my computer tonight. Seems to be a bit finicky... I think I need to charge the battery. I will add some shots later in the week.

After the show we walked the few blocks to The City Quilter. They are the only real quilt shop in Manhattan, although many of the fabric houses have cottons and other fabulous fabric used by today's quilters. I always like wandering thru this shop as they always have what is new and unusual in quilting. Great shop, so if you haven't been... make sure you stop by the next time you are in the Big Apple :-).

Once home in mid-afternoon (much earlier than I expected, but we were at the show before it opened!), I decided to take advantage of the great spring like weather and do some gardening. My DH and son managed to get the yard cleaned up when my son was home for spring break, so this meant the ground was ready for me. Out came my Claw and I turned up my flower beds. Next I but down some Preen to help prevent those nasty weeds from germinating. I usually like to get the Preen down before March 15, but hey... like I always say, Life gets in the way of most plans :-). Tomorrow it is off to Home Depot to get the Crab Grass preventer.

After Mass and dinner, I went down to my studio and did some quilting. Yes, I finally have all the background quilting done on my woven piece and the women and center baskets appliqued down. Progress at last! Oh yeah... I will post progress pictures as soon as I figure out why they aren't loading on my computer.

For your visual pleasure... here is the raffle quilt from today's show. Hope you enjoy it!

Good Night!