Lily Lake Walk

Wayne and I took a walk around Lily Lake this beautiful morning.

Montana Trip

Mom and I have returned from a lovely few days in Montana visiting Carol and Lillian. We visited the Farmers' Market in Kalispell, toured the Conrad Mansion, and drove into Glacier Park where we took a boat ride on Lake McDonald. We had lots of time for conversation and I got to meet and fall in love with Nellie, Carol's Cairn Terrier.

Fabric Care and Keeping (Harriet Hargrave lecture)

Harriet Hargrave spoke on "Fabric Care and Keeping" at our monthly Estes Valley Quilt Guild meeting last night. She focused on the qualities of fabric used in quilting including: thread count, grain of fabric, fabric finishing, light fastness, wash fastness, crocking, and other aspects of fabric dyes. She showed the results of using various detergents/soaps, water temperatures, and chlorinated water on fabrics. She has done extensive research on these topics and has studies to back up her conclusions. She kept us riveted during her hour and forty-five minute talk. There was so much new information for me to absorb that I could hardly turn off my brain to go to sleep last night. She and her daughter, Carrie Hargrave (also a textile expert) are writing a six-volume course on quilt making and care and have almost completed the first volume.

New Quilting Projects

We drove home yesterday and it's good to be back in the mountains. We stopped in Grand Island, Nebraska so I could take a quick walk through Material Girl Fabrics. It's one of my favorite quilt shops and, fortunately, there's a bagel shop close by for my husband.

I'm eager to start on a couple of new projects: personalized Christmas stockings for Trail Ridge Quilters and a table quilt with fabric I purchased at Prairie Star Quilts in Elk Horn, Iowa. I love the excitement of beginning a new project. This is the fabric for the table quilt - isn't it gorgeous! The colors are perfect for our house. I will use the floral for the center and make wide borders with the stripes. I plan to hand quilt around the motifs in the floral fabric. I haven't yet decided how I'll quilt the borders.