Girlfriends' Quilty Weekend ~ 2017!

Last Wednesday morning I headed out for the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival being held at the Hampton Roads Convention Center. I was so excited to be spending a few days with my friend, Chris!

On the way there I stopped by Williamsburg to see another friend and some neighbors with whom we still keep in touch. What a wonderful time of catching up!

Christine has been a homeschooling friend for 25 years! We had lunch together at Center Street Grill in New Town, a huge new complex that was built after we moved away in 2002:I don't have photographs of my visit with my former neighbors (completely forgot!), but we also had a very fun time together. They watched our kids grow up and were very interested in how everyone was doing, especially little Andrew for whom they'd been praying.

Once all the visiting was over and I arrived at my friend Chris' home, the plan was to go browse the Quilt Festival Wednesday evening for the Early Bird Opening for pre-registered workshop attendees. Here's the Hampton Roads Convention Center all lit up as we arrived that first evening:These two colorful quilts are the first of hundreds of beautiful quilts that awaited all the quilt lovers who would be attending: Here are my friends: Chris' sister, Linda, who drove down from Connecticut for the quilt show; their mom, Barbara, who was with us previous years at the shows; and my friend, Chris, standing in front of a quilt titled A Year in My Life: I didn't get the name of this beautiful yellow and gray quilt, but a lot of work went into it: The quilt below was selected Best in Show for 2017: The vendor hall consisted of hundreds of vendors with quilting supplies and enticing eye candy like this booth. Fabric, beautiful fabric, everywhere!: The two-day class we signed up for was Flower Garden Crazy Table Mat taught by Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings Quilt Shop.

This is the sample of what our finished project should look like. It was beautiful with tons of embroidery stitches to learn: We were the first students to arrive early for class and took a front row seat: And here's our wonderful teacher, Lisa Bongean: We all had a lot of fun getting the wool pieces prepared, tracing and ironing flowers onto the fusible web, and starting stitching: Here I am with Chris in class working on our table mat: Our teacher was so helpful with instructions and was so patient showing us over and over how to make certain stitches. She gave such personalized attention to anyone needing help...which I did many times! We had lots of homework the first night, and Chris and I stayed up way past 1 a.m. trying to get all the flowers traced, cut, and ironed down on the mat...which didn't happen. Zzzzz....

I have some flowers ironed on, but here I'm practicing the crazy stitches that separates each section. I'll need to go back later and finish adding all the flowers: Lisa went around checking everyone's work in case we had any questions:Here's a picture of our class at the end of the workshop. No one completely finished their project...that will take a lot more time! We so thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and were so glad we had signed up!

Our girlfriends' quilty weekend soon came to a close, and I made my way home back to the family. Now I need to pick up this stitching again...quickly...before I forget how it's done!

Thanks for following along on yet another quilting adventure!

Check back next week...another road trip is in the works!

~Deb

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Comments

[Toni]

Hi Deb! Oh my goodness, the quilt festival sounds like so much fun. I'm so happy you got to go with your friend. Love the table mat.
Have a great week!
Toni

[victoria]

What a fun trip! Really looking forward to the next road trip!! :)

[Barbara J.]

What beautiful quilts and how different from my grandmothers' quilts. I really like the one with the peppermint candies!

[ANA]

CUANTA DIVERSION HERMANA DEB, USTED SI QUE SABE DIVERTIRSE, RECORDANDO VIEJOS TIEMPOS CON SUS AMIGOS DE AÑOS, SE LA VE MUY FELIZ EN LAS FOTOS Y REALMENTE LOS ACOLCHADOS SON BELLISIMOS. SEGURAMENTE QUE USTED CONFECCIONARA UNO SIGUIENDO ESTAS TECNICAS. LE ENVIO UN GRAN ABRAZO A LA DISTANCIA. BLESSINGS.

[Chris]

Awwww, LOVED all the photos, reliving each one in my mind! It was an excellent class, great teacher, lots of laughs and giggles and the BEST company E.V.E.R.!!!!! Looking forward to next year! ;)
Love you dear friend!!! (((hugs)))

[Kim C]

Thank you for sharing those pretty quilt photos. The one that looked a bit like peppermints was lovely. I also really liked the gray and yellow color combination on the quilt with tiny patches. The best part was seeing your beaming face with your beautiful appliqué project💕. I'm so grateful you had such a great time with sweet friends.

[Kris]

Thanks for sharing your trip! What fun a way to spend time with friends. That table mat looks so intense and beautiful!! I just bought my first wool project yesterday. I'm already feeling intimidated. :)