Divas on the Road--QuiltCon 2025

Some of you said at the retreat to make sure we got lots of pictures so here's a post!

Syd and Jan flew into Phoenix the night before QuiltCon and I think it is safe to say that it was surreal for all three of us to be meeting somewhere other than Amishland.  We went to our hotel near the convention center, had dinner then headed off to get our badges and show merchandise.  It was good to get a lay of the land since Syd and I both had classes first thing the next morning.  Each of us had registered for a volunteer slot also.   Syd won one of the swag bags, too!

We spent Thursday, Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday at the convention center shopping the vendors, doing make-and-take projects, attending classes, volunteering and looking at the quilts on display.  Thursday was very busy and crowded but each day, the crowd was lighter and, by Saturday, things were practically sparse which made viewing the quilts much more enjoyable.

The vendors were fun to browse, as always.  There was a wide assortment of specialties, similar to what we see at the Expo at the I-X center but we thought they did a better job at QC spreading out the sewing and quilting machine vendors among the fabric, patterns, tools, bag making and other booths.

These are the classes we took (I think I got this right but Syd and Jan can correct me ...):

• Planning Improv with Dramatic Negative Space by Michelle Trimble (Syd)
• One Block, 4 Ways with Libs Elliot (Lori)
• Off the Grid Improv Design with Allie McCathren (Lori)
• Take Your Free Motion Quilting to the Next Level by Christina Cameli (Jan)
• Blueprint Quilting lecture by Anna Maria Horner (Parry) (Lori)
• Ordered Improv: Starting Small to Overcome Your Fear by Andrea Tsang Jackson (Syd)
• Chromatic Alchemy by Carolina Oneto (Syd)

We divided our time looking at the quilts into many sessions.  There were so many and it was (fun) tiring in an odd way taking in all of the work and reading descriptions.  I believe there were 600+ quilts divided into many groupings such as featured artist (Tara Faughnan), Native American, Community Outreach, Fabric Challenge, etc. in addition to the usual judging categories such as Minimalist, Youth, Use of Negative Space, Handwork, etc.

When the show ended on Sunday, we were pretty worn out--in a good way--from all of the over-stimulation of a convention event.  We packed up and drove to my house to relax.  We had some dinner and soaked in the hot tub.  It was good to take a pause from all of the busyness of the convention.  

Monday morning we headed north to Sedona, stopping at the Montezuma Castle National Monument and Montezuma Well on the way.

We stopped at a Navajo frybread stand after the sightseeing.

We got a room with a balcony facing the red rocks.  Even after dark, when we couldn't see the rocks, the stars were spectacular.

On our first day in Sedona, we took a Pink Jeep tour of Coyote Canyon.  It was just the three of us on the tour so that was a nice surprise.  Our driver gave us lots of educational information about the rocks, plants, and the evolution of the landscape.  Since it was just us, he had plenty of time to make stops and take some photos of our group.  :-)

After the jeep tour, we visited the Chapel of the Holy Cross to enjoy the views and architecture.  We had enough time before dark to do a hike at Bell Rock.

After our second night in Sedona, we drove south towards home, stopping in the copper mining town of Jerome on the way.  We started with some of the historical information exhibits and a tour through the short but well-done Jerome Mining Museum.  We spent the rest of the day shopping in galleries and gift shops.  I've been to Jerome a few times but had never been in these shops since I'm usually with my guys who have no interest in them or we are stopping for lunch with out of town visitors and want to press on to Sedona before sunset.  The shops were fantastic and each of us found something special to take home from one of the galleries.  We finished off our visit with a can't-miss lunch at the Haunted Hamburger.  

We headed home to relax and wind down.  Syd and Jan had early morning flights the next day and we all wanted to get a good start to the long day of travel and airport time.

We had a great time on this trip --sightseeing, eating lots of Mexican food (with some Cuban too), getting inspired and going to bed early to recharge each night.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in August!

Summer picnic

Sunmer picnic for the diva's. Great news that although we were  missing some, we had Ruth join us again.

Lynn took pictures.

                        Fran and one of her delightful scrap quilts. Look at Laura's quilting!

I believe Fran's granddaughter was involved with this blue beauty 

This is the first Frienship quilt block we made for Ruth.and we let her stay. It's still being hand quilted.

Whoops, can't recall who did this.

From Mary Ann 

Kathy's alphabet quilt from ancient friendship blocks

A baby quilt by Kathy 

Love letters from Prudie

Another from Prudie

  

A bunch from Jan

                                         shopping from Dianne's stash

I know there were a few more so send me pictures and I will post.

 It was a lovely day, Thanks for organizing it, Jan

Long time. Aug 2024

 I don't even know how this works anymore. Someone said something about putting up pictures.

 This summer had been brutal with the heat and all. Of course this retreat it was chilly.

 We were down a couple of people. No Fran, she was getting over Covid. No Laura or Luann. We missed them all.

We also missed the forks I forgot to bring.

Lots of good food. Great conversations. Dill Pickle vodka is the best.

So much sewing.

I made a bunch of blocks and units for blocks. 

Syd was putting on borders, making pillow cases, making quilt tops. I think she folds time when we aren't looking.

 Jan the same. She bordered up an ancient stack and wack, after designing and piecing it (the border). Standard borders on 3 eye spys and they are pinned up and ready to go. A beautiful pillow covering, quilted and all and mailed to her grand daughter for her first day at college. Many pillow cases as well and a delightful Halloween quilt was started.

Lori had piles of pieces. Making them into bigger pieces. Oh, the leaf piece top got done and some abstract  sew along she was doing got done too.

I don't know what the hell Lynn was doing in her corner but her kids sent her flowers. Oh yeah, she was making a Yetu.

Dianne was making a fantastic new quilt top and in between, binding another.

Gwen worked on a zillion tiny stars.

Sue had trees to work on and a delightful coral piece. I asked if it was for someone special and she said "Yes, Me!"

MaryAnn was working away on a Christmas piece. Gnomes and reindeer.

 Prudie made a billion pieces parts for the scrap quilt pattern Fran worked on last time.

Caryn  had the most beautiful delicate black and white piece with a pink heart on it.

So, we kept busy. 

The weirdo house keeper came in one night and sprayed air freshener all over the place. Jan took care of that, because they texted her to see how we were doing.

So this year is done. Nothing is more sad than dropping Lori off at the airport. I can still pretend that Syd is just  a couple miles away.

We are so lucky to have each other.

 

Still Pinching Myself

 . . . that's how surprised I was (and continue to be) to receive an amazing retirement quilt from the Divas at the January retreat.

As you know, emails were sent out over the summer asking for I Spy blocks for me and for Jan--leaving me off of one set of emails and Jan from the other.  I'm sure the fact that I knew about Jan's surprise made me even less aware that one was in the works for me.

As Syd started to announce that the Divas had made retirement quilts for both Jan and me, it just didn't compute. I was stunned.  The quilts are beautiful and I appreciate the work and the heartfelt generosity of time and memories that went into these quilts.  Special thanks to Syd for finding the pattern and facilitating the effort, plus piecing and quilting Jan's.  Special thanks, also, to Laura for quilting mine and to Dianne for piecing the top and back plus designing and donating the spectacular AZ fabrics for the back.  I'm sorry that I do not know who to credit for the binding (maybe Kathy and Jan?).  Thank you to all of the Divas for finding special fabrics and piecing the blocks that remind us of our favorite things.  I'm so grateful for the quilt and for the time we get to spend together.

Here's a photo of both quilts in our room.

Now that I'm home, I took some more closeups of mine.  How lucky am I that Dianne had this amazing AZ fabric and designed (and pieced) a genuine Diane Young original for the back (in addition to piecing the top)?  When I got home and unfolded the quilt for Mike and Brady to see (showing the front of the quilt), both of them said ... "I thought you got the Arizona quilt", not realizing that the photos I'd texted Mike were of the front and the back.  :-)  I can't stop looking at it, discovering new things each time, which I would say is the mark of a truly great I Spy!

I have a feeling I'm going to be pinching myself for a long while.  I love the quilt!

Thank you all for a great retreat.  Jan brought some old photos from the Quilt Local event held in her garage.  None of us could pinpoint the year but there were many familiar faces looking decades younger than we do now.  :-)  It made me realize that I should be taking more photos of us and less of the quilts when I'm lucky enough to be at these special weekend retreats.  We spent lots of time talking fondly about Ruth--wondering what she was up to and reminiscing about the fun times we have had over the years. 

I blogged about my projects for the retreat over at my blog.  Maybe I'll try again to blog regularly.  I still enjoy it but I don't spend much retirement time on the computer.  See you all next time!

May 2022

The best time with friends.  The weather was perfect and missing those who couldn't make it this time.  We'll be back!