I WON! I WON! I WON!

Remember last week when some of the quilting ladies and I went to Mesa on the Quindow Scavenger Hunt?  At the end of the show they picked MY entry out of the box, and I won the embroidery sewing machine from Mulqueens!  You should have heard my shriek when they called my name (maybe you did...!)

Keith Mulqueen told me that if it didn't suit my needs, I could exchange it for another model (as long as the carton is unopened) and suggested I come down to the store and check out that model, as well as others.

It was the perfect ending to a great day.  Patty and I got there around 8:30 (the show didn't open until 9:00, but volunteers got in early) and I was able to zoom around and take pix (about 150) of the quilts without fighting the crowds.  It was an ideal situation, and you can be sure <g> I'll be posting plenty of pix once I get them cropped, turned the right way, etc.

The rest of the morning I attended the 9:30 lecture/slideshow The Journey IS The Destination by Leslie Tucker Jenison (of San Antonio) and the 10:45 one From The Beginning by Jean Biddick (of Tucson.)  Both had beautiful quilts, and their talks were quite informative.   

Leslie ended her presentation with these words of wisdom, from a poem by Leonard Cohen:

Ring the bells that still can ring 
Forget your perfect offering 
There is a crack in everything 
That's how the light gets in.

From Jean I learned that I still have some grace time to finish up Zach & Bekkah's wedding quilt - the gift for the second anniversary is cotton! Jean also shared a story about a group of women years ago who were opening a new quilt store in NJ, and needed a name for it.  They decided to use Acme, a grocery chain in the area, figuring that if the husbands saw checks made out to Acme they'd just assume it was for groceries.  Quick thinking, ladies!

By then it was time for lunch, and I ended up sitting with Sally and Hartley, from Wickenburg.  They had been sitting in front of me during the first lecture, and I admired Sally's vest.  At lunch I got to take a picture.

(There was more quilting on the back.)

Here are some of the Stone Soup Challenge quilts that Foothills entered as a group.

If you have forgotten which one is mine, I'll remind you:

And here's the HUGS quilt the ladies made for me -

It was a great show, a great day.  But it's time for dinner, so I'll post this entry.  Tomorrow there should be lots of pix (although, as we all know, the pix NEVER do the quilts justice!)