Our quilt shopping trip 08/2015

 Our send off crew!

 Shopped our way to Grand Rapids!

 Old favorite stand-by shop

 Tina and Diane: we happy!

 Arrived at Motel; walk time to guess where?

 Sandi had to have her Bigby coffee

 Checking out our stash: nice material!

 Quilt show; downtown Grand Rapids Convention Center

 Tina needs a break: chilling outside by the river

 Kelly is leaving us: Bye!

 Time to soothe our legs: on our feet all day!

 Now we shop our way home!

 Really nice quilt shop: bought there.

 And More shops; we can't help ourselves!

 Trunk filling up with bounty

 Now that is a bridge! we fit over it.

 Coolest shop in Marshal, MI

HOME!!! It was a fun trip.

Nicolas' Navy Quilt

One of my favorite things about being at an RV Resort for the winter was “Quilting Fridays” at the clubhouse.  We had a bunch of quilters in the park, so on Fridays a group would gather in the clubhouse to work on our various projects.  I always made sure I was free on Fridays! I had some ongoing projects that I could have worked on, but Nicolas wanted a quilt for his bunk in the barracks, and my sister, Deby, had given me a cool Navy quilt pattern, so that was my project for this winter . . . and I was on a mission to get it pieced, quilted, and sent to Nicolas before we left at the end of the season!

I started out making all of the small blocks,

 



added an additional panel to the top to make it longer,

and assembled the whole thing.

 

I was always very focused on quilting Fridays, and didn’t get too involved in the chit-chat, so by the end of February I had the quilt top complete!

I would have loved to send it back home for Kris to quilt, but with the added time and cost of shipping it to her and back to me in Florida, it just wasn’t practical, so I searched for a quilter in Ft. Myers.

I found one in the sewing machine shop next to the quilt shop, and dropped off my quilt top in her capable hands.  It turned out that the quilting was actually done by her husband, a retired Navy seal, and he loved it.

Three weeks later, I picked it up, and completed the finishing touches.

Then it was ready to box up and send off to Nicolas!

It arrived safely there, and he put it on his bed – upside down at first, but he fixed it later!

Next up is Bryce’s Michigan State quilt!

Tina's new bed and newest quilt

Love my new bed, Amish made an d turning 20quilt

Sandi's newest quilt

Finished another quilt; really like this one!

Love the red blocks. went together on the diagonal; that was challenging. the back is beautiful too( thank you Diane).