A Busy (and small) World for Me!

The trees outside the studio finally have leaves!

It has been an insanely busy spring for me this year! I spent almost a week in Mexico, came home then three days later left for a week in Kansas at the IMQA show!

My grant money was put to great use, taking ten classes in five days! I was fortunate to have classes with some of the top quilters: Gina Perkes, Dawn Cavanaugh, Claudia Pfeil, Myrna Ficken, Cathy Wiggins, Kim Stotsenberg and Renae Haddadin!

I also spent the week in classes sick with a nasty cold (people give you a LOT of space when you're hacking and wheezing) combined with some wicked allergies. So when I got home last week, I spent a good deal of down time not really going anywhere. I did work in the studio Monday through Wednesday and started playing with a new thread and a new technique for me.

It's a good thing I took it easy, because this past weekend marked the start of busyness!   Saturday I went to Art-A-Whirl, which is an art crawl of open studios that is hosted in Northeast Minneapolis (it was nice to be an attendee again after being an open studio there for a few years!) Saw some great art, though sadly didn't find an fiber artist. I'm sure there were some, I just never happened upon them.

A view from one of the studio windows at the art crawl.

Sunday was a day of babysitting my nephew Alex with hubby. Exciting day of playing with bead necklaces, playing chef, and waking him up early from his nap due to tornadoes in the neighborhood! Luckily we were spared.

Me and Alex

There was a double rainbow acrossthe sky Sunday night after the storms.

Monday, I hosted the first meeting of a small fiber art group (most of which are SAQA members.) This meeting proved again how small the quilting world really is! One of the ladies brought a friend who is visiting from the Netherlands. She introduced herself as Wil, and after seeing some of her work at show and tell I was bewildered. I KNEW this person. But how could I know someone from the Netherlands when I've never been there? Finally it dawned on me! Some time ago I had a giveaway on The Fiber Nation - Wil was one of the winners! And I recognized her style because I follow her blog!

Monday night was the Minnesota Contemporary Quilter's meeting, which was great! I hadn't been in quite awhile so it was nice to see everyone (and to see so many new members!)  Lots of goodies to see at show and tell too!

Tonight I go to the SAQA meeting - I can't wait! I often wish we met once a month rather than every other month. The show and tells there are always so amazing too!

Tomorrow I can begin my down time a bit again. I also need to schedule a visit with a good friend. Other than that, it's studio time for me again! Yippee!

My latest piece; birds are thread painted, leaves and branches paintsticked.