Returning with Ribbons, Raindrops and a Rehearsal!

I know, I've been a bad blogger.

Sigh.

But I'm back - well, at least with a short ramble to catch up on the latest highlights.

March was kind to Quilts 'N Kaboodle - my original "Texas Pride" quilt was chosen to represent Galveston County in the 2012 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Quilt Show - AND! One of my customers, Mary, had her quilt chosen to represent her county - we both came home with a ribbon! I'm so thankful that Mary went to the rodeo on opening day and text messaged me the photos of our quilts on display - gotta love technology! Alas, too many calendar conflicts for me to attend personally...but it was exciting when they mailed back my quilt and it had a ribbon attached!

Also in March another one of my customer's quilt, Celtic Wave (pattern by Judy Neimeyer) won an Honorable Mention ribbon at the Tri County Quilt Show held in Cypress. It was a joy to be able to actually go to a quilt show and be a participant - even if it was a short day, I enjoyed looking at all the quilts, seeing quilting friends, checking out the vendors and just plain breathing quilts!

A short week later I found myself in Dallas for Quilt Celebration 2012 - this time as a vendor. I was blessed that my customer loaned her beautiful quilt as part of my decoration AND several of my A1 customers also contributed to the quilts hanging in the booth. We were sooo busy sharing about the A1 Quilting Machine that I never did get a photo of the booth after it was fully set up (photo below is just half the booth) nor a photo of my fabulous A1 customers who volunteered to work with me over the course of the weekend. I'm blessed indeed.

In between shows and machine set ups I've been quilting some fun quilts. Here's just a small sampling...the first is a block of the month sampler offered at Cactus Quilts and the other one is called Raindrops - another Judy Neimeyer pattern.

Then there's another one that is paper pieced by my customer and fixing to be auctioned off at her church...here's hoping for a successful auction!

This year has been FULL of family events - from three out of four of the "young'uns" having birthdays (my two sons and daugher-in-law Alena) to the planning of an upcoming event - Eric & Katie's wedding in just 10 short days...

I've been busy behind the scenes picking out the right dress to wear to the wedding, the right shoes (and I'm still struggling with the right purse) plus planning the largest party I've ever hosted - the rehearsal dinner for the wedding party and extended family on both sides - almost 100 on the guest list. Yep - we do things bigger in Texas (grin).

So give me a chance to finish my prep, host the dinner, then relax and enjoy the wedding and I promise to be a better blogger in the future!