Thursday July 16, 2009

Back to convention reporting!

Tuesday afternoon, the five of us went to Mammaw's Quilt Shop in Knoxville. There was lots of choices in fabric, but they were in the middle of rearranging the shop plus getting ready for the AQS show that will be in Knoxville in a week or so. Can't tell you how many people asked if we were coming back for the show. Since there will be an AQS show in Des Moines in October, my guess is that we will opt for that one. At least the driving distance won't be quite so far.

Early registration for the IDMA convention was Tuesday afternoon. Always good to get that out of the way before the workshops and meeting start on Wednesday. Tuesday evening we got to take a train ride with the evening meal included! It was fun and the food wonderful. Here are a few of the pictures I took on the ride.

The fourth picture is of a bird nest on the top of bridge. The bird builds a nest there each year, and each year it gets a little larger.



The first picture here is just now nice the bridges are, and the second is of the train station. Although the ride was at least and hour and a half, it was over too soon.

That's all for now. Watch for installment three!

Judy

IDMA Convention

Monday July 13, 2009

Another International Doll Makers Convention has come and gone! What a good time my four friends and I had. We drove to Knoxville, Tennessee and spend many days with our doll making friends.

Our first major stop was in Hannibal Missouri where we visited the Hickory Stick Quilt Shop and had lunch at the Old Planters restaurant. The Hickory Stick is at the left side of the picture. We spent about

two hours in Hannibal before we headed out again on the road. We kept on driving until we reached Paducah, Kentucky where we wanted to visit the American Quilters Musuem and Hancock's of Paducah. We did get to see the Museum, but Hancock's was closed for the 4th of July. What disappointed us the most was that we sat in from of Hancock's for about 20 minutes waiting for the store to open. There was no notice on the door saying they would be closed for the Holiday. Back here at home the fabric shops have BIG sales on the 4th.

We found some goodies at the Quilt Museum, too. T-Shirts and books and quilt kits. After spending a couple of hours here we started out again for Knoxville.

We were lucky enough to get rooms on the same floor of the Crowne Plaza in Knoxville where we would spend the next seven days having dolly fun. Sunday, though, we started working on a fun weaving project that Connie had learned. The beginning was tedious just getting the prep work on the grids done, but when we started weaving, we thought it was great-until we needed to add strip number three. Then it became a little harder. But perseverance paid off and in a couple of days, in our spare time, we completed the weaving. It will be fun to see what we all make our of our woven pieces.

Monday July 6th we toured to Gaitlinburg to see all the tourist traps and then on the Seven Oaks outlet mall. Most of the four of us found little to take home, but others on the tour found lots of things. This is a place I will not have to visit again as I would like to eliminate all the trinkety things out of my house. Probably impossible.

As we drove by the Tourism offices we saw our convention in lights. Look closely-you might be able to read the marquee.

Tuesday July 7th we toured Knoxville and we all found that interesting. Our first stop was at the Theater where we got to see the beautiful decorating and hear the pipe organ being played by Mr. James Dick. He is an awesome organist.We also drove by many beautifull homes. We lunched at Market Square and enjoyed a free afternoon which we spent at a local quilt shop.

More on our adventures tomorrow!

Judy