Bucket List Trip & IIQSG

My work took me to a conference in Milwaukee last week.  I don’t believe I’ve ever been there before, at least not in many years. I drove rather than fly since the distance pretty much meets the “as much time to fly as drive” criteria and, more importantly, Primitive Gatherings was only 100 miles further and I have been dying to go there for years.  The conference didn’t begin until noon on Tuesday so I left the hotel bright and early that morning and, in spite of terrible morning rush hour traffic, pulled into the PG lot as the shop opened.

The shop looked a bit bare in places as they were in the process of pulling things to set up for their warehouse sale (which I considered waiting for but unfortunately couldn’t work it into my schedule - likely a very good thing!) but I still found a few things that had to come home with me.  I love how they display these quilts on a ladder - I would love to do this somewhere in my house.

And I love this penny table mat!  Fortunately they were out of kits so I will have to use my stash to make it....



It was worth the nearly four hour round trip to check this one off my bucket list and I was able to get back just in time for the start of my meetings.  

After the conference ended on Thursday I headed west to Iowa to attend the Illinois Iowa Quilt Study Group meeting on Friday afternoon and Saturday.  Once again I had a free morning and I saw that The Woolen Needle wasn’t too far away so I headed to lovely Williamsburg, Iowa.  I am so glad I made the trip!  It was one of the best shops I have ever visited. Bolts of gorgeous wools and lots of great samples on display. And that tin ceiling!!

I definitely got into trouble there.  I couldn’t help myself!  From there I headed through the country to Kalona where I enjoyed lunch at a neat little restaurant and then visited several shops and antique stores.  They have three very nice little quilt/fabric shops and an old church that’s now an antique mall. I should have taken more pictures of the town - it’s a fun little place.

Lori Triplett was the speaker for the IIQSG meeting.  Friday’s program was a workshop on dating and identifying the origin of very old chintz quilts, and Saturday Lori spoke about chintz birds.  She doesn’t allow photos of the quilts in their collection so nothing I can share, but both programs were very informative and I was able to pick up a copy of her new book which includes photos of the quilts I was most interested in.

There were many very talented quilters in attendance and show and tell was fantastic.  This antique was shared as a preview of the topic for the April 2020 meeting:

There was a table of Di Ford fans that shared their latest projects.  The four of them were in the same Shipshewana workshops with Di that I attended - but they have made far more progress than me!

And then there was this one - she designed it based on a photo of an antique quilt she found - it was amazing!



I also managed to pick up a couple of items in the silent auction - one of which was a crazy impulse buy that I have no idea what to do with!  It’s two large ziplock bags filled with tiny scraps from the 1920s through 1940s. What was I thinking??  As if my own scraps aren't already out of control... 

It was a great trip and I can’t wait to get to the sewing room - only my nearly knee-high grass stands in my way.  Off to mow!