Now I wake to see the light.......

I visited a wonderful thrift store in Evanston, Illinois a couple weeks ago - Thriftgeeks. I loved the tidy disarray - you had to poke in the corners, look under things, open boxes and make sure you didn't miss anything. Just the exploration required made it a worthwhile visit! (FYI: I hate modern "thrift shops" where they display brand new socks and cleaning supplies next to a shelf of two dozen florist vases overpriced @ $1 each.)

The treasure I found at Thriftgeeks was a vintage embroidery piece. It is a morning continuation of the child's prayer "Now I lay me down to sleep". It had to come home with me, where it was carefully hand washed. EEWWW - the yellow water! It has been carefully re-framed and will hang in my studio.

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

Now I wake to see the light,
Tis God has kept me through the night.
And now I lift my voice to pray
That He will keep me through the day.

Queen For A Day!

More precisely, queen for TWO days plus! Last weekend, I flew to Salt Lake City and attended a retreat with an eclectic group of 14 other quilters. What we had in common is that we all own (and love!) a Handi Quilter. We were chosen to be featured in Handi Quilters print ads during the coming year. (As the first quilter to be in the ads, I know what a thrill it is to open a quilting magazine and see myself!)

At Handi Quilter headquarters, we were greeted with an impressive display of cheers and silly string from all the HQ employees. What a fun start to our retreat! Our pictures are on a huge banner in the main entry.


Our retreat was crammed full of activities. A class on Thread, Needles & Tension. An impromptu session about Groovy Boards. A session with Suzanne Hyland on quilting choices. Great food! Drawing continuous line designs on paper, then moving to the HQ Studio and drawing them with thread. A limo ride to Elaine's Quilt Block, where I found some great fabrics. Dinner @ HandiQuilter CEO Mark Hyland's house. What an impressive view they have! Taping our "My HQ Story" video's (They are posted on YouTube - See Mine Here! ) David Taylor's amazing Show & Tell of his quilts. Suzanne Hyland's great quilts during our "How Do I Quilt This Quilt" session.

Being famous requires photographers, so Luke followed us around like paparazzi, taking pictures and videos of everything we did. Check out Part One and Part Two on Picassa. And most of the pictures I took can be seen in my Handi Quilter set on flickr.

It was a wonderful time. Thank you Handi Quilter, for this experience! And now, back to my normal, everyday life. Quilting, of course, on my HQ 16!