Karen Kay Buckley

Joe and I flew to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for the Quilting and Sewing Expo held at Fox Valley Community College.  It was an excellent event.  Show organizer, Marie Thull, did a fabulous job organizing the event.  Marie holds this event through the continuing education program at the college.  To find out more about the show go to http://www.fvtc.edu/public/NewsDetail.aspx?Id=312  

If you live in the area I would say it is definitely worth your time to go and if you don’t live in the area you should plan to attend.

One of the best things about traveling to quilting events with Joe is that we rent a car and see the area.  We asked some locals what they would recommend we see and do and we got lots of recommendations.

Everyone said, “You must go to the EAA Museum”.  We said, “OK”, having no idea what EAA stood for.  It stands for “experimental aircraft association”.  To find out more about the museum go to http://www.airventuremuseum.org

And we all know Wisconsin is known for it’s cheese so while I was teaching one day Joe made a trip to check out some cheese at the Colonial Cheese House located in the historical town of Ormo. He met Jennifer Jordon, the proprietor, and learned about cheese making. You can check out their website at    http://omrocheesehouse.com.

Joe had cheese shipped home since there was no room in our luggage.  Well, all of you cheese heads are right….the cheese is excellent…especially the cheese curds.

There were two places in town that make their own chocolate and both places came highly recommended.  The first place has been making goodies since the late 1800s and was called the Oaks.  Their website is  https://oakscandy.com

And the day before we visited the other chocolate maker, Hughes’.    The store is in the basement of a house.  The basement is rather small, but oh so quaint.  Only about 4 customers could fit in at one time.   The sign in the front had my attention…..OYSTERS.  Why would they have oysters at a chocolate shop?

Unbeknownst to me they make a candy called “oysters”.  Of course we had to buy some.  I must admit they were so very tasty.  It was a vanilla cream or chocolate cream ball dipped in chocolate and covered with crushed peanuts pieces.  Excellent would be more like it.

I understand the line goes down the driveway certain times of year….like Easter.

I love their website name https://www.mailmechocolates.com

I can honestly tell you that I liked the chocolate from both places.

Next on our list was Ardy and Ed’s.  A delightful woman named “Sheila” who we met at a local store told us, “You have to go there.  They make their own root beer”.    So, off we went to Ardy and Ed’s.  And the root beer was really, really good.

As we drove around town looking for some of the recommended places we stopped to look at the crazy people who drove on the ice and fished on lake Winnebago.  Joe wanted to drive out onto the ice in our rental car and I said there was no way I was doing that.  The idea of falling through the ice scared the you know what out of me.

And since we could not get a flight out until the following day after the show at 4:15pm we decided to drive up and see Lambeau Field where for those of you who don’t know is the home of the Green Bay Packers football team.

All in all a fun trip:  teaching, sight seeing, and meeting some of the nicest people on earth, Wisconsinites.

The only bad thing about our visit…I gained a pound of the weight I just lost!!!!

I still have just a few more photos from the AQS Quiltweek Phoenix to share with you.

“Obsession” was made by Mary Bauer from Crestwood, Kentucky.  She won third place in the Traditional Wall Quilt category.

Kathy McNeil made “More Than A Memory”.  She took second place in the Innovative Wall Quilt category.

The more I looked at this quilt, the more interesting things I found….like the young couple kissing (thread work).

And the heart on the tree.

I just had to find the information in the show booklet to see what Kathy said about her quilt because the quilt was very intriguing.  Here is what she wrote, “Kathy dreamed about a tree whose memories spanned several hundred years and had seen lovers and pioneers come and go……”  You can find out more about Kathy at http://www.kathymcneilquilts.com/

“Savoring Twilight in Venice” was made by Patsy Kittredge from Sedona, Arizona.  She won third place in the Innovative Art Wall Quilts category.

“Fissures” was made by Debra Jeske from Lynnwood, Washington.  She won 2nd place in the Modern Wall Quilts category.

“An Unexpected Pleasure” was made by Nancy Arseneault from Tucson, Arizona.

Molly has been hard at work on her Fiesta Mexico pattern and shared another block with me.  I can hardly wait to see more of the blocks and how it all comes together.

Until next week……

I was lucky enough to meet Suzanne Hyland in one of my classes in Phoenix.  She offered to send me a copy of the book her husband wrote, “Help!  I Married a Quilter”.  Many of you who read this blog will be able to relate to this book.  It could be a fun gift for your spouse or significant other.  There are lots of funny parts to the book.  I smiled a lot while I was reading.  One selection I really enjoyed was Mark’s interpretation of the meaning of some block names.  He referenced that many blocks had a significance relating to the Underground Railroad.  For example:  One story I read years ago indicated that if a slave saw a log cabin quilt hanging, with a red square in the center, it was a place to get help.  Mark mentioned some of these meanings but then came up with his own meaning of the “Secret Society of Quilters”.  For example:  “Log Cabin:  This person will keep all of your quilting secrets from your husband”.  I really enjoyed this section of the book.  I also liked where Mark compared golf and quilting.  He said “…when golfers finish a round all they have is a score to either brag or complain about. Quilters who finish a project have a work of art that can be shared and admired for generations”.  The Glossary in the back of the book is also quit funny.  You can purchase this book at http://www.quilterstouch.com/shop/product/help-i-married-a-quilter/.  The book is $9.95.

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I promised more quilts form the AQS Show in Phoenix so here goes.

“Flower Baskets” was made by Betty Nyseth from Surprise, Arizona.  From a distance it looked like a nice, typical Log Cabin quilt.

But, up close this quilt was anything but typical.  It has some wonderful details.

“My Sedona Star” was made by Joyce Triezenberg from Grayling, MI.  It took third place in the Innovative Bed Quilt category.

“Keep It Simple” was made by Jodi Robinson from Enon Valley, PA.  It won Best Modern Quilt.

To find our more about Jodi you can visit her website http://jrdesigns.wordpress.com/

“Wandering ‘Round My World” was made by Beth Schilling from Columbus, OH.  Beth won the Best Innovative Quilt Award.

“Hurricane” was made by Janneke de Vries-Bodzinga from the Netherlands and she won the Best Wall Quilt Award.

If you want to find out more about the many shows presented by AQS visit their website www.americanquilter.com