TEXAS TOUR 2024 PART 1: THE QUILT GUILDS

Recently I was on my "Texas Tour 24", taking me to two Texas quilt guilds to teach and lecture. In between I had a mini-vacation in Austin, The trip was SO GOOD, it needs two posts to show it all. Next week we will look at TEXAS. This post will focus on the two quilt guilds.

First up is the Golden Triangle Quilt Guild in Beaumont. I flew to Houston where I was met by the wonderful woman who has been my contact for more than a year as we planned all the logistics. Susan came in to help me wrangle the bags while Melissa circled the Passenger Pick up area.

We had a lovely 1.75 hour drive as we got to know each other better. I love seeing more of Texas and the drive was great. Home2Suites was a lovely place to stay for 3 nights, full kitchen, comfortable bed, very  clean, pleasant employees and a good fitness center.

I always sleep under a quilt

Frig, microwave, dishwasher, dishes and silverware

after my daily 1 hour power walk workout on the treadmill

The lecture was "Time Management for Quilters", one of my most popular, and it went very well. Lots of good comments after the meeting.

Lots of quilts to show

More quilts

It is not unusual for me to see lots of Block of the Month quilts from The Quilt Show at Show and Tell. I love seeing them:

A version of Homeward Bound at show and tell by Sylvia Weir

Inspired by Garden Party Down Under, also by Sylvia

Sylvia even had Pick a Petal done--the 2024 BOM from The Quilt Show!

The guild recently held their quilt show. One of the vendors wasn't able to attend at the last minute. His wife, a guild member I believe, had their inventory for sale at the meeting. I was happy to purchase a piece:

Hanging in my studio

Beautiful selections

Contact information

The next day we gathered for the Workshop: The Village. A fun class that teaches paper piecing in the morning and super easy star blocks in the afternoon:

There were 34 students signed up! That broke a guild record. While not everyone showed up, we had an amazing group who worked hard and accomplished much:

Building our Neighborhood

After some had left--I always try to get a class photo

My stay with the Golden Triangle Quilt Guild was the perfect way to kick off a 12 day trip. 

After a 5 day mini vacation in Austin, which I will detail next week, it was on to the Quilt Guild of Greater Victoria. This was my THIRD trip to this guild, 2016, 2019, and now 2024. We start at a great BBQ place in Lockhart, Kreuz Market. This is a good place to transfer from Austin to Victoria. My friend Marcia met me there with two other guild members for the 1.75 hour drive to Victoria.

The Hampton Inn was fine, even though lots of renovations are ongoing. Mostly I was thrilled to find hard boiled eggs at breakfast--the first time since Covid! I eat a hearty, protein packed breakfast after a hour-long hard workout each day:

I saved the eggs for lunch

Victoria Art League, a lovely space to meet in. The guild begins the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag--one of only two guilds I have been to that does. Means a lot to me.

This guild is one of the few that serve refreshments--I can vouch for the homemade brownies!

Lunch--Market Salad from Chick Fil A with the two added eggs

This guild asked for a Trunk Show instead of a PowerPoint Lecture so I filled a large suitcase and that's what I showed. The Beaumont guild benefitted from that as they got to see them too, although I didn't go into detail with them.

In the afternoon we started the 9 hour workshop "Love Your Layout". Some students had worked ahead to make 4" pieced blocks so they were ready to play with the 3 layouts. Some used the afternoon to piece those blocks--both options are fine:

The next day we worked on those layout options. I was pleased with the progress:

Donna got busy and even finished her project with borders

Carolyn, my contact and chauffer, made great progress even while performing all her guild duties

A few days after I got home, Jo sent me a photo. She had made 12" blocks as she wanted a bed size quilt. I taught her how to recalculate the math for the sizes needed for the layout. Here is her 88" square finished top:

We always need that class photo:

All too soon, it was over. The next morning I was up early for the two hour drive to the Austin airport. Arriving with plenty of time, I spent the first hour power walking the long concourse. It worked, I got in 4 miles, worked up a mild sweat, and didn't run into anyone:

Happy to say I had "traveling mercies", all flights on time and uneventful. I am already looking forward to my next Texas Tour--most likely in 2026.

Let's quilt. 

Barbara