Only one more sleep!

I am so excited! It is only one more sleep until I leave for Salt Lake City to attend HMQS. HMQS is a machine quilting conference and show. It is absolutely wonderful! This is the third time I've been able to attend. For me it is a week full of learning, a wonderful quilt show and merchants with every quilting supply you will ever need. To me it is almost heaven.

This year I signed up to take classes with Dustin, Farrel, Irena Bluhm, Mary Anne Ciccotelli, and Carmen Geddes, Vicki Shetter.  I love learning new things!

Each time I go I am so amazed at the talented people there are. I love looking their work. Several years ago there was a quilt made by Sue McCarty that honored J.R.R. Tolkien (the author of Lord of the Rings series) It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.  And the design was only thread. It was the show winner that year. Here is a picture of it.



Last year there was a display of quilts made by David Taylor. I just love his work.




I think it is wonderful that we have conferences like this that get the best teachers in the quilting world together to share their talents. It allows a quilter like me to learn from the best.

I also like spending this week with two very good friends. Stephanie and Laurie are the best! We have so much fun laughing, quilting and site seeing,  Oh did I mention we talk? Boy do we talk! It starts the minute we get in the car and doesn't stop until we hit the pillow at the end of the day. Good friends are the best!

I don't know whether I'll sleep tonight or not. I'm so excited!

When life throws you a curve ball

Have you ever wondered what you would do when life throws you a curve ball? You know what I mean. Life just doesn't turn out the way you wanted it to. You wanted something and you got something else. Life takes you down an unexpected path.Well, I would like to tell you about an acquaintance of mine. She is a beautiful young women about 30 years old that goes to my church. She is a wife, the mother of three wonderful children and she likes to decorate cakes. She has the best sense of humor and finds joy in the simpliest things in life. She laughs a lot.

She recently found out that she has breast cancer.  Her unexpected path. She has decided to share her journey in a blog. I have been reading it and I have to say, I'm glad it is not my journey.  But, I have been so touched by her candidness. She is just starting her journey but I can tell that she has amazing strength. And I've never laughed so hard. She counting the number of people that have seen her breasts and is having a bit of a contest, like counting the number of jelly beans in the jar.

I can honestly say that I have always been terrified of breast cancer. A very good friend of our family died of it some years ago. I saw the suffering that she went through. My Mother-in-law had breast cancer and had a scare when the doctors though she had it a second time. My husband's aunt died of it. A good friend of mine is a survivor, It seems it is everywhere.

So I'm going to face my fear and I'm going follow her journey. I'm going to laugh when she laughs, and probably cry when she cries. And hopefully I'll be able to lend a helping hand.

I'v been trying to come up with some ideas to cheer her up when things get rough. If you have any ideas, I'd love here from you.