My visit with the Prairie Star Quilters Guild

Well hellooooooooo! Boy oh boy did I ever have the most fun in Chicago!!! I left at 6:00 a.m. on Sunday and got home at 12:30 a.m. this morning. Whew! What a whirlwind, but a fun one for sure!

I was invited by these two fabulous ladies, Teresa and Chris (my new forever friends!) to give two chats and have a play date with their guild. The quilt above is their guild's raffle quilt. Isn't it gorgeous? Teresa and Chris are simply the best! I felt like I had been friends with them forever already and they spoiled me rotten. Chris took me to her house and showed me all sorts of quilts and goodies she has made. Fabulous! Also, I had hair envy as I have always wanted to wear my hair like hers and it never looks right on me. Chris also drove me around so I could house gaulk at all the gorgeous homes in the Saint. Charles and surrounding areas. OMG!! If it wasn't for snow, I could totally live in this place. To me it is a picture postcard perfect for "America."

Here we are at our Play Date. Everyone doing bunny ears. hee,hee,hee.

They did such a great job and everyone was really happy at how far they got in one day.

This is another raffle quilt from a nearby guild. Pretty! All those points make me crazy. I'm not good at piecing at all.

Here is the day group showing off their pumpkins from class. Yes, their guild has almost 300 members so they have a day and night group.

I must say that I was over the moon excited that one of my students was this GORGEOUS and absolutely sweet girl, Hannah. She is Teresa's daughter. She sings classical music and just graduated from college. While her mom has been a quilter for a long time, Hannah has never been really interested in it until my pumpkin class. She did such a wonderful job and we were all so happy that a young person might now have the quilting bug like we all do. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!! Did I mention how gorgeous she is? ;)

Here is the night group showing off their pumpkins from class.

The next few photos are from their show and tell. One day I will remember to bring my big girl camera and not just have my phone, but you get the idea.

Another absolutely wonderful thing about my trip was meeting a long time blog follower and wonderful customer in person. This is my friend Stephanie! I was so excited to hug her neck. She drove in and visited the guild just to hear my chat and meet me. Happy bunny dance!!! It was so great to meet you Stephanie!!!!

This is another sweet friend and customer, Gail. She belongs to the guild and I got to hug her neck and also meet her wonderful mom. They hang out and quilt together. Fun! So great to hug your neck too Gail!

Chris, Teresa and Hannah took me to three quilt shops in town. Yes, aren't you jealous that they have three right near them? Wow! The first shop was Sew Generously. Karin, the owner, is so nice and I also met Lydia who works there. Check them out if you are in Saint Charles. They are also the Bernina dealer. The shop is bright and cheerful with lots of beautiful fabric.

Then we hopped on over to The Quilt Merchant. Valerie is the owner of this shop, which is filled with lots of civil war and warm earthy colors. More primitive in style. It is a gorgeous shop and Valerie is French so it was fun listening to her accent. Super nice lady. Hop over and visit her if you are in the Winfield, IL area.

Next, I got to meet this lovely lady, Lynn Schmitt of A Different Box of Crayons. All I can say is WOW!!! Lynn is also an interior decorator and brings her eye for interior design into her work.
She has a small shop that is also her studio so you can see what she is working on when you visit.

Check out this pillow! It has silk and wool! Lynn mixes all sorts of textiles in her work.

She has a book coming out through C&T publishing next year where she will teach you methods on putting these different elements together. It will be going on my bookshelf for sure!

She vends some of the bigger quilt shows, so keep an eye out for her. This quilt below had lots of dupioni silk in it along with wool. The quilting was gorgeous.

Here's a close up.

This quilt was also gorgeous. The stars were put together in rows so you don't have "Y" seams. The dark brown fabric in the second border is actually home deck fabric that is fuzzy. What incredible texture! You can hop over to visit Lynn at her website HERE. She will also be opening a new shop soon, which will be fabulous and she will be teaching in Italy next year with her pal, Renee Nanneman of Need'l Love.

Well, like I said at the beginning of this post, Teresa and Chris spoiled me rotten. I love them to bits and I am so excited that I got visit with them and all the wonderful, kind and fun members of the Prairie Star Quilters Guild.

Hugs ya'll!
Michelle (shell)