My recent trip was to the Colorado Quilting Council. They have over 1,100 members and they are a very well organized and active guild. Cyndi was my guild contact. I’ve said it before but it bears repeating…having a well organized guild contact person makes my job that much easier. Upon my arrival Cyndi had some menus for me to peruse. Several sounded like they would be good but I picked the Boulder Dushanbe Tearoom and boy was that a great choice. The food was excellent and so were the surroundings. The exterior of the restaurant was amazingly beautiful.
I took this photo of the designs along the roof line.
I took the next couple of photos of the ceiling inside the restaurant.
When I first looked up at the ceiling I was speechless. It took my breath away. The designs are incredible. We were lucky to have great weather and were able to sit outside to eat. The gardens were impressive.
If you are ever lucky enough to be in Boulder, Colorado you need to make plans to visit the fabulous shops on Pearl Street and the Boulder Dushanbe Tearoom.
There were close to 200 attendees for the lecture on Saturday. One of the best things for me about the meeting was the show-and-tell at the end. A student of mine, Judy, brought some of the quilts she had made as a result of classes she took from me. Judy used to live in Mechanicsburg, PA but now lives in Breckenridge, Colorado. Judy started by taking the Beginners Quilting classes in the mid 1990’s. (Photo by Pat Larson)
Then went on to take the Intermediate classes and made this quilt top. (Photo by Pat Larson)
Next Judy took the Beyond Basics classes. In this series of classes the students had to draft their own blocks and then put them together. It was one of my favorite classes to teach. I think you can appreciate the incredible job Judy did drafting and piecing her quilt. (Photo by guild photographer, Dawn Mills)
In addition to a great job on the drafting she heavily hand quilted it. Great job. (Photo by guild photographer, Dawn Mills.)
Then Judy took my Baltimore Album classes where we met once a month for a year. Judy had a portion of her top to share. She’s still working on her borders. I am so glad to see the top this far because I remembered seeing Judy’s individual blocks and it would have been a shame for them to never be placed into a quilt. If my coming to town is what it took for her to finally get her blocks together then I am really glad I came to town.
Seeing all of Judy’s quilts was a wonderful trip down memory lane. I have not taught any of those classes for awhile. I am so thrilled that Judy shared her quilts. It gives me goose bumps.
After the Saturday lecture we were going to do some outside activities but the weather did not cooperate. So, we were forced to visit some quilt shops in the area! It was a small sacrifice, believe me. The first shop we visited was “The Quilter’s Studio” in Longmont. They have a great website http://www.thequiltersstudio.com/ The shop has a really nice charm about it and the owners and employees where eager to help and answer questions. The atmosphere in the store was wonderful.
The displays in the shop were inviting.
This quilt is an original design by the shop owners. If you are interested in the pattern contact the shop.
Then we traveled to “The Quilt Store” in Broomfield, CO. And here we found another fantastic quilt shop. www.thequiltstore.net
And there were more quilt shops but we ran out of time. The moral of this story….if you are in the Denver area plan a lot of time to see all the great quilt shops. It will be worth it. And the shops on Pearl Street in Boulder are very much worth the stop.
On Sunday my workshop was held at another nice shop called the Presser Foot in Longmont. http://www.thepresserfoot.com/ Someone at the store had gone to a lot of trouble to do this sign. How nice is that?
This is ….. I think…….. my 4th trip to Colorado and I still feel the same as I did the first time. I could easily live in Colorado. It is exercise and dog friendly, and there is so much to see and do. While I was there we also went to two exhibits but no photos were allowed. There was so much to do and so little time. My husband did remind me however……it is pretty far from the beach! (He knows how much I love the beach.)
My next journey will take me to Michigan. Talk to you later.