Hello World!
I have finally taken the plunge and so this is my first blog posting. I hope you will join me here from time to time as we travel the quilting road together.
This past weekend I participated in the first annual Baltimore on the Prairie Appliqué Conference.
Over a year ago there was some chatter on the Baltimore Album Quilt yahoo group verbally wishing for an appliqué conference more centrally located than The Appliqué Academy in Williamsburg. So Tresa Jones (my partner in the Annual Euphoric Appliqué and Quilting Getaway – euphoric because the chocolate bar opened on Friday evening and stayed open all weekend long) and I talked about the possibility of starting just such a conference. We roped in Nancy Kerns who has been a participant or teacher at the Appliqué Academy since it began 15 years ago (this February will be the 15th meeting!).
So we began planning. Well, the event finally took place and it far exceeded any of our wildest dreams! I’ve been to many conferences, both as teacher and as student. NEVER had I seen a standing ovation at the end. The group was so generous is rewarding all 5 teachers (Nancy Kerns, Nadine Thompson, Jeanne Sullivan, Jan Carlson – and me) with a standing ovation. And then they/we did it again for Tresa, who coordinated the whole event. I tell ya, I still haven’t touched ground!
We had participants from 17 states in the US and two participants traveled all the way from AUSTRALIA! For a first-ever conference, this is quite a big deal! The fact that everyone was willing to take a chance on us and come without waiting for word-of-mouth before coming – well, it was overwhelming! We felt very fortunate to have met so many wonderful people! We were at 70% capacity, so there’s room for you next year! (Sept 8-12, 2010) You will find info at the website: www.baltimoreontheprairie.tresajones.com or just “google” Baltimore on the Prairie!
I had the greatest group of women in my class for the 3 days (Thursday evening to Sunday noon). Everyone was so generous and sharing. And we had talent that ranged from “I’ve never done this” to “haute couture” sewing. It was great! I even had one of the ladies from Australia in class! Her speech is like music. We had a marvelous time – well, at least I did.
This is my class.
They worked very hard.
And this is the view from my room. We were in a state park just half way between Omaha and Lincoln, NE. It was breathtaking!
The view from my room.
This also from my room!
So, if you find this, my first blogging post, interesting, you have my class to thank. They convinced me that a blog would be a good thing. And if you don’t, well, they are to blame. THEY convinced me that a blog would be a good thing!
Hope to see you here again!
Kathy
Way to go Kathy! Your class did get a lot accomplished.
Kathy, your blog is nice, and thank you SO much for the commentary on the newest conference!
Thanks for the photos from the retreat. Wish I could have been there. The sunset shot from your room was gorgeous. Getting back to the photos, it would be nice if we could click on the picture and get a larger view.
Shirley
Hi Kathy. I wish I could have been there with you. Looks like a lot of fun. I’m going to Williamsburg in February, maybe I should visit you in September as well?
I do wish that your pictures would have been clickable for a lager size. I love that feature on blogs that I visit.
Shirley and Wenche -
I hear you! As soon as I figure out how to make the photos clickable for a larger size, I’ll do it! Believe me, I totally understand the benefit to that! However, please know, at this point, I’m feeling pretty smug that I even got this blog entry posted at all! I think I’ll get it figured out eventually!
Thank you so much for the suggestions! Keep ‘em coming!
Kathy
Great start! I need to be consistent with my postings because I know that people will return to the Blog time and time again. That’s the key so keep ‘em coming. You might want to add a site meter to find out how many hits you are getting. Go to http://www.sitemeter.com and sign up. It’s free and you can grab the html code to put on a gadget on your Blog.
You did it! I’ve added your blog to my list and am looking forward to seeing what you are working on. Thank you so much for everything you did for the BOP conference! It was truly a wonderful experience and I learned all kinds of great things in your class. You all very much deserved the ovation – you did a phenomenal job!
I was there and it was fabulous – can’t wait until next year – already saving up – can’t say enough about the teachers and Tresa and her group
Kathy,
Great blog! Thanks for update on Baltimore on the Prairie. All of you wonderful BAQ teachers get a standing ovation from me any day.
Keep sharing, please.
Mary
What a GREAT start to blogging. Give yourself a pat on the back, you did well!! The pictures of the conference are nice; however, I do wish you could click on them to make them larger and/or had a close up of one or two of the blocks worked on. The view from your window were just beautiful and what a fantastic sunset! You truly transmitted your enjoyment, how moving the experience was and I thank you for sharing. I will definitely look into seeing if participating in next year’s conference will be do-able for me. Thanks again for sharing. Namaste – Terri Drake in very fallish Ossineke, Michigan
Will deffinately be reading your blog again, lovely sunset photograph
Chris, in Wilton UK, where we had our first slight frost overnight.