The Adventures of Turning Twenty "On The Road"

We just returned from the Dallas Quilt Celebration.  What a great show.  So many beautiful quilts!  

Normally, I would be sharing about the show, but I have a much more "exciting" story for you.

Let me begin...

As you know from my last post, we just returned from a Quilt Cruise with Cactus Quilts and we had quite an adventure.  

We rested up and prepared for the Dallas Quilt Celebration - expecting a "normal" show (if there is such a thing!).  

Here was our plan: 

Our daughter (Michelle) and  her daughter (Hailey) normally work this show, but Hailey's husband (Lucas) had to work Thursday and Friday, so she could not come until Saturday and Sunday so she could be home with their 2 year old son (Jude).  

The backup plan is always Michelle's husband (Stephen) fills in when we need him.  However, he could not get off work either.  

So, we adjusted our plan and I would be going with her Thursday and Friday, Gary would be staying home.  

Stephen and Michelle's son (Kyle) is in the Army and would be coming home to see his daughter (Lily) Friday.  Lily is in Graham with her mom.  

Stephen, Michelle, Hailey and her family all live in Granbury and we live in Graham.  

Are you still with me?

Stephen and Lucas would get off work Friday.  

Lucas would head home to stay with Jude.  

Stephen would pick Hailey up and bring her to Dallas.  

He would then drop her off and pick me up and take me home to Graham where he would pick Lily up.  

Then he would drive home to Granbury to spend the weekend with Kyle and Lily.  

On Sunday, Kyle would head back to Ft Hood, Stephen would bring Lily back to Graham to her mom and Michelle and Hailey would head home from the show in Dallas.  

Whew!  We had a plan!

Until....

Thursday as we are setting up, Michelle gets a call from Kyle.  He does not think he will be able to come home over the weekend.  

So, Plan B:

Stephen and Lucas get off work.  

Lucas goes home to Jude.  

Stephen picks Hailey up and comes to Dallas.  

I take their car and go home to Gary.  

Stephen, Hailey and Michelle work the show and head home on Sunday.  

This is getting easier!

Until....

Thursday night Kyle calls and says he WILL be coming to Granbury after all.  

Back to Plan A.

Until...

Friday another vendor at the show completely sells out of Gimme 5 & Make It Scrappy and urgently needs a case for the remaining two days.  

Michelle does not have any left in Granbury, so Stephen can't just bring them with him.  The books are in Graham!  

Plan C:  Reverse everything!!  

Stephen and Lucas get off work.  

Lucas heads home to Jude.  

Stephen picks Hailey up and they head to Graham.  

Stop and pick up Gimme 5 & Make It Scrappy and then Lily.  

They all head to Dallas.  

Stephen drops off books and Hailey and heads home to Granbury to spend the weekend with Kyle and Lily.  

Now, I have no way to leave, so I stay for the show as well.  

Oh no!  I only packed for one night!  

Stephen picks up clothes and toiletries along with the books while he is in Graham.  

On Sunday, Kyle heads to Ft Hood, Stephen and Lily head to Dallas to pick up Michelle and Hailey, they all head to Granbury and I take the truck and head to Graham.  

I think we are good to go! 

Until...

Michelle wakes up Sunday morning and remembers she and Stephen have theater tickets in Dallas for that evening!  

Plan D:  

Kyle heads to Ft Hood.  

Stephen and Lily head to Dallas.  

Lucas and Jude head to Dallas.  

Everyone helps pack up (and watch over the grandbabies!), Stephen and Michelle head to the theater, Hailey, Lucas and Jude head home to Granbury, and Lily and I drive the truck home to Graham.  I drop Lily off to her mom and fall into bed as soon as I get home!

Such is a family business - and I wouldn't trade it for the world!  You've heard "It takes a village to raise a child"?  

It also takes one to pull off a show!

What an adventure!!  We had so much fun at the show.  

Saw so many long-time friends and met many new ones.  

I'd like to introduce you to two of them.

This is Cynthia - visited with her in the booth - sweetest lady you will ever meet!  So nice to meet you Cynthia!

This is Marcus.  Marcus was a life saver!  When Michelle and I arrived on Thursday to set up, we dropped our very first load off of our dolly.  Marcus had just finished helping another vendor and he graciously helped us unload our entire truck.  What a blessing he was!

Here's our booth before we started.  Always looks so daunting!

And now the quilts are up!

And here is the finished booth.  All set up and ready to go!

Met some wonderful friends for dinner.  Shared a lot of laughs and now, where is that shower and bed?

Some pictures of us after Hailey arrived.  

Did I mention, she is 16 weeks along with our fourth 

great-grandbaby?!  

Little Ezra is on his way!

So, all in all, family, friends and adventure made a fun show and some very special memories.

Next stop - Baytown and Bay Area Quilt Guilds in Houston.  

Wonder what adventure awaits us there?!

Blessings,

Cactus Quilt Cruise

We're back and I didn't drown!!

Carla Hoff of Cactus Quilts asked me to teach a workshop on a quilt cruise she was hosting.  I must admit, the thought scared me!  I have always said I would never get on a ship.  I can't swim and just the thought of being on a ship in the middle of the ocean made my stomach turn!  But, never say never!  You see, I just love Carla, so how could I not agree?  So, that is how I found myself on my way to Galveston with Gary, Michelle and Stephen to board a ship to the Bahamas.

What a trip my first cruise was!  We stayed overnight in Galveston and got up bright and early the next morning to have our luggage down so it could be taken to the ship.  We woke up to an announcement that the ship could not dock due to fog, so we would be delayed a couple of hours.  We took our luggage down and the hotel allowed us to stay in the room and rest.  At noon, we were told there was still fog, so we ate a light lunch at the hotel and went back to our room to nap.  Finally, at 4:45 that afternoon, we were on our way to the ship.

Once we went through security and got into the terminal, we were told we were still fogged in and the ship was still not docked.  Expect to board at 7:30.  I'll spare you all of the announcements by just telling you we finally boarded at 11:45 that night!  Now, you would think being stuck in a terminal would be boring, but we were seated in a row that was determined to have fun!  There was a fellow passenger who kept us entertained with jokes and stories - we were in tears at times laughing so hard.  Of course, with Stephen there he had found an accomplice!  Between the two of them, there was not a dull moment.  Just when you thought they would run out of shenanigans, the man pulled out balloons, blew them up and everyone in the terminal started bopping balloons to each other.  

We ate dinner at midnight, had our safety drill at 1:30 in the morning and were then told we were too fogged in to leave.  We were finally on our way the next morning!  

Let the quilting begin!!

What a great time we had!  Carla did a wonderful job (this was her first cruise too) and everyone had a ball!  I designed a new quilt pattern for the cruise and we had three classes full of quilters busy completing what will become our newest pattern at Fall Market this year.  

We've got a lot of pictures to share...but you'll have to wait until Fall to see the quilts!

Now, there are some stories to go along with the pictures above.  Top left is Gary and me.  Michelle took the picture.  You can tell the sun was shining...even on the screen of her iPad, she could not tell her Daddy was squinting!  :)

Top right was taken in the terminal - bopping balloons.  Below that is one of our little towel animals.  I loved seeing what we would get each night.  Our cabin steward was wonderful!  Middle left is our goofy son-in-law, Stephen. posing by the trash can.  Gary is pointing out that it says "Bahamas Waste"!  Right below that is a picture taken from the balcony of our room of the moon rising above the ocean.  Bottom right is Michelle and me - Bag Ladies!  It had started raining as we were heading back to the ship and bags were all we had.  (We had been shopping!)

Just some pictures of the ship.  See the guy on the bottom left?  Funny story!  The final night of the cruise, they had a Carnival Legends show.  Passengers had tried out earlier in the week to sing on stage as a popular artist (Garth Brooks, Cher, etc).  This man came out and sang "Born To Be Wild".  Guess who it was?  The man from the terminal!!!  We began our trip being entertained by him and we ended our trip the same way.  Had to get a picture of him!

Now we are back in the office preparing for the Dallas Quilt Show, but a little piece of me is still floating and quilting on the ocean.  

Thank you Carla, Cactus Quilts and all the wonderful quilters for making my first cruise such a memorable time!

Blessings,

Finding Inspiration

Many of you have asked where I get inspiration for designs? It's hard to say because design inspiration seems to just crop up everywhere! Friends and family inspire a lot of my stitchery designs. Today I'll share a couple of them with you.

First of all, a dear friend gave me this rustic heart for my birthday several years ago. 

The minute I saw it I visualized a quilt pattern, and went to work to create Rusty Garden Heart. This pattern has been one of my best sellers for several years. Success!

But alas, not all of my creative ideas are quite so great.

My sweet granddaughter is now married and has a 2 year old, but I recall a time when she was going through a particularly snippy spell.  She was 12 going on 25!

Now, Hailey has always been quite stylish and as cute as a bug. I took her 'attitude and style' at the time, and created this oh-so-clever wall-hanging. 

I was more pleased with it than just about anything else I had designed, and had total confidence that a thousand grandmothers would relate, and want to recreate and hang it in their own sewing room.  I created the pattern, took it to market & proudly displayed it prominently in our booth. Over the 3 day period, we sold a total of TWO patterns!

Bummer!  My favorite design wasn't a hit with anyone but ME (well, and two other ladies)!  To this day it hangs in my sewing room & makes me smile.

Design lesson: sometimes you design for the masses & sometimes you design only for ONE!    

 

Gimme 5 & Make It Scrappy

It's finally here and I can tell you the secret!

For several weeks now, I have been hinting at a new book coming and I can finally tell you all about it!

I'm thrilled to introduce our new pattern, designed by Scott Cribbs!

I love it when things seem to work with very little effort.  Here's the story of how this book came about.

For quite some time I have pleaded with my son, Scott to develop some of his quilt ideas into patterns.  They are amazing!

Terry Skrabanek invited me to teach at Lone Star Quiltworks and I promised to come up with something special.

One morning Scott and I decided we would simplify one of his star designs.  Ok, ok...here is how that should actually read.  One morning I hounded my son so long that he finally gave in and simplified one of his star designs.  We loved it and we had our pattern!

Terry filled three days of classes with ladies willing to make...well, they didn't know what!  They only knew it needed 5 fabrics.  They were all so delightful and and extremely patient while working without a written pattern.  Quilters are truly wonderful people.

This was probably the most fun I have had bringing a new pattern to life.  Maybe it's because I wasn't the only one in the birthing room!

Take a look at the finished product!  Then see if you recognize any of the beautiful ladies at Lone Star Quiltworks who tested Gimme 5 & Make It Scrappy.

We are now taking pre-orders for the book.  Click here to read all about it!  You can also see it at International Quilt Market and International Quilt Festival in just a couple of weeks!  We'll be in Booth 1027.  Stop by and see all of our new designs!

Blessings,

Top 5 Joys of a Family Business

Have you ever wondered what it's like to work with family?

Turning Twenty® is a family business.  Each of us play a part and each of us love this company. Together we are blessed to breathe life into Turning Twenty® and to serve you!

So, in a spirit of fun...today, I give you

The Top 5 Joys of a Family Business

1.  We have our own "Professional" departments

Photography

Prototype Feedback

Training

Customer Service

Research and Development

Security

Inventory

Logistics

Editing

2.  Our work area is always clean and inventory is always in it's appropriate place

3.  We are always in the office, dressed professionally and ready to work by 8 AM

4.  We always have time for a nutritious and well balanced lunch

5.  Finally, we never, EVER goof off!!

The greatest joy of all though...

and working with them isn't that bad either!

Blessings,