ATV'ing In KY

A few weeks ago, my husband and I packed up our RV, ATVs and the dogs and headed out to KY for an extended weekend to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary. Everyone kept asking me "Why KY??" The reason.....because it's beautiful. I had been to KY before when I went to the quilt show in Paducah a few years ago...and fell in love with how pretty the state is.

We went to the Wilderness Trail Off-Road Park and while some of the trails were washed out from the recent storms, we still had a great time. There's nothing like riding to the top of a mountain and seeing the amazing views.

 The trials were well marked and we met a lot of great people, including Marty from Marty's ATV Oasis.
DH had a blast riding in the mud...I steered cleared of the super huge mud puddles, but he drove right in.

Wash me!!!!!

Aside from the views, I was also fascinated by the cows that were roaming around the mountain side. They belonged to local farmers and were allowed to graze as much as they wanted. Living in WI, I see cows all the time...but it a whole other thing to just come across a cow on the side of a trail and not in a farm setting.

Baby Calf!!!

Moooooo

I'm not a fan of riding my ATV at nite, even though it has headlights it's not the clearest view, and I get nervous that a deer might pop out of the woods and clobber me in the head with it's hooves. So DH and I compromise and ride at dusk at least once during every trip. I've got to admit..the sunset views are worth it.

The only downside to the trip was that DH has a very strict 'no fabric shopping' rule while we are on vacation. He won't even so much as drive past a quilt store so that I can look in the windows and drool. Going right past Paducah twice and not being able to shop was hard. But I made it through..AND I'm going to the International Quilt Festival in Chicago this weekend..so I can make up for it there.

DH and I.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Happy Sewing everyone!! - Kat

My new tattoo

So while everyone else was getting ready for Quilt Market...I quietly got this:

I had been wanting a sewing themed tattoo for a long time...I spent months looking at photos of tattoos and trying to figure out exactly what I wanted. Finally my BFF suggested I have it wrap around my wrist...and BAM that was it...100% what I wanted! I just needed her to spell it out for me.

I had it done at Oshkosh Tattoo in Oshkosh WI.  I went in with 3 different photos of vintage sewing machines and they drew it up for me. From the moment I looked down and saw the sharpie lines on my wrist I knew it was perfect.

It wraps around my wrist like a bracelet...and I'm totally excited about it.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

- Kat :)

I got to meet Tula Pink!!!!

 A few months ago I had the opportunity to meet Tula Pink at an event at my local quilt shop. Below is my recap of that event, which was amazing!!!!!

I woke up full of anticipation...today I'm going to meet Tula Pink!!
The work day seemed to take forever..time crawled by slowly as I waited to 6:30 to arrive. I had purchased my ticket for the meet n greet event at Patched Works months ago.  The date had been circled on my calender for soo long I couldn't believe it was actually here.

I picked out the perfect outfit (must look cute in the photo), and I packed my camera and a notebook. I didn't have any specific questions that I wanted to ask. I just wanted to meet her and hear all about her creative process.

She started off by telling us all about how she became a fabric designer. Her first job was as a graphic artist for museum and then she worked in the music industry before becoming a fabric designer.

Tula explaining how she creates fabric designs.

She explained how she chooses the colors for  her designs, and the process of sending those colors to the fabric mill.

Tula talked about how designing a fabric is a business and how she works hard to help the local shop owners.

She told us about her new line of thread with Aurifil. 

Of course she brought lots of show and tell with her. Tula sews all of her samples herself. She said that she spends about 6 hours a day sewing. Just look at all those amazing pillows.

All of Tula's quilts are quilted by the amazing Angela Walters. Tula spoke very highly of Angela..and praised her work. Tula said that your relationship with your longarmer is very important. She and Angela both sign the quilts under the binding. I love that idea.

I could have listened to Tula's stories for days. And, as a big fan of Angela Walters' work, I could have stared at all of the quilts for weeks.  Tula was funny and she has this amazing outlook on the business of quilting. She would totally make a great mentor.

I met Tula Pink!!!!!

Happy Sewing everyone!  - Kat  :)