Girlfriend's Day Out

**Lots and lots of quilty pictures...**

In the summer I signed up to go to a quilt workshop with my mom.

The cutest local quilt shop put it on last week.

At the time, I had no idea who Jenny Doan, the guest quilter was, but now I am a big fan :)!

Jenny's family owns Missouri Star Quilt Co. which only started up 6 years ago but has become a huge hit in the quilting world.  She is known for her YouTube tutorials on how to use precuts.

You can see me looking up at Mom on the far right table.

It was held at the beautiful Castle Manor reception center.

It had the perfect balcony for hanging quilts using Jenny's methods made by attendees.

I was happy to run into my good friend LaReen...

...and thrilled to enjoy the day with my sweet mom :)

What made the day even more fun was Jenny's two daughters that joined her.  They were so cute and added so much personality...not that Jenny doesn't have enough on her own, but they complimented her well.

There's that personality, putting on a show for us :)  (It's hard to tell but her right leg is up in the air)

Enter the quilts...

These were just my favorites.

She showed us how each of these were made with either layer cakes, jelly rolls, charm packs etc.

I've noticed two things from the three pictures above... the recent pounds I have put on show in my face really well :)

&

for some reason, for pictures, I tend to stand apart from people I don't know and lean in.  What's up with that?

After Jenny's presentation we had a wonderful lunch from Costa Vida and then participated in 5 break out sessions.

In the first one we put together super simple tissue pouches for breast cancer patients.

In the second, the owner of the local shop showed diy Christmas gift ideas...anywhere from doll clothes to bags to aprons and pillow floor pads.

Next, her twin sister helped us all use a snazzy new embroidery machine to make a Christmas mug rug.  I had never used any kind of embroidery machine before and I was amazed at how little the human actually does in the process.  All we had to do was push the green button and the machine knew exactly what to do.

Our next session was shopping around the balcony and watching the Doan daughters demonstrate some of their templates.

Here they are oohing and awing over Mom's minis.  You can kind of see some of them in front of Sarah in the picture above.

Here is the one she had on display using Jenny's disappearing pinwheel...I think that's what it's called.

I had to get a picture with these cuties :)

Last of all was a meet and greet out in the gazebo with Jenny.

She was such a sweetheart!

I'm actually not leaning in this pic :)

I didn't have a book or anything fancy to sign so I just had her sign a bookmark that they had handed out to everyone.  It's cute.  It says, "When Life Falls to Pieces Make a Quilt".  Words to live by :)

This is a shot of all the things that came in our bags or that we made or were given at the workshop.

And these, aside from the mug, are what fabrics I bought from the balcony.

After all the fun at the castle, the shop opened up and everything was 20% off!  It was super!

A lot of ladies waiting around for the doors to open.

Cute Kris and Kim and once again, the star herself...

I picked up a few things at the shop as well as won one of the drawings.

Such a stinkin' fun day!

It certainly inspired me to come home and kick my quilting into gear.

I finally finished piecing the top of my scrap banner quilt.  It's about time.  All of the fabric seen besides the sashing are fabrics that I used in the "Banners for Ben" project.

I had to show it now because I have no idea when it will be completely finished and I was kind of anxious to get it on the blog.

Now to find some backing fabric and maybe try my hand at machine quilting :)