Overload…

And so world continues to spin at break neck speed and I’ve buckled my seatbelt and I’m holding on tightly for the ride of my life…

It’s all good stuff…

I returned late Sunday night on an uneventful, actual pleasant, trip home on United, in first class, excellent meal, and actually arrived half an hour early.  Tail winds, I wish I had one behind me always…

I taught a number of seminars and gave an all day workshop in weaving trim on an Inkle loom, and sold a half a dozen looms, (that’s six more weavers out there…) at the American Sewing Guild conference in Houston.

Can I say here that I have attended a lot of fiber related conferences in my career.  A lot.  This particular venue was about the most perfect experience I’ve ever had, and even if I wasn’t teaching, I’d make it a point to attend every year.  It is that good.  Yep, every year.  I have no idea how the American Sewing Guild (ASG.org) pulls it off year after year, but it is amazing.

The venue, the Hilton in Houston was exceptional.  At this particular conference, breakfast and lunch are provided to all attendees, in a group banquet setting, where keynote speakers can address the entire group.  It is convenient and efficient.  The food was the best conference/banquet food I’ve ever eaten, especially for 700.

I took advantage of the fact that I was teaching in the afternoons, and the way the seminars are offered, starting at 8am, it is possible to fit two in before lunch.  They have two hour seminars and hour and a half seminars and half and full day workshops.  It is a nice combination.  So I took seminars while I was there, in addition to what I was teaching, and I thought I would be completely exhausted, but because the conference was held entirely on floors three and four of the Hilton, and I was staying on floor thirteen, I never had to walk more than 50 feet to anything. (Except some incredible restaurants…)

My roommate couldn’t have been more lovely.  Louise Van Broekhuizen of LAGA bags. (as seen on Oprah…)  So you know of course, I had to buy one.  They are gorgeous… Laga handbags are handmade/embroidered in Aceh, Indonesia by women who survived the tsunami that took the lives of over 285,000 people.  I bought the Besar bag in Silver Grey.

Louise is quite the foodie…  She has attended the quilt festival in Houston many times, as a vendor and Wednesday night she herded me over to “The Grove” in the park across the street from the Hilton.  We had the best Sashimi appetizer.  Thursday night after the “Shop ’till you drop”, we headed to the bar in the Hilton and had Scallop Sliders, I’ve never seen such huge scallops and they were excellent.

Friday night was of course the fashion show, and it was fun.  It was huge, and hanging back stage in heels kept reminding me that I really can’t wear heels like that anymore and that I’m sort of getting to the age when I’m gonna need to start replacing my footwear with sensible shoes, but I’m going there kicking and screaming all the way, I can assure you…  I”m hoping the ASG puts photos up on the website, if I find them I’ll add the link.

Saturday night Louise and I hooked up with Loretta Phipps, my partner in the Convergence Tampa Bay Design Challenge in 2008, and we all went by hotel shuttle (because it was raining, in Houston…) to a Houston institution called Irma’s.  I had the chicken mole and shrimp and spinach enchiladas.  It was probably the best Mexican food I’ve ever eaten… And no, they don’t have menu’s…

My seminars at the conference, the one’s I taught, seemed to go over really well.  I got lots of compliments, which is always a good thing, especially my new one called “What the Manual Didn’t Tell You”.  The seminars I attended were wonderful and informative.  Yes.  Even I, Daryl Lancaster, learned a few things.  I took a couple of pants fitting seminars, one with Judy Kessinger (funniest and most entertaining teacher I’ve ever taken a seminar from) and one with Peggy Sagers (probably the most knowledgeable and gracious teacher I’ve ever met).  I learned a lot.  Peggy has an entire group of webcasts on various subjects available for free on her website.  She also creates a line of patterns (Silhouette Patterns) with B ,C, and D, cup sizing.  I’ve mentioned her in my handouts for years.  It was great to actually work with her.

I also attended a seminar in bag making (Linda McGehee), and one in sewing with silk, (Kandi Christian), a sleeve and armhole seminar with Connie Crawford, and one on surface design with Marsha McClintock.  Most of the instructors have businesses, booths in the vendor hall where they sell everything they talk about in their seminars, I felt a bit odd starting my seminars because I didn’t have fifteen minutes of infomercials as a lead in.  I’m just an educator.  But there is room for all of us, and it was really convenient to just hop over to a vendor booth to pick up the pattern and materials for a back/pack that my daughter would adore.  We already had the fabric on the shelf, and somehow I knew she would pick something purple, so I took a chance and picked up the purple webbing and the purple zippers.  Nailed it…

I bought fabric at one of the vendors, The Wool House from Toronto.  I never do that, but both these fabrics just called out to me and well what could I do?  The plaid is a gorgeous linen, and the dark greyed eggplant fabric is a men’s wool for suiting, I’m hoping to make a perfectly fitted pair of dress pants for myself, and maybe a skirt.

And so, I met a whole bunch of new friends, and connected with some old ones, that happens at conferences, and it is part of why I love what I do so much.  If you are interested, the next ASG conference is in Virginia, outside of DC the beginning of August 2013.

I arrived home late Sunday night, and my husband, flashlight in hand, took me on a midnight tour of what he had accomplished in my absence.  When I woke up Monday morning and walked out the balcony of our bedroom, it was even more terrific in the daylight.

He had continued building the platform and brought over the chiminea from the Gazebo making use of the vast area vacated by the pool we dismantled back in April.  He started building a new water feature in the corner of the platform where we lowered the decking that bordered one long edge of the pool.  And he laid a brick walkway around the new construction area.  He carefully laid out a herringbone pattern which of course, being a handweaver, he knew I’d like.  What a guy…  And he and my daughter cleared a large area of overgrown, poison ivy infested trees, to make the platform for the hammock usable again. My daughter is, as I write, at the doctor’s getting a scrip for steroids since she is of course, now covered with poison ivy…

Speaking of my daughter…  She was quite busy in my absence with a new book that came in while I was gone, so busy in fact, that I have to give it it’s own blog post…

Stay tuned…