Congrats to Connie, Dallas Show and more

This month Connie was in Des Moines, Iowa at the Rep Rally for APQS American Quilting Systems for classes and training Connie was awarded the Top salesman award for the company.
I asked her what her thoughts were and she said, "This is a job that I JUST LOVE!!!! I feel so fortunate everyday that I get to come to Quilt Country, work with so many incredible women and share my passion and love for quilting."

Congratulations to Connie Keller for receiving top honors at the APQS Rep Rally!! We are very proud of her and all that she has accomplished since she began representing APQS at Quilt Country.

Our new Quilt Country rulers by Creative Grid arrived this week. They are SO cute! The ruler is 2 1/2" X 6 1/2", the perfect size for carrying to retreats or classes and also just to have hear your machine for paper piecing or checking seam allowances or the size of that piece that just doesn't seam right. They sell for $6.25 and are the great quality of all of the rulers we love from Creative Grids.

The Dallas show is coming up, fast!!! The dates are March 13, 14, and 15. If you haven't ever been you should do your best to go. It is a great show and there are a lot of beautiful quilts of all types and also lots of vendors.

They also have a live mini auction on Saturday of the show every year. It is really great and the minis are so cute!! I made one this year, it is a bull's eye, 16" X 20".

This weekend we have two classes that I want to tell you about. On Saturday Joan will be teaching the Bella, Bella Bargello. A photo of her quilt is below. The photo doesn't do it justice!

Then on Sunday Debbie will be teaching the Strip-a-Rama class. This is a class, held once a month, designed to help you use those great fabrics in your stash. Below are photos of the design you will be learning this month.

Wurggling

Porsche is getting more and more brave outside. At first she stayed right next to us when we took her out but now she wanders and just sits there when we call her to come in. If we head toward the door she still just sits there but when we go in she runs as fast as she can, which, by the way, is pretty darn fast!

I am trying to get a video of her stalking in the monkey grass. It is so cute! She is really into wurggling right now.

Our newest family member

Saturday we drove to Houston to get our new puppy. She is a Havanese, not a very common breed and that is why we had to drive to Houston to pick her up. I have been researching dogs that don't shed much for over a year. Her hair is like human hair, with no undercoat, and this breed sheds about as much as a human does. The hair feels like long Minkee, which we all know is sooooooo wonderfully soft. We named her Porsche, or should I say my husband, Tony, named her. I was thrilled that he was thinking of names and I didn't really have a name for her so Porsche it is. He named her for his favorite car. It is a cute name and we spell it a little differently than the common spelling, Portia.

She weighs 3.8 pounds and is about 14" long and 8" tall. When she is grown she will weigh about 12-14 pounds. Porsche is very energetic, like all puppies, and loves to walk right beside you and I mean RIGHT beside you. The nick name for this breed is "The Velcro Dog". I can certainly see where they got this nick name. I think she is very intelligent and possibly smarter than we are because she seems to be holding out for hamburger. ;-/ I am confident we will win in the end but between the eating (or should I say not eating), playing and the potty training it is a full time job. Hmmmm, seems like there could be a lot of "I told you so" comments right here. It is almost like having a baby but you can leave them all night, if you can stand the crying. It is so amazing how loud such a itsy-bitsy, tiny puppy can be. The moment you put her in the play yard she starts and it is LOUD!

I will keep you posted on our progress.

Here she is on her first night home.

Here she is on her batik flannel blanket. (Being a member of the Quilt Country family, she had to have batik blankees!)

Playing with Joshua on the kitchen floor.