Four weeks away from home is just too long to be gone. It's true that I did enjoy the places I visited but Dorothy was right – there's no place like home.

I promised to share more from market so here goes. This is what our booth looked like. We featured the new fabric (Treasures & Tidbits from Kaufman) and the new pattern, Fresh Picked Posies. The pieced quilt in the corner is Off The Rail from Jaybird Quilts and the little dresses are from an Oliver + S pattern and are made with our new fabric.

All of the fabric you see is from our new collection, Treasures & Tidbits, that will be on our site in July, when the fabric ships. I didn't end up taking many shots inside the convention center because I rarely got out of the booth. Here is a new children's pattern that will come from Kwik Sew made from the new fabric. This fabric is really cute!

You know the tags we have on our site that say PS I Love You and Happy Birthday and Sweet Dreams? There are going to be more of them. Wendy showed a variety of ways to use them in quilts – like the birthday tag on the cupcake quilt below. She had them sewn into the sides of zippered bags and pincushions. My photos didn't come out or I'd share them now.

This was a really pretty display of embroidery floss at Anna Maria Horner's booth.

Outside the weather was beautiful! It was important to keep your eyes open because there was interesting stuff everywhere you looked. There were art pieces related to flight all around the central part of town. You had to look up to see them. I really liked this one…

My friend, Amy Marson, spotted these birds on our morning walk. That is a quail, isn't it?

And there were flowers everywhere.

I saw a couple of houses that had sculpted their trees to be flat. This is the way trees are grown in some orchards. It's an interesting idea.

And there were lions (but not tigers or bears that I saw).

My sister was in the hospital over the weekend but she's home now and feeling better. Life is good!

I got out and about a little today between setting up the booth and the Schoolhouse presentation. I won't get outside much after this. It's late but I wanted to share some of these photos.The flowers around the Temple aare spectacular!

This is the front of the Temple in the morning…

…and the back of the Temple in the evening. Isn't the sky an amazing color!

This is the City & County Building in the morning light.

Salt Lake is clean and the beautiful to look at. I love the diversity in the buildings. Even the demolition sites are interesting…

I think these stones are from a demolished structure. I would LOVE to take them home with me!

Tomorrow I'll take photos inside the convention center!

Oh, and I almost forgot this lady. I took her picture as she was deep in thought looking at a fountain. I love her stance, hands clasped behind her back, and the careful choice of comfortable shoes with her skirt and sweater.

When I posted last I was in Huntsville, TX. I left there Monday evening after my lecture and drove home. Tuesday was a blur as I unpacked and re-packed. I am now in Salt Lake City for Spring Quilt Market. Linda is home sick with a really bad cold. I already miss having her here but she really needs to be in bed so there you go.

On the upside, I am in a very nice hotel compliments of the company who makes our fabric, Robert Kaufman. The Hotel Monaco is almost across the street from the Salt Palace Convention Center. Here is one side of my room:

The desk is on the other side with a marvelous desk chair that is the perfect height for the desk. I can type on this laptop and my hands are not up by my ears.

There are two thick terrycloth bathrobes in the closet – leopard print! This could be mine (or yours) for only $90! And there are socks with rubber grips on the bottom that can also be yours (or mine) for $15!

I gotta say, this is not my normal hotel experience. I am happy when I am in a safe, clean, comfortable hotel (which is most of the time) but I do enjoy an over-the-top experience. Check out the drawer of offerings for the traveler who got here craving a Snickers bar in the middle of the night. It would be $2.25 which, under some circumstances, might seem reasonable.

But the thing in this drawer that really cracks me up is this. Look at the back, right side of the offerings. There are two thin packages, wrapped in clear plastic. The white one is a first aid kit, the black one is an intimacy kit. An 'intimacy kit' is not something I have seen before in a hotel and did not expect to find in Salt Lake City. it's got pretty much what you would expect (x2). I'd be interested to know which has to be replenished more often – the candy bars or the intimacy kits.

The attention to detail is pretty wonderful. The spare toilet paper is wrapped in twine with a bow on the back of the toilet. That is a nice touch! As are the colorful key cards below.

The lobby is beautiful, the elevators are fast, the restaurant is really good (but not inexpensive). Linda, if you are reading this, I know that you would love it so I am going to have to love it twice as much for both of us!

We have a new pattern pack! You may have seen it. We were a little slow putting it up on our site because the fabric isn't quite here yet.

We designed the fabric that you see here with Robert Kaufman. It's called Treasures & Tidbits. We will soon have fabric kits for the big quilt that you see above that with either the blue background or the tan/neutral background that you see in the smaller quilt below. The applique fabric is the same in both quilts.

I made the 9-block quilt using nine of the blocks from the big quilt. I needed a smaller quilt to travel with.

The pattern pack will be sold separately from the kit. It is $17.95. Click here to go directly to the Fresh Picked Posies page on our site. We won't have time to put together an eNewsletter until after spring market but I thought you all might like a heads up about what's new!

…in Huntsville, TX. Actually, I taught near Houston before coming to Huntsville – at The Quilter's Crossing. A cute shop in Tomball, TX. I lectured the night before at the meeting of the Tri-County Quilt Guild in Cypress, TX. (I've been in a variety of towns in the Houston/Huntsville area the last many days.)

This was the 10th annual Airing of the Quilts on the town square in Huntsville. Quilts were hung all over the place. Off the second store railing of the courthouse balcony:

Along the street:

And in the shaded grassy area around the courthouse:

I was in the featured quilter booth right by the courthouse. I visited with people for most of the day. My quilts hung on the stage of the old theater. It was cool in the morning and it got pretty darned warm later in the afternoon (it is Texas after all). Luckily there was a breeze/stiff wind all day. People kept commenting that I was sitting on a slant – it wasn't until I saw this photo that I understood why. It didn't feel that slanted – there are streets in Sherman like this. The road is graded high in the center to encourage the rain to run off the road.

There was entertainment throughout the day. Lots of music and in the afternoon there was a perfomance by the Ballet Folklorico from Dallas. Those are glasses of water on their heads!

In other news – my sister ended up in the hospital while I've been gone. Her shunt closed up and it turns out that it has been failing and no one knew so her dialysis sessions haven't cleaned her blood much. She fell, mom fell… I got one of those "oh my" text messages in the middle of my class on Wednesday.

But you know what? My son and daughter-in-law were there in a flash. Christy rode in her first Sherman ambulance to the new hospital in town. She is much better now. Mom is OK. They didn't have to deal with this trauma alone and that's why they moved to Sherman. Seriously, it could be worse. AND, the day after the medical meltdown we got a contract on mom's house in OKC. Oh happy day! No one is counting any chickens until the sale is complete but we are all breathing easier. And all this while I am away from home. I am thankful for the technology that keeps me touch when I'm gone.

Linda and I flew home Sunday. Monday I did laundry and re-packed because on Tuesday I drove to the Houston area to lecture and teach. I think today is Wednesday – isn’t it? I lectured last night and taught today for the Tri-County Quilt Guild. It was a fun day but I admit that it seems strange to think that 3 days ago I was in France.

I have a few final pictures from the quilt show. This is what the vendor mall looked like from the second floor before the crowds came:

The ‘little house’ next to us housed the quilts made by Petra Prins:

And next to Petra was, I think, Shizuko Kuroha. I admit it, I didn’t take good notes but I think this is the person who made these quilts. She wasn’t there, only her quilts were there.

In comparison to our neighbors, our quilts were very colorful. Tres jolie as they said. And we had a way cooler sofa!

There was a nice dispaly of garments near us. I especially liked this black dress. I would look terrible in it but my DIL would look good in a dress like it. The white dress was also lovely.

I miss the regal old-ness of Paris. Sherman feels, and is, very new in comparison.