Yesterday

Can you say B-U-S  T-R-I-P?! Yes. Wise County Quilt Guild took another bus trip. Yes. We first went to Van Alstyne to the Alford Inn Quilt Shoppe and Retreat had some fun demos and shopped. I found some dragonfly fabric for Aimee's quilt. Then it was time for lunch at The Durning House Restaurant and Bed & Breakfast. 

There were three of these pigs below their sign. I think the Durning House has very good taste. In more ways than one! I think they like their pork on the table. Come to think of it we like it both ways, too. LOL  The meal we had was wonderful. They prepared a totally homecooked meal for us. We had a delicious chicken casserole, bow tie pasta salad, strawberry and spinach salad with poppy seed dressing, with a homemade crescent roll (oh my) and a toasted bagel slice. Then came dessert  --
Oh My! A small slice (thank goodness) of strawberry cake and a wonderful good sized serving of a WARM bread pudding with whiskey sauce (OH MY!). You could taste the butter!  They normally aren't open on Saturday so plan accordingly or if you are planning a bus trip call ahead and schedule.

After that we moaned a lot and waddled to the bus. Then we rode down Central Expressway to . . . anther quilt shop. Of course.  The Quilt Asylum in McKinney to be exact.  If two quilt shops could be totally different these were.  While Alford Inn is housed in an old house with antiques The Quilt Asylum was totally modern with bright and modern/urban type fabrics. Can you say Kaffe Fasset? Plus much more. I have never seen so many quilting books in one place. We had room to spread out and they had a constant stream of customers.  I found some batik fat quarters to add to my collection.  AND I was so hoping they had Quiltmaker's Vol. 5 100 Blocks and they did!

Then we still had some time and as we boarded the bus someone said -- Can we go to Happiness Is . . . Quilting just down the road.  They called ahead to make sure they were okay with a bus load of women. Sure! So away we went. Very nice quilt store. Extra bonus -- Sue Daley of Sue Daley Designs of Australia was there! She is teaching a series of workshops there at the quilt shop. She was so nice and did a demo for us. She has a new book out New English Paper Piecing. She paper pieces clamshells and many other shapes. Sue Daley is the one in the center. She demoed the clamshell paper piecing for us. The outer border in the quilt on the right in the photo above uses the clamshells. Pretty cool, huh? The other quilts pictured are hers as well.

Then we loaded up in the bus one more time and headed west to Denton. We stopped at Cracker Barrel for the evening meal. I was still too full from lunch and only ordered a Dr. Pepper.  We loaded up for the last time and headed west for Decatur Wal-Mart parking lot. It was a full day and a fun day.

Blessings and happy quilting,