Traveling Thursdays

This Thursday is a little different ... today we're traveling to my house!  I think I mentioned yesterday that I was having book group at my house tonight.  Every month we have different books, and rotate houses as well.  We have a pretty large group ... there's usually about 10 -12 ladies.  I usually host once a year.  Last year I hosted October, and since halloween is my favorite holiday and I have more fall quilts than any other season, I signed up to host October this year too.  Well I don't know where the month has gone ... here it is October 27, and I have one halloween decoration up.  So I did some cleaning this a.m. before I left for work, asked Kathy, the manager, if I could leave an hour early (Mindy and I are both working on Thursdays now, so that would still leave two people without me), came home and finished my surface cleaning.  Then my daughter came home and I asked her if she would please go get the halloween box and put a few things up.  That sweet girl decorated my house, decorated the outside, put up some purple and orange lights that I bought a few weeks ago ... I hung my halloween quilts, and the house looks so darn cute!  I hate that it is only a few days until halloween ... who cares, right?  It will stay up after hallloween because I love it!

So you get to travel to my house today and see my quilts ... here is one of my favorites.  A class that was taught by my first teacher, the one I learned everything from, Donna Yackey ... the quilt is called oh shoot, I can't remember ... this one hangs in my living room, over my piano.

I have a long hallway that our front door opens into, and this is the perfect place for a quilt display.  That's where this next quilt hangs ... it is my first block of the month that I ever did, and I'm embarrassed to say, the only one that I ever finished, also a Donna Yackey quilt!

This quilt is also hanging in the hallway, and it is also a Donna Yackey quilt ...

This is ... you guessed it, another Donna Yackey quilt.  She had done the quilt as a Christmas quilt with beautiful Christmas fabric, but I decided to turn mine into a halloween quilt because we had just gotten in this really cute line of fabric.  I don't remember the name of this one either, but it sits on the bench in my hallway.  A perfect spot to display quilts!

Now this quilt I did not make myself, but my friend, Donna Yackey, knows how much I love halloween and I had admired this quilt in her house, so she made me one for my birthday a couple of years ago.  It hangs in my dining room ... isn't she cute??!!

And finally, my dining room table loaded with a few goodies for my book group ... and on the table is a cute table runner that Donna Yackey made for me for my birthday. 

Here's a funny story ... at the store we draw names every year for Christmas.  There are currently 10 of us at the store.  Our Christmas parties are awesome, and the gift giving is like nothing I have ever seen ... the first year I drew Donna Yackey's name, then a couple years went by, and last year I drew her name again, and guess what, she had my name!!  It is really funny ... I think we have a connection, don't you?  I guess this post maybe should have been, my lovely quilt teacher, Donna Yackey and all the beautiful quilts she has made me and I have made from her lovely patterns!  Do you have a favorite designer?

P.S.  Book group was great and I would highly recommend the book we read "Half Broke Horses" by Jeannette Wall.  It is a book about her grandmother's life and is such a testament to hard working women and what women go through to keep the family together.  It's a novel, but a true life/history novel.  A great read!