Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Sunday 4 March 2012

I found the venue for the quilting workshops — the T Bar M Resort, just outside New Braunfels. Gorgeous location and grounds. I checked in to my room, then went to check out where we had to register for the workshops etc. Kim (one of the organisers) welcomed me with a big hug (we’ve chatted quite a bit via email) and the ladies at ‘The Quilt Haus’ store knew who I was too, as they are hiring me a machine for the week. What a pleasant welcome!

I chose a table in the room where I’ll be spending the rest of the week, and started setting up my gear, including the loan Elna sewing machine (brand new — it will become a demo model for the store once I’ve finished with it). I met a few of the other ladies in my workshop (it looks like there are about 15 of them). Then it was time for drinks, where I met a few more ladies who are in different workshops. GOOD Margaritas, with plenty of tequila! 😉

After drinks was a Texas BBQ dinner (not an open fire BBQ — more BBQ-style beef [brisket?] and chicken and a HOT sauce). Delicious.

Then we had a general session for everyone — I counted about 45 people including the instructors, who will be spread over 5 different workshops. I cracked a special mention for coming the furthest! Most of the ladies are from Texas, with a few from further afield, such as Oklahoma City, Florida, Connecticut, Mississippi, and Kentucky.

After the general session we went to our workshop rooms, where our instructors for the week did a 30-minute intro session. My workshop is with Lenore Crawford, and I got to look at some of her amazing quilts close up.

Then it was back to my room to write up this post, upload my photos (click on a small photo to see it larger), and to TRY to get more than 2.5 hours sleep, which is all I’ve had the past two nights… Damned jet lag…. (Actually, I didn’t upload this blog post or pictures until Tuesday night, which when I first got internet access that worked).

Click on a small photo to show it larger.