QuiltCon, here I come!

Goodness gracious, my last blog post was about sending off my block for the QuiltCon challenge, and here I am about ready to head to the conference! I haven't meant to go so long without blogging. Sometimes life just gets in the way.

I thought I'd join the QuiltCon Linky Party and tell you five things you might not know about me.

1. I live in North Carolina, but I grew up in Flint, Michigan. Here I am on the left with my sister. Don't you love those floral and gingham shorts? And our blue sneakers? And that licorice red Saab? The seventies were so colorful, weren't they?

2. I'm fluent in French and teach it to undergraduates while working on my doctorate. School is the reason I don't have as much time to quilt or blog as I'd like. If only I could submit my dissertation in quilt form!

3. My husband John and I have accidentally accumulated six (yes, six!) cats. Three of them were born to ferals who made their home in our backyard. We caught the kittens and domesticated them over several weeks. Of course, by then I couldn't bear to give them away! We still care for the feral mamas and have become quite good at TNR (trap, neuter, return), the humane method of controlling feral cat populations.

4. John and I met through music - I play old-time fiddle and he plays stand-up bass. We don't play much music these days, but we'll get back to it eventually!

5. I was thrilled when Austin was chosen for QuiltCon because John's parents live there! It's one of my favorite cities, and I'm sure all the convention goers are going to have a blast.

As for works in progress, I'm in the middle of quilting a huge quilt (just about king size) that I might finish by spring (yeah, it's taking forever). I've also got a couple gift quilts in the works.

Here are glimpses of a lap quilt I finished a little while ago. I was auditioning fabric for the back, and Elkie couldn't resist getting involved.

She loves to burrow under any kind of material!

That's it for now. I'm super excited about QuiltCon - I'll be there for the lectures and show on Saturday. I hope to meet some of the many quilters I've admired from afar, and also discover new people to follow in the blogosphere!