Shop Girls Day Out

Every year about this time, we have Shop Girls Day Out. It's kind of our holiday party - - after the holidays calm down and all of the snowbirds return to Iowa.

This event is for the Shop Girls, the gals that help in and around the shop all year long. We gather somewhere that they can be the guests, stitching, dining and chatting.

This year, we gathered at LaPoste in Perry.

Here is Lonnie at the pressing station. Lonnie is our main employee and she is responsible for keeping all of our block of the month programs organized. No one can do a better job than she. I so appreciate her talents. She also makes several of our shop samples and is always willing to go the extra mile. Example - - - If I were to fall and break a hip, Lonnie would jump right into action to make sure the shop never skipped a beat. ---- Wait a minute - - - she just did that! Thank you, Lonnie!

This is Carol P who brought crocheting to keep her hands busy while we all stitched and chatted. Carol makes a lot of our shop samples, I love that she is always up for anything and apologizes if it take her longer than a week to turn a project around. Thank  you, Carol!

Colleen E is a busy gal but she always finds time to work in the shop a couple days each month. As one of the owners of LaPoste in Perry, Colleen volunteered the venue for our Shop Girls Day Out. If you have not heard about LaPoste, check it out.

The first floor is a spectacular area for large meetings and events. The lower level, lovingly called The Cellar, is where they host live music and an easy supper buffet every Thursday evening, 5 to 8 pm.  I am always up for going to their Thursday evening event if anyone wants a tag along. Thank you, Colleen!

Don't you love all these happy faces? These gals are in their element. Jenny O also makes a lot of our shop samples and turns them around quickly. Here she is tangled up in strips and loving it. Below are two quilts she finished up quilting and binding, one for each of her granddaughters. Thank you, Jenny.

I missed getting a picture of the lovely miss Julia S. She is our Monday gal in the shop and fills in here and there when she is not a snowbird. Julia is the shop decorator. She likes to cut fat quarters and spruce up the shop displays and we love that she does! Thanks, Julia.

Julia worked on the quilts above and below at our gathering.

This is a quilt Julia made with her granddaughters. She did the stitching as the girls selected and handed her pieces, based on their choice of what to add next. 

My long time friend, Patty S, is working on her hand applique. She is my wing man, often helping me brain storm ideas and set up/tear down events. We started our day with a delicious pan of cinnamon rolls, still warm from her kitchen. Thanks, Patty!

When Patty's eyes got tired from hand work, she pulled out this Craftsy bom to work on.

Not present at our gathering were Diana W, another long time friend who so generously does a lot of shop samples for us, and Deb S. who machine quilts several of our shop samples. Thank you both!

Everyone received a little table favor. These little potted plants came from the new Adel gift shop, Decor' Adel, just a block and a half east of our shop. 

We decorated the plant with notions that can replenish some of the supplies used to stitch for us year around.

Gayla Wasson came over to do massages, we ate lunch and had a tour of the whole building. 

I had a great day and I think all of the Shop Girls did too.