It’s impossible to describe such a fabulous day.  Thus it’s taken me several days to write about it!  I hardly know where to begin….. maybe the beginning?

Angela Walters came to my house.  I just need to pause here for a minute.  Like wow.  She’s a quilting celebrity to me and I’m one of her, no wait, I’m her biggest fan.  And she came to my house.  Sigh.  I’m still pinching myself.  And she’s wonderful and amazing and so fun and full of laughter.  She made the day the most special it could be. And please take note of our shirts.  Together we are one of her favorite sayings.  Of course, hers is also the name of her quilt shop in Liberty, MO.  I can hardly wait to go visit my newest BFF.  If you don’t know about Angela and you are a quilter, you are missing out and you absolutely need to know about her.  Check out her Midnight Quilt Show.  It’s awesome!

And then there’s this guy.  He made us laugh all day.  And yes, he is sitting on my quilt.  Absolutely stretching out the fabric and looking for all the world as if he’s going to turn on the machine and start stitching.  But here.  You need to see him in action.

And some more Pappy action.

He apparently just wants to be involved in everything.  But that’s my Pappy!  Always the Entertainer around here.  And Helper.  In the broadest sense of the word.

But back to my Big Day.  And Angela.  And the new HQ Amara (my new baby!)

After Angela’s sweet hubby and his bro set up all the big stuff and we sat in the kitchen chatting away, Angela took this new baby for a spin.  I thought I was gonna have to hog tie her to get to quilt myself!  But here….. you need to see……

Quilting is definitely Angela’s happy place.

But she did let me quilt too.  Can you tell I was excited?

And then she flitted around the room and took pics with my phone from every angle.

 Did I say every angle?

Even up close stuff!

But I think this one is my fave!  Love the look on Angela’s face!

And she got video of me too….. on my very first drive.  And you need to see it, right?  Please humor me.  I have 158 pics and 32 videos to show you…<grin>

Do I look like I’m clutching the handles?  I think I am.  Ha!

Then after all my training with Angela one-on-one was complete, my JSS friends dropped by to meet her.  Doesn’t it look like I’m teaching a class or something?  Like I’m the expert after 2 hours on the machine.  Right.  They were very attentive students.

See how attentive they were?  They wanted me to stitch something so they could watch.  No pressure there.

Such encouraging friends.  As I’m learning.

See how encouraging and attentive my friends are?  Everyone needs friends like my JSS friends.  They are the best!  And I did say 32 videos, didn’t I?  Thankfully they are pretty short.  I’m sure you attentive blog followers will watch every one, right?  Right?

By the way, for those of you who pay attention to such things, we did raise the level of the machine up just a bit after these videos.  After watching me, Angela felt like I was a bit hunched over and needed it higher.  She’s the expert!

One of these wonderful friends also brought champagne so we could toast the new machine.

And we had popcorn and M&M’s in tribute to The Midnight Quilt Show.

JSS gals toasting in my kitchen!  What a fun day!

Angela and I decided to have a toast in front of the Amara with our matching shirts on.

And that’s when we discovered this guy had taken over the machine.  He was checking it out thoroughly.  And sitting right on my quilt!  Oh, that Pappy is incorrigible!

Then we went outside for a group selfie with Angela.  What an amazing, fun-filled day! (The t-shirt/pillow in Annelle’s lap says “Angela’s Fan Club” with the shape of Texas behind it.  We are truly her Texas Fan Club!)

After everyone left, I sat in my room admiring my new toy.  And thinking about how that cord was stretched across where we could trip on it.  And thinking that I loved all the space under the machine and that I should probably get up and move those drawer units under the machine table.

Because see how crowded it is behind the machine?  I never intended to leave those drawers there.

And look how roomy and nice it is with them moved!  Come back, Angela!  We should have moved them sooner!

There is tons of space underneath even with the drawers there.  Notice Pappy is still checking everything out.

So I’ve moved things around a bit, tucked the long cord up under the machine and plugged it into a different outlet where I wouldn’t be walking as much.  I took this pic tonight.  Notice that the quilt is off the machine.  I completely finished it last night!  More to come on that in a future blog….. tease, tease……

One last pic from another angle in the room.  I love my sewing room!  And my new baby.  And Angela.  Such fun to be trained by the best!  In addition to The Midnight Quilt Show, check out her personal YouTube channel where she has loads of instructional videos on free motion quilting, including challenges and loads of fun stuff!  I have learned so much just from watching her videos.  She’s awesome!  And she doesn’t just do longarm stuff either.  She gives equal time to training for free motion quilting on a domestic machine!

So was that about 158 pics?  And 32 videos?  Give or take 1 or 2?  I’m glad you stayed until the end….. more to come!  So exciting to have this sweet new machine!

Hugs and Happy Quilting!
Angela’s new BFF, Barb