Road Trip to Kingston - Long Post

I just came back from a quick trip to Kingston with some quilting friends. I checked Bonnie Hunter's blog tonight and guess where she is? In Kingston! But I was in Kingston, Ontario, Canada and she is in Kingston, New York, USA! Too bad we weren't in the same Kingston in the same country! 

On our way there we even stopped in at the "Big Apple"...but not the New York Big Apple...the one in Colborne, Ontario. 
The apple was closed for maintenance, so we couldn't climb inside and go up to the lookout platform. We wanted to have a good look around to search for the wildlife that all the signs were warning us about... 





And just how big and scary are the local rabbits that they get their own warning sign!?!? We never saw a single  deer, bear, moose or rabbit!
Why was I in Kingston? First we went to visit a couple of wonderful quilt stores. The first one was in Cobourg and it was called the Stitch Witch, and the second store was Quilt and Stitch in Kingston (the rest of the bolt of the yellow paperweight fabric on this link came home with me and will become part of this quilt). Don't you love visiting new (to you) quilt stores?!?
But really I went to visit the Quinte Quilters' Guild of Belleville to do a trunk show and teach a miniatures class. 

These are some of the brave students who tried their hand at sewing a wide range of smaller blocks in various sizes. 







I also had a wonderful experience of serendipity! Guess who happened to wander into the classroom that day, having just moved to Belleville. Hilary Rice!
I was so surprised to see her, and she was surprised to find some local quilters! Hilary came back for the guild meeting at night, and Linda and I had the chance to show Hilary the quilts we had made in classes with her in the past (click here to read about the classes I took with Hilary when she came to teach at my guild). I was a little overexcited and look like a cat that swallowed a canary in that photo!
I first met Hilary at Quilt Canada in Newfoundland, took 2 classes from her in Guelph, and Linda took a class from Hilary in London, and there all three of us met up in Belleville! Wow...it sure is a "small quilty world" sometimes!
Anyway, it sure was a great day! I tried to make a Smilebox photo collage of some of the photos my friends took of me doing my trunk show, so let me know if you can see it on your computer.