everyone, meet Lucy.

I'm not a big wanter,

but when I want things,

they're big.

It's no secret that I've hoped for a longarm

for years.

And Tyler has wanted one for me

for even longer.

But - longarms cost lots of money

(and take up lots of space)

so I was fine with the knowledge

that it was going to be quite some time

before I got one.

Even so,

for well over a year now,

I've regularly popped in on sites that sell used longarms

and occasionally do a 'quilting' search

in Facebook sales groups

and Craigslist.

Which is how,

2 weeks ago tomorrow,

I came to be the owner 

of a 28-year-old

no frills

Gammill 24" longarm quilting machine

on a 14-foot steel frame.

Everyone,

meet Lucy:

I can still hardly believe she's mine.

Thanks, Love!

all of February

Wow.

That went by in a whoosh, didn't it?!

I ordered this from Charlie and Ella, and it arrived on Valentines Day. I love it so much!!

Let's see.

There was Groundhog Day.

Brandon joined us for the festivities :-)

~

And the Super Bowl.

(Which for us really just means 

snacks.)

~

Some friends gave us tickets

- enough for all of us! - 

to go to a Razorback basketball game.

That was fun,

but I realized I should explained 

some of the rules of the game to them beforehand.

~

I worked my fingers to the bone

trying to finish

Terry Frey's butterfly quilt

so I could enter it in the upcoming NWA quilt show.

When I still had about 50 hrs of work left

and only 2 weeks to do it in,

I knew I had to give up.

It's kinda bummy,

because

if Instagram is any indication,

it would have been really well received,

and I feel like my chance at a ribbon was pretty good.

Ah well.

Speaking of Instagram,

I hit 500 followers a few weeks ago.

It's humbling that that many people 

feel like I have something to offer in this crafty community.

It sure isn't my glamorous, well-styled photography 😆

~

Tyler has continued work on the porch railings

as he's had time

and the weather's been cooperative.

It looks so nice when I drive up!

(It'll really look nice when we paint / stain them!)

~

The girls went to SuperStart

and we babysat kidsat for some friends.

~

The biggest news of the month

is

I went to Quilt Con!!

Long story short,

about a week and half before the trip,

one of my good blogging friends

messaged me to say that

God told her husband 

that he was supposed to send us to Quilt Con.

It was rather humbling to be on the receiving end 

of  such an extravagant gift,

but who am I to get in the way of someone obeying God??

We met in Nashville -

her coming from Arizona, and me from Arkansas.

She was exactly what I expected 

and we pretty much talked non-stop the whole weekend.

We saw hundreds of quilts,

this was my favorite -  made by Wendy Hill

and met a few other quilters.

I tried out some longarms.

We had icecream for dinner.

(yum)

I wish I'd have been more 'myself'

because I feel like I wasn't really much fun.

All in all though, it was a very nice trip

and I'm so grateful for her and her husband's generosity,

and that my man was willing to let me go off 

for a weekend with a 'stranger'.

And I'm grateful that God uses technology

to bring people together.