A Christmas Gathering

Friday I went with 3 girl friends to Stover Missouri for a Christmas Gathering. It was two floors of Quilt shop vendors, and other vendors offering pottery, jewelry, stained glass, baskets, and western decor.

This was one of the first booths we came too.

Another view.

What's missing in this picture?  Katie.  I hope the girls told you I was there!

It was a fun day.  We stopped at the Amish market in Excelsior, where we all left with a bag of goodies. Bread flour, yellow eye beans, cracked pecans and two Christmas gifts were in my bag.

We found at least 3 quilt shops along the way. Lunch was at a little diner in Stover where we found the best freshly made hamburgers. After that we made our way to the Outlet mall at Lake of the Ozarks.  Thanks Carolyn for driving. The funny of the day, was the hand blow dryer in the bathroom. Who knew we all had loose skin on our hands!!!


And then came Saturday, The blacksmith and I went to Excelsior, Missouri just as I had done the day before.

It was Blacksmith Association of Missouri meeting. My other blog has a few more details.

Once again I was lucky enough to join a group of ladies for shopping. We found the scratch and dent store, and two Amish fabric and quilt shops. Thanks, Carla, Margie, Nancy, and Ester for a couple fun hours of shopping. In two days I was in more then a half dozen fabric stores. What a good girl I was, I only bought two pieces of fabric totalling less than 2 yards!

Stover Gathering, day 2, with peeps group #2

The trip to Stover Missouri started promptly at 11:45 when I met 3 gals in a local grocery store parking lot. Nicole, aka Missouri Gal was our chauffeur. Marilyn and Brenda were her
co-workers. I was the new girl on the block.

It was fun to chat with 3 new quilting friends. The talk never stopped, or the laughter.

Our first stop was in Versailles Missouri at Shady Gables tea room. We did not have reservations, however they said they could take us right in. Our server before seating us asked if we knew about the tea room? (I could see mink capes on all the chairs in the dining room). She said it was not an order off the menu thing. I asked how long high tea would take and she told us 2 to 2 1/2 hours. We quickly opted out. After all we had things to do and places to go.

After we grabbed a quick bite at McD's (I know a far stretch from high tea) we arrived at the Stover gathering.

This was a two story building full of a quilter's dream. I counted 29 vendors. You could buy anything quilted related plus some wine, pottery or lunch under one roof.

I snapped a few pictures of things I really liked today.


This rabbit quilt, with the carrot borders was beautiful.

This was the booth of Quilted Oak. See the dress quilt on the wall. I so wanted it! The dresses were made from reproduction feed sack material.

Nicole found fellow blogger Katie aka Primitive Woolens. Katie had told us via email where to look for her. All three of us being bloggers had to take a picture with their respective cameras! Too funny!

This was Primitive Stitch's booth. They are from Warrensburg Missouri. I loved all the felt pictures.

This was the raffle booth. Don't the two ladies look thrilled to be sitting there? Anyway I took a couple of chances on the quilt and a few more on the sewing machine. Hope I win.

I think this was Patches Place of La Monte Missouri. I just loved all the embroidery items.

Now if I could have gotten this picture without the ladies, you could have seen the quilts better. It just goes to show you how crowded it was.

I even found a pottery booth with a butter bell I have been wanting. Unfortunately it was black pottery. I just can't do black.

The 4 of us all had packages to take home. We stopped at Stover Quality Quilting just a block away. So much to look at there, even a bargain back room.

It was time for some refreshments. So Nicole knew the way to Grey Bear Winery. The long winding blacktop lead us deeper into the countryside.

We arrived just as owner David was putting out his open shingle. It was time to sample some wine. We tried samples from many bottles. From Chicks and Tiggers, Bushwacker, Bear Claw,

Trail of Tears to Smoke Mountain. David was so much fun. With every sample he poured us, he would ask 'mind if I drink with you'? Sometimes he'd fill his glass and forget about ours.

After we purchased a couple of bottles, we made our way to the bar. There he served samples of beer. He was even into adding liquor to beer. I passed on them all. I'm not a beer fan.

We decided it would be nice to eat again. So we purchased a sampler platter and found a table for us. It was my first time to have breaded fried pickles and breaded fried cauliflower. The beer battered onions rings were the best I've ever eaten.

It was about 4:45 when we left there. We would make one more stop at Linda's Cotton Patch in Versailles. There I finally broke down and bought 4 yards of fabric. The girls were so glad I finally gave in.

We arrived back at our parked cars about 6:00. What a great way to spend a day in the country with fellow quilters and bloggers.

Thanks, Nicole, Marilyn, Brenda and Katie!