Quilt Sisters Exploring - Warm Springs Ranch (The Clydesdales!)

 Good Morning!  We are up EARLY, had breakfast and have arrived at our 9:00 appointment with 15 minutes to spare.  That is enough for some picture taking.  Warm Springs Ranch is our plan for this morning and I'm super excited.  A little about the sign - the "W," "S," and "R" measure 15 feet tall, weigh more than 2,000 pounds each, and sat on top of the Bevo plant for more than 30 years.  The entire "Budweiser" sign on top of the Bevo building was replaced in January of 2013.  The "W," "S," and "R" were chosen for installation at Warm Springs Ranch, the breeding facility for the World Famous Budweiser Clydesdales.  This little piece of St. Louis serves as an important landmark for those visiting this facility.

Missouri Star Girls Trip 2 - Days 5 & 6

We've hit Day 5 in our Missouri Girls Trip.  Hard to believe, right?  We are still at the Retreat Center in downtown Hamilton, MO and it's our final day of the MSQC Doan Girls Retreat.  Time to drag ourselves out of bed and get moving.  For the last couple of day, I noticed a rug at the foot of the stairs and today I manage to get a picture of it.  I think every sewing room should have one. 

Quilt Sisters Exploring - Boonville, MO (Bridge, Park, and Sunset)

 Due to a bit of a a faux pas on my part, we are staying in Boonville, MO tonight.  If you go on a map and look up the distance from Hamilton, MO to Boonville, MO, you will find that we have made VERY little progress today.  We are TWO hours away from Hamilton and not in the right direction to go home.  Yep, I'm on a roll right now.  At any rate, we are in Boonville for the night so that we can do something fun tomorrow morning -- bright and early.  After an early dinner, we still have some time to kill so a few of us decide to go exploring around the hotel area.  Evening light is great for pictures and . . . . we spotted a bridge.  Now to just get to it.

Sew Sweet Quilt Shop Spotlight - Brunswick, MO

 We are in Brunswick, MO and have found a quilt shop stop.  This one turned out to be sooooo fun and, in fact, several of us would up at the checkouts TWICE.  Come along and see all the treasures we saw and see if you would have shopped a bit too.

Quilt Sisters Exploring - Chillicothe, MO Murals

 One of the places that Jenny Doan told us we should check out is Chillicothe.  The person who did the train mural (and others) in Hamilton was Kelly Poling and his work is all over the town of Chillicothe as well.  That makes an appealing spot for us to check out on the way home from our retreat.  When we park, the first thing we notice is that one doesn't necessarily have to buy a new sign if the business changes.  Just pain over it.  Pretty funny and cool at the same time.

From the minute we enter the downtown area, the walls come alive.  Take a peek with us at just a small section of town and his work.

This one is called "Going Somewhere."  It depicts a pre-WWI Chillicothe setting.  The Milwaukee Depot (demolished 1977) serves as the backdrop for period vehicles and a drawn streetcar used to transport patrons to the station.

Missouri Star Girls Trip 2 - Days 3 and 4

 Day 3 of our Missouri trip starts with the group preparing for a Scavenger Hunt through the Missouri Star Quilt Company shops.  We left the Hotel Hamilton a bit early, so the streets are empty enough for some pictures.

Missouri Quilt Museum - Hamilton, MO

 I was blessed to visit Hamilton, MO last year and so this trip is number 2 for me and a few others in our group.  However, we did not get the chance to visit the museum at that time and we have finished our scavenger hunt with some time leftover before the retreat officially begins.  The museum is only a few blocks away so we opt to walk.  We've heard great things about this museum and I'm looking forward to our stop.