Shop Hop 2012 is in the history books

and will go down as a very successful one-for us anyway!

Libby picked me up after work yesterday and we headed straight to Panera's.  One can't shop on an empty stomach!  Also, we needed to let the rush hour traffic subside a little.  We arrived at Quilters Corner.  From the outside you are deceived into thinking this is a small shop.  You would be wrong. Over 7,500 bolts of fabric!  Complete lines of many new fabrics.  An amazing CW repro section, Kaffe Fassett, Batiks....ahhggg my brain just overloaded.

And samples (always many new ones) everywhere.

My wallet was correct in being nervous.
(don't tell Paul)  ;)

day 2 loot!

Rick rack for my watermelon banner (Libby got some too) we got way too much and I auditioned it last night, um it's too wide.  I'm not going to use it.  oh well.

A charm pack from Primitive gatherings, and yardage from them too -for the quilt in the magazine I have opened there.  It's from the summer issue of

which for some reason Google isn't letting me get a to link.
Anyway, I have all the other fabrics in stash, just needed the background yardage and the yardage for the hst's.  I'm not holding my breath on this one but now that I've dropped decent $$ into it -that should help the motivation department.

I also got yardage of Sweetwater's 'reunion' line to go with a charm pack I picked up at another shop on Wednesday.
And at the last shop I bought some Superior threads.
I've never used So Fine #40 -the one I got is a variegated.
Oh and finally, this year each shop gave a charm to go with the charm bracelet we received for buying our passport in April at the 'kick off' and getting a "VIQ" sticker on our passports.  We thought it was a great idea. In the past, VIQ meant at many of the shops getting a crappy FQ from ancient times, sorta like the fruit cake jokes at Christmas.  The FQ you just pass on to some unsuspecting person....
So this change was welcomed and the bracelet is too cute.

I will be wearing it to guild meetings and other quilt-y events for sure.
click on the pic to enlarge-they are really cute charms.

Shop Hopping 2012

Libby and I left at 8:30am. 

We got home at 10:30 pm.

In between we visited 8 of the 10 shops!!!

I drove 323 miles.

We laughed until our sides hurt.

I took no pictures. I had my camera but -duh-never remembered to take it out of the car.

Here is a picture I 'borrowed' from one of the shops.

It is their version of the progressive quilt.

It was my favorite one so far-love that border.  

The loot: 

I must say I was a very good girl. I didn't have a list--always a dangerous thing.

Some yardage, 2 charm packs, 3 patterns...

There are 2 shops left and depending on Libby's schedule we will either go to them Friday evening or Saturday morning.  Quilter's Corners is one of the two we couldn't get too.  It is a 'too die for' kind of quilt shop.  It was in Quilt Sampler Magazine in 2009.  

I'm looking forward to that visit-my wallet is nervous.

I will try to share now one funny story from yesterday.

Each shop had a block from the quilt and built their 'theme' around that. This year it's "Around the Town". We arrived at The Quilt Patch and their block was the hospital.

They had a room designated as a nursery with 2 cute dolls in a cradle.  The 'babies' had just been born that morning-twins a boy and a girl. Their last name was "Dresden" and we were given a slip of paper to write the babies names, first and middle on. It would go into a drawing. 

Now of course, there were other women in the room and we were also being told about other things pretty much at the same time and I was focused (as always) on

 1. where the rest room is and

 2. what little snack-y goodies they're offering.  :)

I got my little paper and sorta noticed how others were REALLY taking time to pick names for these dolls, I mean babies.  

In my head I'm thinking:

"Hello" how hard can this be...for goodness sake....it's a contest for a drawing...not brain surgery...."

So I wrote

"Amanda Jean"

and 

"Adam Joshua"

The names just popped into my head and I thought I was quite clever in having the first letters the same. I put it in the basket and forgot about it.

Fast forward a few hours.  

We're on our way home on the interstate and talking about the shops, what we liked, didn't, what's different etc, etc.

Somehow the subject of the names came up. I asked Libby what she picked. She said she didn't, she couldn't think of anything.

ME:  REALLY???

Libby: Well, it was too hard to think of 'quilting related' names. So I didn't do it.

ME: WHAT??

Libby:  Didn't you see the little story about the babies and how important quilting is to the family and the names were to reflect that.

I START TO LAUGH.  

It's the laugh of one who has been up since 5:30 am and driving for hours and hours and is tired and can't wait to brush her teeth (seriously I kept thinking ....I can not wait to get home and brush my teeth.  After all day, there comes a point where chewing gum just doesn't cut it anymore).

And I tell Libby how I did not see that, hear that, read that whatever! 

 I just named them and was wondering why those other women were taking it so seriously for goodness sake and I thought I was pretty cute with my names-- Amanda Jean and Adam Joshua...and we laughed for oh about 5 minutes, hysterically, and then kept chuckling about it for the next several after that.  

Oh how I would love to be a fly on the wall when they read MY ENTRY....

FUN TIMES, fun times.

Life is Good.

a new door banner

Yesterday, I should have started the quilting on Libby's 'Many Thanks' quilt.

It's all loaded and ready to go.

But I spied my stack of pulled fabrics for a new door banner and I was distracted!

It was good to spend some quality time cutting and piecing.

18 x 46

All fabrics fro the stash, you may not be able to see but the white 'welcome' fabric has ants on it -- too cute!

:)

Today is shop hop! 

Libby and I leave at 8:30 and we'll try to get as many of the 10 shops done today as possible.  I will try to be good and take pictures.  

We both are SO READY for a day out and dedicated to quilting fun.

The shops we don't get to today will, we'll finish on Saturday.

fun times, fun times!

DWMonday....Father's Day

No pictures of the same ole design wall  but here is a Brown Bear quilt I quilted for Libby yesterday.

and then in the afternoon a picnic at my brother's house to celebrate Fathers Day 

and our John's 27th birthday.

Seriously.

Twenty -SEVEN.

I think we just had this one taken a few years ago.

I guess I'm going to be really whacked out in November when the oldest son turns 

THIRTY!!

In my mind's eye they still look like this:

my fave photo of the 3 desperados 

OBW # 3

(50 x 60)

the back, the strip is the original fabric used

close up of my free hand of the panto Raindrops 

My spacing is not perfect  but I think it's an acceptable interpretation.  The size for 1 pass was 6 inches.  I laid a ruler across top and put a long piece of blue painters tape along it to mark the bottom edge. I did the first 2 rows like that but found the bottom raindrops where a little hard to execute so I tightened the row spacing to 5 1/2 and that was better for me.  It doesn't sound like a half an inch would make a difference but it seemed to. Or perhaps I was just getting more comfortable with the pattern. 

Now that I have the movements memorized I think this would be a cool design to just let go with and do smaller and not linear.  

And finally my dear Annie.  

She will be 11 years old on Wednesday.

A day off

Yesterday I had the day off. 

I had so many things on 'the to do list' it was crazy.

I started doing gardening stuff in the morning and in a patch of myrtle along the AC unit at the side of the house I found the Poison Ivy that started my itching a couple weeks ago.  YIKES!

So into the house all clothes in washer-me in shower.  No new itchies so I guess I got it in time.  

I do believe all the ground cover in this area will be removed and mulch will take it's place.  I will not be doing this again!

*****

The weather was so lovely that I didn't want to be cooped up doing binding in the house.

I found that I hadn't finished sewing the binding to the back of this quilt when I had to move it out of the closet for the carpet install.

The label says finished Sept 2011!

oops!

I also spent some time practicing a new to me E2E quilting design. It's a free panto from Stone House quilting called raindrops. I already had it downloaded on my computer but forgot about it until I saw this post from Kathy over at Tamarack Shack.

Since I haven't taken the time to learn how to do pantos yet and I won't have the time for a while...I'm just going to freehand this one.  

It was fun to practice this and I should be ready to quilt with it this evening after work.

and here is the latest Libby quilt I forgot to post a picture with all the biking fun last week.

It's her Dr. Seuss quilt.  I did a meander with a squiggily ribbon candy type thing-y here and there.  

I found the idea in my Pajama quilter reloaded book. 

and another customer table runner

*****

although I don't like to blog about it (afraid of jinxing ya'know) I need to document a little on my walking routine.

I'm still walking.

that's all. 

ha ha

No seriously, 

I am still walking 3-4 miles most days.  I've also (I'm embarrassed to say) adding a little jogging to the walks.  I'm embarrassed because I was so adamant  that I would 'never run again' and walking was enough. But I'm now in pretty good walking shape and don't feel like I'm getting my heart rate up enough so I jog a little and then walk again.  

And dang it, I like it.  

I bought running shoes...well they were cute and on sale for $16-seriously Asics for $16. I just spied them and they fit and are comfy...sigh, I love a good bargain and I had really no intention of actually running in them.

You see a long, long time ago in a land far, far away (the 80's) I was a runner. I even ran in Pittsburgh's "10K Great Race"- ran the whole thing, which was my goal actually.

Then we moved and I could give you a whole slew of excuses but I twisted my ankle and got out of the habit and that was that.

I have no intention of becoming a runner again. My sister runs half marathons, not me. My other sister ice climbs mountains DEFINITELY not me.

I'm the walker who jogs a bit who has finally got her BMI well into the normal range for her height and is comfortable in her clothes and skin again. 

It's been over a year of walking and eating as healthy as I can without being crazy.

Changing the lifestyle has worked--who'd of thunk it!

Now just to maintain for the rest of my life...

always a catch isn't there.

Fun times, fun times.

Life is Good.  

DWMonday

My design wall is the same.  This is what it looks like when I'm piecing leftover batting together.  I got the bag out and started sewing just for my OB Wonder top and then it becomes like a game of how can I get these pieces to fit.  Then I get bored and  feel like I've wasted time.  I made a good dent with the big leftover pieces but I still have a pile of small pieces that would be better left alone until a little project comes along, which I'm sure will be soon.

First of all, I did get a script for the poison ivy and it has helped a lot, between Prednisone, liquid Benadryl and spray benadryl I was able to deal with the itch until is subsided.  

This past weekend was a bike trip!  fun-fun.

1st fuel/rest stop in Ohio

That's our bike on the left.  We went to Put-in-Bay Ohio

The weather was great.  We stayed in Port Clinton and took the Ferry's to the Island.

 Friday we rented a golf cart and toured around then on Saturday we took a different ferry with our bikes. They were parked mostly since we had brunch and then walked all around, looked in the shops, sat on a covered porch and had smoothies and relaxed. Oh my it was so lovely.  Saturday afternoon we had dinner    on the covered deck of a restaurant on one of the Marina's.  I'm not a big seafood person, but I had fresh yellow perch.  I have been trying to remember a better meal.  It was delicious.  I was so relaxed I could have melted into the chair.  

Um, and all I drink is water and iced tea. 

No alcohol was required.

I did spy a quilt shop and we stopped in.

The Nautical Needle. 

I enjoyed talking to the owner, who was working on a customer quilt. She was doing a panto and once again I'm thinking I really need to take some time (when?) and learn to use them. 

The guys were interested in the Gammill for about 3 minutes and then they just sat in the chairs and enjoyed the AC.  I bought a Schnibbles pattern "George" and a FQ bundle of Bar Harbor fabric (Minick and Simpson). 

We got home Sunday in the early afternoon and although I was doing laundry and getting everything ready for the week, we really tried to maintain the relaxation mode for the rest of the day.

ah.  

yea for summer.

DWMonday

Or should we call this post

"Well hot damn she finally posted something"

Here is Scrappy Happy.  I like the quilt, now that it's quilted better than the name. So that's a good thing -can always change the name.  I did wonky feathers on it and as usual while I'm quilting them I feel a dreadfulness that it's looking horrible and then when it's finished and off the frame it looks very good.

I'm not alone in this feeling w/Wonky feathers so it must be just the perspective while quilting them.  I have to work this afternoon but am hoping to get the binding made and dare I even say-sewn on. This is going to be a donation quilt that I hope to take to guild in a couple weeks and have it taken off  my hands --ie: outta my house!

(60 x 76)

and here is the backing-scrappy too!  Would you believe it took me 2+ hours to piece that all together!  I am always amazed at the time involved in piecing/quilting. I think it's because I lose all track of time when I'm doing it. :)

Here's a shot of the sewing room with my design wall is in full use.

7 Dresden blocks on the right; I have 3 more waiting for their blanket stitch  so they can join the others on the wall.

 19 granny square blocks on the left, there is another row down there that HQ's table is blocking.  I was going to make 20 blocks and arrange 4 x 5 but now am thinking I will make it 5 x 6.  

 

Now it's time to get some house stuff done, some sewing done but first to call the doctor.  I got poison ivy-don't know where/how and it's not horrible but it keeps popping up every day a new little patch of hellish itchiness. 

Everyone is telling me I need to get a shot or something to stop it.  So I am trying to be good and listen to 'everyone'.  Besides I don't know how much longer I can take the pink Benedryl stuff-it is helping the itch but it tastes so nasty-yikes. No wonder children have fits over taking medicine.  

gag, gag.

"Everywhere"

for NEXT Easter decorating. 

*smiles*

(9 x16)

Happy weekend to all.