Fun things about our visit.

You cannot take photos around quilt market for the most part so I have some random things that I thought were pretty funny. I hope you enjoy them as well. Over all I wasn' t totally thrilled by the photos, even though I took a million of them. But, better than a poke in the eye I guess.

Gina Halladay from Quilter's Buzz. She is totally a crack up. Totally. Check her out! She's doing a market review as well. Very interesting.

Here's Mark Lipinski from Quilter's Home Magazine. He's hilarious and inappropriate, which is of course why we really liked him. We had tracked him down to come by and finally on the last day he came!

This Pfaff truck pulled into the convention center. I could not believe how totally amazing this driver was. I watched him park this beautiful shiney clean truck and was awed by his skill. Inside was a Pfaff display.

The Hyatt welcomed us.. I wish they could have gotten their fire alarm situation taken care of, that would have been more of a welcome. Seriously.

This is the Mr. Coffee "Coffee Concepts" coffeemaker. Their "concept" of coffee is way different than mine. Thank goodness for the Starbucks downstairs.

One of the days we were out and about we went to Historic Springs, what a great little town. There is a quilt shop there that is CRAMMED with fabric. It looked small and not so quiltshoppy at the door but once you get past the first room I could not believe how much fabric there was. The next three photos are from the Shabby Rose.. OHMYGOSH, what an amazing store. I was tempted to buy a truck and start hauling stuff home. Julie tells us that you practically find this cool stuff laying on the side of the road. Seriously, no wonder there are so many cool houses from Texas featured in all the magazines.

The whole time I was thinking about the blog and how I'd take photos of this and that and how I'd post and blah blah blah. Then blogger and its road block filled ways nixed the whole thing. I took a million photographs of the Houston downtown skyline, but what I really love is all the stuff in front. Like Houston, way to give me a shout out with Target and Mahatma rice? And who doesn't love a Party Boy? I hope Party Boy isn't an "Adult" store, because let me tell you, that place is CRAMMED with them. Seriously, there are other hobbies Houston.

This place cracked me up. I was glad to have a chance to drive by it again and get a photo. Sorry to all of you who were hoping for fun quilt show photos. I was amazed by this cactus store. With a giant cactus in the middle, made out of galvanized pipe it looks like. My backseat photos aren't good but you get the idea.

Now look at this billboard. Does this not crack you up?

And Houston loves Veronica Mars. I love Veronica Mars. While we were waiting for the show there were tons of commercials about Casanova Nurse. I was thinking gee, you know, that must be some kind of show our local CW doesn't carry. Wonder what its all about..

Does this not crack you up? Because wow, this is pretty much one of my favorite things about Houston.

Julie tooks us to Guadalupe's for lunch the day we arrived and again on Friday. It was like the best lunch ever. And huge, I could not even eat it all. I'd like some of this right now.

Of course my big all time favorite was from Jax's. I'm hoping that's how you spelled it. I am still dreaming about the chicken salad there. Because it was that good, so if you're in the neighborhood, go and get some chickeny goodness. Its just a fun casual eating spot within a few miles of the downtown. Elizabeth had chicken fried chicken and that's the biggest chicken breast I ever saw so yeah, I guess it's true that everything is bigger in Texas.

This is Julie's chicken fried steak. I'd have tried that had I not had to have my chicken salad again.

Did I say BEST CHICKEN SALAD EVER? Because it was. I'd (almost) move to Texas to have this all the time.

But still Casanova Nurse is just about my favorite thing in Texas. Wow.

Pamkittymorning + Blogger = Luv (for now)

Finally.

Elizabeth and I sitting in the Oakland Airport.. she picked me up at 4am. Wow, I can't believe I wanted to post this picture so bad. Ugh. Well, I'd like to think my head doesn't look like the moon but this photo and blogger tells me otherwise.

If I hadn't seen the whole convention center as it was the 2 days before market started, I'd have never believed it. The place was a wreck. This is the booth with just a few of the boxes in it. Elizabeth shipped 14 boxes to her in-laws.

This is the booth before market opened at 9:30 2 days later. Didn't take that long to get it set up, we were basically done by the end of the first day, just a few things were added the second day. Some people had some seriously elaborate booths. And then there were the not-so-elaborate booths. And ugly booths, and amazing booths. What's most obvious is that everyone loves what they do.

Here's our first celebrity guest, Alex Anderson. In a venue like this its hard not to notice that's she's a star, but at home she's our friend Alex. It was her encouragement that got Elizabeth moving towards her own shiny spot in our quilting universe. Alex is a wonderful person and a great friend.

Lastly, and most certainly not least, here's Julie, Elizabeth's sister-in-law. Without her to drive us around, store and cart our stuff and just in general be a good sport about helping, we couldn't have done it. Thanks Julie. It was a great pleasure meeting you.

Why today blogger?

Blogger is really being a pain in the.. well you know. Geez. I wanted to start on my stories about my trip today. Rats. I had all these great ideas about photos and blah blah blah. Nada.

I had a wonderful time. Met a lot of super cool people including Jackie at Wren's Nest,and Heather Bailey and Gina Halladay from Quilter's Buzz then a bunch of famous quilty people came in, including Darlene Zimmerman, who writes books and makes quilting tools and designs fabric. I didn't realize she had a website as well, wahoo. I just adored meeting her. She was super nice and at her tool demonstration at the EZ quilting booth she signed a hexagon ruler for me. Because she rocks. She was my favorite celebrity of all time. I wish I'd been brave enough to get a picture but I'm sure behind her kind smile she was thinking STALKER ALERT.

We went to a lot of great places to shop including the Historic Town of Springs, and that was a blast. There was a great shop there for all things shabby chic and we wish it was closer. Photo someday. I managed to pick up something 'totally Texas' for Frankie. I found the most blingy over the top handbag for her and of course I really have no photo of that but she'll be sporting it when she comes home this weekend for Bret's birthday I'm sure.. maybe then. You know, if blogger can be bothered to load it.

The best quilt store ever was the Painted Pony. They have an amazing shop, the people are great and it was a lot of fun. They have a booth at Quilt Festival and will be featuring several quilts of Elizabeth's.

It was a ton of fun except the night the fire alarm at the hotel went of FIVE TIMES beginning at 11:30, final call at 4am. Hyatt, we don't appreciate that at all. It was Saturday and instead of getting that bonus hour for the time change we had a whole night stolen. And we needed it.

So there is a brief little taste of Texas my little Bluebonnets. Hopefully blogger will get over being in a huff and let me get some photos on soon. Because hey, that's what its all about. You hear that blogger my friend.

Happy Halloween!!

I'm home again! I have tons to yak about but in the meantime...

HAVE A SPOOKY DAY!

*** Edited to ask.. didn't anyone think this flower looked like a little skull? I couldn't believe how cool it was!

Off to Quilt Market.

Hope to update during the week, but if not, see you back here on Halloween!!! Have a wonderful week chickadees!

Sunday Sunshine

Have a beautiful, peaceful Sunday my friends.

All the cool kids are doin' it.

I've been reading a lot about freezer paper stencils lately. It looks so fun. When Frankie was probably in 3rd or 4th grade, I did some painting on fabric, but I drew the designs on and used craft paint and some kind of additive that made it flow nicely onto fabric. It was during my kind of folk arty phase, where I did a lot of wood painting etc. Ew. Now that I really think about it, it was around when I was 40, because for my 40th birthday my mom bought me a scroll saw. Yikes, that's 12 years ago my friends, and most of you were probably in high school. Maybe college.. And Frankie, 2nd grade, MAYBE. Probably 1st. But as it is with us old folks, I digress. I hope I can stay awake for this whole post. I should get some Geritol, which again, just shows how darn old I am because do they even make Geritol anymore? No.

Lets get back to my freezer paper stencil project shall we? I was interested but it wasn't till I saw this this on Jennifer's blog that I really wanted to get in on the action. Frankie and I had seen a lot of cute clothes at a darling boutique that had silver paint details that we loved. Jennifer was super nice and told me the paint she used. Frankie and I scored some bargain jeans at Ross and I started thinking about what I wanted to do. A lot of the stuff we'd seen had skull designs. Very fun, Very Tarina Tarantino, who we love.

In the meantime, PIQF comes along and I find this cool Day of the Dead fabric. I grabbed a fat quarter for inspiration.

One day I'm bored and think gee, I bet I could use this skull for a freezer paper stencil. (Old people talk to themselves, a lot.) I am not that good at the visualization of negative images, lets just start with that. Jennifer was like a genius when she did that tiger because WOW. Did you see that? Anyway I didn't have the paint she recommended yet but I remembered an article from the Fons and Porter quilt magazine about using liquid dishwashing detergent to bleach jeans. I made my stencil, a primitive not that cool version of the original. I ironed it on to the jeans and glopped on the dishwashing detergent and let it dry. Then I laundered the jeans. Oh, and I put a piece of cardboard into the leg of the jeans to make sure the detergent didn't seep through. That's probably obvious but I put it in so you don't think I'm lame.

Here are my results! Frankie and I are thrilled with them. I'll probably think about doing some more to these jeans but for now she can wear them for some Halloween type fun. So thanks again blogging friends for all the inspiration. And thank you Jennifer, for the paint information. I found a place to get that Exciter Pack! And I can't wait.

Just another day.

The weather has been so nice here. I had the windows open all day letting fresh air in. Someone in the house has a cold and someone else who's going to Houston next week has been trying to avoid it. No point in naming names.

We used to call these little winged creatures Skippers. I don't know what they're really called but this afternoon when I forced the dogs to go outside we saw a ton of them. Seriously. It scared poor Peep even.

My sunflowers are getting so tall. Some are over 5 feet now, which I think is pretty good since I planted them so late. I'll have a yard full of birds now that my little scarecrow is all grown up and moved away.

I miss that girl.

International Man of Mystery

Its hard to get good photos at PIQF, there are so many quilts and so many people. Two quilts really jumped out at me. In the small collection, Japan: A Journey Around Kimono Fabric - Yoshiko Katagirl. Recent works based on her series of articles in Patchwork Tsushin, there was this quilt. I loved the tiny half square triangles. Probably 3/4 of a inch big. I can't even imagine sewing those small things together and having them still be square.

Its the colors and the baskets that fascinate me in this quilt. I think baskets are my favorite blocks. I am not one to fully enjoy the random nature of this quilt, the interrupted rows make me look to connect them somehow. Maybe that was the intention of the quilt artist.

The circles are also amazing. Round for one thing! And some are textured, the fabric is stitched and drawn up in some technique I am unfamiliar with. Really amazing. Plus it looks like crepe type fabric, so no easy task to work with in the first place.



And this piece..
Oh Illya, sigh. From 1964-68, you were my man of mystery.

There really is something for everyone at a show this size.

PIQF Report

Thursday Sandy and I made our way down to PIQF. We've got it down to a science now. We rendezvous downtown 9am (ish).. she lives about 45 minutes or so from me. We make it to the convention center by around 10. We walk over and the crowd has gone through the line and we're in before you know it.

Sandy is patient and kind and listened to my manic ramblings all the way there. Thank you Sandy, you're a great friend. I was wound up with tons to say. She barely got a word in edgewise. Pam, back off the coffee. (ha ha ha just kidding I LOVE COFFEE) (sorry, I'll settle down now)

The greatest part about the show was how happy Sandy was to find her book and quilt sample in The Quilt House booth. This picture isn't the greatest of Sandy but we had limited time to really stage the shot because busy shoppers were kindly letting us wedge ourselves in between them and the goods. I made a big scene and I'm sure that Sandy was mortified but she was a good sport. Her book is the greatest and I'm sure when you go to her site you'll see her lovely work and feel inspired.

I didn't buy that much stuff. To be honest, I wasn't that wowed by the vendors this year. My favorite vender just didn't have the same WOW factor it usually has. I bought a couple of Lecien fat quarters and some buttons. Under $20. Normally there will be something there we've never seen and have to have. My cool shop with all the thirties fabrics didn't have anything new. SHOCKER. I didn't buy anything there. What else. I bought a pokey thing to stick in my Roxanne's Glue. I bought a thread stand. No way to make that look interesting, unless you, like me, love my huge spool of thread and want to gaze at that again. Because wow, I bet its going to rock.

I went again today with Elizabeth to deliver some patterns. We walked the show again and we agreed, nothing to wow us as consumers. We bought a couple of little frames for needlepunch and I bought a fat quarter of Day of the Dead fabric for a little garment project I have going for Frankie but that was it.

OH! But before I forget, I got to briefly see what was left of Jackie's pincushions at the Fig Tree Quilts booth. The few that were left were darling, I hope she can get a photo tomorrow. The display was darling.

And that my friends, is the end of this tale.

PIQF

Sandy and I are off to PIQF today. I'm sure we'll both have reports to tell you all about it!! In the meantime my fine feathered friends, have a wonderful day!

Marie Claire has some Idees for me.

Thanks to Jackie I found my Marie Claire Idees, since I'm in a copycat kind of mood. I can't believe all the cool magazines that I've missed out on! Coffee and Marie for me my friends.

For a lazy girl I have a busy week, two working days, two days at PIQF and then a day to meet up with my girl. I'll report in on my activities.

What are you making with Marie?

Everyday inspiration

A couple of weeks ago I picked up these paint cards at the hardware store. I was on some other mission that ended up taking me past the Martha Stewart Paint display and they caught my eye. I love Martha, I've loved her since I was pregnant with Frankie, sitting home on maternity leave, waiting those last two weeks before her arrival and watching endless hours of daytime TV. (The grammar police will soon be here, look at all those commas.. yikes I hear the sirens now.) Martha came on our local PBS channel with her Thanksgiving special and I was hooked. I have the Fire King to prove it.

I have tried and tried since I picked these cards up, to get a good photo of them. Did I brag too much about my picture taking skills, is that why I am unable to get a nice clear shot? I love the soft colors. Normally I don't like green with aqua, but I see how they're so artfully chosen my gal Martha and it opens possibilities that I didn't consider before.


I've been working on my fun knitted purse from Laughing Hens and it's almost done. Now I need a new project, particularly since I am off to Quilt Market and there will be times when I need to keep busy but still chat. Something to pick up and then put down. I went on a mission to find some yarn and look what I ended up with. I think I'll make a new purse just like the one I am making now because I haven't had my fill of that picot edge.


My recent fabric purchases fresh from my cutting table where I carelessly tossed them. (I mean seriously, am I even using the table now?? ) I didn't even really think about these purchases, at least in relationship to the cards, but somehow, those colors are just on my mind. I'll save this pile and hope for a project to come along. (or possibly pile it all back on the table, sigh. )

News from the dork.

Where have I been? What have I been doing? Thursday I had a nice lunch out with my friends Carol and Robyn. Carol and Robyn are my mother-daughter sewing friends. I met them years ago when I used to have a little club at another quilt shop. Wonderful women and I'm priviledged to know them. We've been trying to schedule some time since July and just never seem to be all free at once.

We were supposed to meet up with Robyn at a local restaurant close to the school where she works. When we called to say we were running late she said come to the school, they've made lunch here! And what a lunch it was! Enchiladas, rice, salad, sodas, cake. Really great fun. Then we went back to Carol's for more chatting and catching up. Its been a busy summer for all of us, so we caught up on the kids and the families etc. I had a great day!

On the ride home there were some amazing clouds. Coming thru the canyon and over the grade I couldn't believe how white and billowy they were. Cliche clouds my friends!! The photos don't even capture how beautiful they were. But I know, it's not like you haven't seen some clouds before right? Still they're good looking and I really enjoyed them too.





This is on the backroad towards town. You can see the clouds getting darker. Wow, I wasn't home maybe half and hour and it began to pour HUGE FAT RAINDROPS. It was warm out and the windows were open, it smelled so good. It finally feels like fall here now. A little rain, some really cool weather, the change of the light, you can' t help but love it all.

I know it sounds dorky but I just couldn't help but feel happy. It was pretty out, I had a fun with my friends, my book on tape was awesome, it was just a super day all around. I hope you guys have a super day too!

Houston We Have Liftoff!

Its official, we're going.
International Quilt Market- Fall

Ok, it was official before too, but now there are business cards. And postcards to previous customers to let them know we'll be there and to stop by and see what's new. Later when the printing is done there will be fresh brochures and bookmarks and buttons and new patterns. I can't wait.

But it isn't till the end of the month, so I'll have to wait a bit. In the mean time there will be Pacific International Quilt Show. That's next week and believe me, I'll be there with bells on come Thursday morning. Sandy and I go every year. We have our plan, we pack a lunch, we synchronize our watches and we kick some shopping a.... ooops sorry, I get a little carried away. Sandy is so mature but sadly, I am not. I'll get two days there, Friday Elizabeth and I will go and look at some booths. We're all business.

....lets not kid ourselves SHOPPPING. There are tons of people who go and look at all the amazing quilts first but let me tell you my friends, I'm free to admit I'm shallow. I want to see all that those vendors have to offer (except possibly that guy with the creepy puppets. I'm pretty sure I'm not interested in that!) The quilts will be there the whole exhibit. And I'll enjoy them at my leisure, when I finish my shopping!

Phew!

Luckily yesterday there was nothing new at the shop I absolutely had to have. Its a relief really because I need to finish things here. But still sad because I'm bored by my projects and wanted something new. There's just no pleasing me somedays is there?

Its overcast again today, I love when mornings start like that. I don't really have an agenda, so I started washing the sofa slipcovers. It just seemed like something that should be done. I love fall but the mold and dust on the leaves really gets to me, so I've taken allergy meds for days, and have the sluggish feeling associated with them. So I'll go with it. Do a little of this and a little of that. That's how I roll.

And for fun, here's a funny photo of Frankie on another outing on the Sheriff's boat. They love to tease her about her height.

Blob of a day.

After several days of sewing and making things I ended up in a lump on Sunday. The best I could do was some mending, but it needed to be done so I'm glad. I got other not so creative things done and spent most of my day in the room there with my TV, at my ironing board desk. You can't be creative every day I guess.

I did find the large hunk of white and red polka dot fabric, thank goodness. I was wondering how I was doing to get all my sashing out of the piece closest to the surface of all the piles of fabric around here. So I can get back to that. And then maybe some organization. I have a couple of stalled projects on my table that I can pack up and save for later, instead of leaving them lying around.

What I need is an assistant that I can pass stuff off to to get finished. I'm great at starting and not so great at finishing. I don't know whether to hope for something wonderful to be at work today or not, because you know, those blocks could end up in a pile again, interrupted by something new.

Have a fine Monday chickadees.

Slow Sunday

Sunday is starting off slow around here. Coffee, reading blogs, sending email. I thought I'd show you my sunflowers, they're looking good don't you think?

And this, well this is just crazy! I borrowed Elizabeth's Quilt Patis to make this little block. In that spirit of I-think-I-know-best, I pressed when I shouldn't have and managed to iron the patis to the blocks, but I was able to get them out. I am such a dork.

Have a peaceful day!

Prickle Me This.

My cherries are completed, and they're cute, well, cute enough. Prickling isn't going to be my next big hobby. I'm not saying it wasn't fun, it just wasn't, well, fun enough.

But when it comes to fun, I found finishing the picot edge on this purse fun and satisfying! Harder to watch TV when you have to count stuff and pay attention, so I really missed a lot of CSI last night. But still, I love love LOVE that picot edge. I don't know that I see myself as a knitter, you know, hardcore knitter, but maybe more like the occasional knitter.

This is really more my thing. And maybe not just quilting, but sewing in general. While I keep exploring new things, I always come back to my sewing machine.

Later.. Here's the second attempt at the cherries. I think these are cuter, smaller, more compact. I might add a bow for interest. Still not my favorite thing ever, and when the instructions say sharp, they really mean it.

Still, they are cute...

Crazy Dog Meme

Sandy tagged me recently to do a meme about 5 weird things about yourself or your pets.. I thought it was safest to go with pets. ( I don't need to scare you off right away with my own wierd things..)

I have two Norwich Terriers. They're sweet little dogs, Rocket, on the left , is the boy, Peep on the right is our girl. How we came to have these two dogs is a long story, best saved for another time. Believe me, that falls into the category of weird things about me.

1. Rocket enjoys wearing clothes. He doesn't want to take them off. Peep gets jealous if she doesn't have clothes on as well. Not that we dress them often. We just happened to be going to the snow and got them some sweaters to keep them warm. I know. Crazy talk.

2. Maybe this falls under wierd things about me. Lets don't persue it.

3, 4 and 5.. all about Peep. She loves carrots. She eats them, rolls on them, carrys them around, and will steal Rocket's. Carrots. Yum. She also will not drink water inside the house. Don't understand this at all. To top this off, outside, she won't drink out of a normal dog waterdish, so I have a big plastic pot saucer and she does her drinking there. I used to have saucers under all plants but turns out that grimier the water, the more she likes it. That can't be good. Lastly, she won't eat her food in the kitchen in the dog eating area. She has to eat on a little rug in the living room when we're there. I guess her eating requires an audience.

So there you go. Tag yourself if you'd like to share some wierd!

A little of this and a little of that.

Good morning! Its a nice kind of overcast day here and I love it. The air is cool and actually smells damp and fall like. I'm having a lazy morning. Just so you don't think I've been busy, here's what's gone on since we last met: You can see I've had The Prickler out and I have one little cherry and a leaf going. It was fun and took practically no time at all to prickle up. I'll do a couple of more today so I can make my pin. I'll probably have to do a new leaf. The instructions show a pin with a double leaf but I thought I was so smart and would do one leaf .. well now that I try to attach my leaf and cherry I can see the wisdom in their double leaf plan. Which I suppose is just one of many reasons there are books on this subject and I am not the author of them! I've also been unsewing those yellow triangles off the little rail fence blocks. Decided I didn't like where that whole project was going but still loved the little blocks, so during TV that needs to be watched, I work on that. Plus the quadrille pad is out, I saw an old quilt in a magazine that I liked and I'm working on drafting it out. We'll see if anything becomes of that.

In the meantime when I'm watching TV out in the living room I keep my little knitting project handy. This is my purse kit and I finally got to knitting on that. I'm not the best knitter ever and didn't want to mess it up since you had to keep track of things more than any project I've done before. Plus there was a couple of things I've never done, but somewhere on a blog I found the best knitting help site. Now I can finish that picot edge.

I'm going to try and be a tad productive around here today, although since it's so late already, its a bit hard to believe! Have a swell day my friends!