Shop Hopping

We had a fun day shop hopping while we were in Las Vegas. We went to five shops and all of them were a lot of fun. First stop, Nancy's Quilt Shop. We got there when it opened. Lots of inventory, nice and bright and clean. Next up was the Christmas Goose. This store was great and Elizabeth and I went back the next day for another quick peek. I love a store with nooks and crannies and CG really has it! Plus it's a very friendly shop.
We went to The Fabric Boutique next. No pictures there, but it also was huge. They had tons of samples and I picked up a couple of pieces of Bubblegum Basics that I had hoped to see again. (don't you hate using up all of something great?)

Fiddlesticks was next up, and it was a darling shop. The people were friendly. We were tweeting a long the way and a lot of you recommended Fiddlesticks, and I can see why.


After lunch we headed over to Quiltique. I can see why we needed to eat and get rested up, it was the HOLY COW shop of this trip.


Thirties fabrics.. I haven't seen such a nice collection in ages. And the displays.. I love beautiful displays.

It was a great day all around. So fun to see so many great shops, all friendly and nice. There really is something for everyone in Las Vegas when it comes to quilting.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAMMY!

Today is our sweet friend Tammy's birthday. We were so lucky to be just down the row from Tammy on our first Quilt Market in 2006 . Little did we know that it would be the start of a wonderful friendship.

We celebrated all week with Tammy and her crew in Vegas!

Hope you take a minute to hop over to her blog and leave her a birthday message.

Viva Las Vegas

It started like this...
and ended like this...

It was awesome! The weather was made to order, absolutely perfect. We did a ton of sewing, driving around to quilt shops, eating, swimming, staying up late sewing some more.. and then we had to go. We really enjoyed hanging out with Tammy , Sherry, MaryLynn and Cally. They are so much fun. And man talk about sewing maniacs. They know how to get stuff done. Elizabeth worked on some projects that will be patterns, then made some tiny little purses. I worked on my Victory Garden blocks. I hope to get those finished up soon. I made an error with my template on my second block, cut two then cut two reversed.. only cut one reversed. It really threw me for a loop. Tried to figure a way to recoup but no luck. Thank goodness back at home I have enough of the fabric to make the block.

Anyway peeps. You've not seen the last of this trip. Happy Monday!

Off my nut.

Good morning! Didn't want you guys to be bored while I was gone so I thought I'd brighten your day with some of my favorite fabric! Holly has totally outdone herself with the latest Dolly Dresses line... and I'm nuts over it. She sent a huge box to Elizabeth and I last week and we both have great plans for it. You know, once we finish fighting over it.

The blues are wonderful, and as usual even though it's sunny, my pictures aren't the greatest. I want to make a blue and white quilt. Can you stand these? I'm completely in love. And I have a plan already.

And ohmygosh a pink and red quilt. I'll be drawing up my plan while we're on our trip. I'm thinking something churn dashy maybe?

Or maybe I'll just covet them. Yeah, that's the ticket. Seriously, could they be any cuter?

Something you don't see everyday!

Hi you guys, how was your weekend? Mine was FANTASTIC! Saturday Alex invited me to sit in on a taping of The Quilt Show over at Alden Lane Nursery. And take a peek who's segment they're taping.
That's right, its Camille!! CAN YOU STAND IT???? Honestly I could barely stand it! She's a natural too, she talks about quilting and her new book and shows off some of the upcoming fabric line.. it was an OMG morning my friends.
Camille is having her year, fabric galore (and it's even better than the last line if you can believe it, which yeah, I know, it's hard) a new book with C&T and the TCC event all in September! And just the other day Where Women Create was photographing her studio for an upcoming issue.

Here she is clowning around with Jarom, her husband. Are they darling?

Next segment up was with Susanne, the acquisitions editor for C&T Publications. The quilt going up in the background is our friend Cherri's quilt from her new book City Quilts. Susanne shared a lot of the upcoming books in the new Stash line that C&T is publishing. Both Cherri and Camille's books with be published in the new imprint.

And just because I want to drop as many names as possible in one blog post, a lot of the cute birds from the new book Little Birds were there, including the darling bird mobile by my friend the Famous BariJ!
It was so much fun hanging out there for a few hours. It's very interesting to see how things are done. And challenging to stay quiet and out of the way!

Hurry up and check in with Camille ... she'll be blogging all about it. And I think I saw some very incriminating photos of our Favorite Fig on her camera. So don't miss it.

NOW.. I'm off at the crack of dawn with Elizabeth heading to Las Vegas. Our friend Tammy has invited us to spend the week celebrating her birthday with her! Lots of shopping and sewing are on the menu! Can't wait.

Out and About

Yesterday was the last sunny day this week, so Elizabeth and I took a quick trip up to Quilter's Inn. The weather was lovely and the outing very fun. Look who we ran into, the (very famous) BariJ! She's excited about her new line of patterns just out this week!!! They're darling.
Jane also showed off this quilt just back from the machine quilter. I'm super excited, she's made her own version of my Simple Squares pattern. The store was chock full of shop hoppers and Janis's class was going strong. While we were there, Jane told us Diana and Laura have started a blog, check it out! We are so lucky here to have so many great designers local.

Back home I tangled with some Peltex 71 for the afternoon. I'll be back at that today. And because misery loves company, I'll be heading over to Elizabeth's later to rob her off some Doll Dresses fabric and to have her do some work on this project as well!

Hope you guys have a good weekend! xo

It was great.

All that sunshine yesterday, I feel rejuvinated. It was a great day to sew, to walk outside with the dogs, to go run errands. All of it. And its sunny again!



Elizabeth and I are headed out for a quick run to Quilter's Inn. She needs an oven mitt pattern by a very famous someone and I'm going to be greedy and hog up some more sunshine. DO YOU BLAME ME?

That's right..

... that is sunshine on my coffee cup. AND I LOVE IT. It's not quite time to sit out back and enjoy it, there's a bit of frost out there too, but I can see it's coming. I could not be more grateful. I'm going to try and get some stuff done today. It should be awesome right? Have a good day peoples! xo

The Sunny Side of the Street

Hey there! How goes it? Did you have a busy Monday? I dropped off Alex's blocks to her and chit chatted a bit. She and the rest of the TQS family are gearing up for some taping this weekend in Livermore. Very exciting stuff. Then your basic errand running.

It's a beautiful time of year in California, green fields full of mustard flowers. Of course on the other side of this road it was pitch black and later it stormed like crazy. And this morning BLUE SKIES PEOPLE! And frosty roofs. By Monday we should have some warmer temperatures, 68 degrees.

Did a little bit of fabric auditioning. Haven't decided anything yet, but will soon. I'm making myself another kit for my sew adventure next week. More on that later.

Big news brewing over here. Somebody reveals her big fat secret. AND IT'S AMAZING.

Catching up

Morning peeps! How was your weekend? It was an all sewing weekend for me for the most part. Downside, it's stuff I can't show. Alex is working on a project for the magazine and I was doing some blanket stitching for her. I love blanket stitching and it was a perfect project for sewing group because you don't really need to think about it.

Debbie, as usual, had a wonderful lunch for us. First off I have to show you this package of Artisan Lettuce. SO COOL. And so fresh and delicious.

Debbie not only made a wonderful lunch of salad and salmon, she had the big finish of the day!

It was great sewing with Debbie and Deb and I'm lucky to be included in the group.

So what did you do this weekend?

Sewing Friday

Mornin' Peeps! Happy Friday! I'm off to sew with the Debbies today and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm picking up some stunt sewing from Alex on the way. It will be nice to have some mindless blanket stitching to do. No matching, no pressing, no real concentration, just sitting and sewing and enjoying the company.

I'm cracking up over this picture of Sparrow, Alex's cat. I went over the other day to see a project for the magazine. Apparently this is Sparrow's fort. She's got some mighty fine digs there.

Ok you guys, thanks for getting me through the gloomy week. I saw some sun yesterday, actually did some more sewing and feel 100% better. You guys are awesome. xop

Wednesday's progress

Just to prove I'm not all talk. Some of it even was sewn into blocks. I know shocker huh? Yesterday I was reading over at Amy's that her daughter had read a Jane Langton book. The name sounded familiar so I went checking and lo and behold, in 1962 she wrote a book called The Diamond in the Window which I just loved. I never knew it was the first in a series of books, by 1967 when the next one came out, I was in junior high. I loved that little peek back in time. I enjoyed that book, and probably 10 years ago tracked it down through our local public library system and reread it. It held up I thought.

Anyway, that made me all wistful yesterday. And happy people like Jane Langton are still fueling the imagination of kids after all this time.

So back to sewing today. What about you? Many thanks to Nanette for finding an source for those handles, check all the handles out here. Elizabeth, I believe they made these for you!

Super Slacker

I know, what's with me lately, blogging this late in the morning? Doesn't see quite right does it? Sorry, just can't get my groove on with all this gloomy weather. I'm grateful for all the rain we're getting, California always needs the water, but a day of some honest to goodness sunshine would be helpful.

Some cheery fabric did come our way from Barbara over at Quilt Soup! Look how cute her new line from Henry Glass is! Simply Sweet is just that!

Elizabeth had the bundle and I went for a visit yesterday to pick it up. Because I have a plan. And today I need to put it in action.

Hope you have a good day peeps! I'll be pressing and cutting and sewing! xo

So Tell Me...

Just how cute are these handles? Nireko brought them back for me from Japan and I love them. And how perfect are they with my favorite fabric? Uh, super perfect I think. Which leads me to this question.. if you're shopping for purse patterns, do specialty handles put you off? I know a lot of quilt shops don't carry them, but they are available on line. My purse patterns use fabric handles but sometimes I'd like to branch out a little. And you know, with these handles you can see why!

So I would love to know what you think peeps. Your opinions are important to me!

Flower Sugar

So peeps how was the weekend? Sorry to be so late here, I squandered all my sunshine yesterday enjoying the outside world. Bret and I went to lunch then a nice drive, didn't get home till too late for photos. Had to wait till this morning when things brightened up. Another gloomy week ahead for us.

Last Friday I had a great day, Elizabeth and I met up with Nireko in Walnut Creek for our favorite lunch and fabric. Swoonable delicious fabric. You can see my favorite piece there on the left, floral, red dot. Yes, it's the new Flower Sugar due out after Spring Market. You're seeing it here! Today! Whoo hoo! Thanks to Matt for letting me show it off.

I've been thinking about it all weekend, can't wait to start working on some projects, and people you are going to love the new Color Basics. Just exactly the reason I love fabric.

So people, can you believe it's March already? xo

Cut Up

Well it's finally Friday peeps, any big weekend plans? Not much happening here, hopefully it will be dry enough to do some work outside. The rain has brought us a ton of weeds. A TON. And I don't appreciate it at all. I have some sewing days with friends coming up, and need to have some projects on hand to work on. This is the first little kit I cut myself. It's for this fun pattern that I have been coveting for some time. I'm making the small version, but it's so cute I could go bigger.

I need to get on some more precut kits for myself, I want to be ready for the sewing opportunities I have. Plus I need to shake myself out of my funk. Have you seen the wonderful things people are making these days? It's downright intimidating.

So peeps, have a great weekend ok?

Clip ons!

What do you do when you don't have pierced ears and you have a love of 60's style earrings? Make your own! Frankie doesn't have pierced ears, which is practically unheard of right? She loves the big colorful vintage clip-ons but they're few and far between and the really good ones are a mint!

Picked these two rings up at Forever 21, big, fun and colorful! All I did was pluck off the ring and glue on the earring backs! Won't that be a fun surprise in the Easter Basket?

So that's not completely all I did yesterday but it was the highlight? What about you?

Milking it.

I know.. trying to stretch out the weekend events into a multi-day blogfest really isn't cool. But seriously people, it's dudsville around here otherwise. Buying some rabbit cage litter and waiting in line at Borders doesn't make for great blogging.

I felt quite thrilled with my finds this weekend. As you know, I'm a hardcore copy cat, and I'm not going to lie and say I didn't covet the little planter Elizabeth had scored on ebay for a song. When she pointed to this one with the blue flower, hers is yellow, I died and then snatched it up, because I COULD STOP LOOKING.

I don' t have the patience for ebay searching.

Next up is Skunkie. I picked him up at the farmstand sale from Stephanie of Ruby Rose. When she saw me showing it off she said "Oh you got Skunkie! He was in my yard for years." Then she had her friend snap the picture of me holding Skunkie. I love vintage yard art. (Ann that frog is not safe.)
And because I love this particular type of begonia, I was very thrilled to find this lovely specimen in Cambria at the Garden Shed. You rarely see them and believe me the next day almost all were gone.. thank goodness I picked this one up. It did quite well in my trunk even though it got a tad sunny.

Sadly I squandered my sunny day not taking a picture outside, so back to the bathroom studio. We are back to rain again, which on the one hand is wonderful because California always needs water, but on the other, the gloom really gets to me. Gotta shake it though, we're getting into sewing season!!!

Ok peeps, just so you know, you're the greatest. xo

Natural Habitat

Lately, well longer than lately, I've really fallen down on the picture taking thing. I don't know what's with that. The quantity and quality are really lacking, so I apologize. You'd think I'd have a ton. I did some phone photos that I uploaded to Twitpic but lets face it, phone photos..well my phone photos, aren't that great either.

So anyway, back to the weekend, it was so fun. I picked up Elizabeth at 7am which is probably the latest we've left on any big trip. It was actually light out. We got to Paso Robles right on time, and visited The Cottage. I love their sign, I just want fancy chalkboard signs everywhere I go now. And maybe one at home like the one Lucy had. PKM is IN.

After the Cottage we headed over to Atascadero to visit the famous KathiD!! I thought I took a thousand pictures there, but sadly I didn't. I snapped this chicken photo just a few minutes before I tracked chicken poop through her house. How's that for being a great guest? She left that out of her blog post about us trying to make me seem more cool. Anyway it was a mortifying moment.


Got a picture of this .. an armadillo with a dog, but not a picture of her actual dogs, which were lovely and well trained.

I wish I'd really taken some great shots of her studio. I love this design wall that can slide back and forth across the room. I think it's such a genius idea.

Here's Kathi in her natural habitiat.

We had a lovely lunch out and then went shopping.. first at the Cotton Ball and then at Birds of a Feather in Cambria. I love that little shop.

Then we dropped KathiD off and headed to the Apple Farm. And no trip to the Apple Farm is complete without the requisite photos of the amazing plants. I would love to have nice lush plantings like this.. past June! It's just too darn hot here.

So that was our lovely weekend. We had such a nice time with everyone. Thanks again to Susan Branch for luring us out with her farmstand sale and to KathiD for meeting up with us. And thanks for coming along with us peeps. xo

p.s. check out Ruby Rose's post showing pictures from the Farmstand sale.. you'll see me and my treasure about halfway down.