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.

OH. MY. GOSH.

Holy cow people!!!! What a weekend. First things first though. I want to say HI to anyone new coming to visit today! We All Sew has me on their list of favorite blogs this week and I'm completely thrilled! They've got all kinds of great information there so check it out!

So first off GET A LOAD OF THIS.. me and Susan Branch! This weekend was the Farmstand Show and it was a blast. She recognized me right off, which was a super thrill, like wow, famous Susan Branch recognizes totally-not-famous me! She's a completely nice person and I was so thrilled to chat with her. Especially when she was super busy! What a lovely hostess.

You can see some cute little videos (including one of me and Elizabeth) here on Susan Branch's you tube channel.

It was a darling venue, lots of cute things. Elizabeth and I each found a treasure to take home. And OHMYGOSH I had the best cupcake I ever ate there. Amy Bakes Cupcakes was there in her adorable little trailer. Seriously heavenly.

Gosh everyone was so cute I can hardly stand it. I had such a great time! Susan's friend Judy was there taking a bunch of photos so there should be some photos on her blog soon. I had such a great weekend. But enough gab for one day. I'll be back with more tomorrow!!! xo peeps!

Our Big Adventure

Elizabeth and I are off this morning on a wonderful adventure! We're heading to the Susan Branch Antique Show and Sale in Arroyo Grande!
We're very excited as along the way we're meeting up with KathiD! You can follow us this weekend on Twitter here and here. I'm excited to be meeting Sharon Lovejoy as well. Her book Sunflower Houses brought Frankie and I many happy hours out back in the garden.

So peeps I'll be back Monday with the scoop and hopefully a ton of pictures! Have a great weekend! xo

The Winners!

Good morning peeps! How has the week been going? The usual around here. Well not quite the usual, its not every week you're in a magazine. But aside from that, regular stuff. The weather is messing with me, pretending it's spring when its not. Not yet anyway.

But you're waiting for the winner's right? Well I used the random generator and ended up with Jen in NY who says "Hi Pam! I'm sitting here with the kiddos looking at your pictures of Binnie. My son would love for me to make him the honey bears quilt--please enter me in your drawing!! Thanks!! Jen" (good thing Binnie didn't pick the winners, I'd say this was rigged!) and Cathy who says " have heard that the 4 in 1 tool is really useful. Enter me in the drawing please.I don't mind the word verification. The "words" are so curious."

So Jen and Cathy, please email me your mailing information!

Since today I have no fun pictures to share, I'm going to send you over to The Quilt Show to watch a great beginning free motion machine quilting video by Patsy Thompson. I first heard about Patsy from Amy's blog, I love Amy's quilting, and just about everything else she does. So watch and enjoy.

Happy News!

Yesterday Alex asked me if I wanted to drop over for a cup of coffee. Check out what I found, Alex, sitting around reading her magazine. You know, HER OWN MAGAZINE!!!

I love how she's just so excited, and really, can you imagine, OMG ALEX YOU HAVE A MAGAZINE!!! I'm not going to lie, I did take a quick peek, because check it out.... my pictures and Elizabeth's quilt! I love how the article turned out. My copy should be coming in the mail any day now.

I hope you'll check it out!! Not just because it's a fun article about Elizabeth and I, but because it looks like a great magazine.

You can even subscribe!

p.s. I see The Quilt Life has a blog!

Good Morning!

So how was the weekend peoples? We had an impromptu visit from Frankie at the end of last week which was a lovely treat.

It was nice and sunny yesterday, so we did some miscellaneous stuff in the yard. Nothing exciting, just basic yard cleanup. It was a very relaxing day. Honestly we could be professional relaxers.. its a gift people.

In other news, Alex gave me a couple of Honey Bear patterns and 4-in-1 tools to share with you... so as usual leave a comment and I'll draw some names later in the week, lets say Thursday?

I'm going to have to turn word verification back on for a while, the spam comments are driving me nuts. I hate to do it as I know it's a hassle for you guys. If it doesn't slow down the weirdos then I'll turn it back off.

So that's it people. What's new with you?

Ballot Box!

Have a great day Special Valentine's Peeps!

The meet up.

Yesterday Elizabeth and I went over to have lunch with Holly. It was a lot of fun, just an easy lunch at Chipotle, it's Elizabeth's favorite! Then we headed over to San Anselmo for a little shopping. Our button shop was gone, but Holly pulled this one out of the hat! It's The French Nest and its absolutely charming.

I didn't take photos inside, seemed rude to ask when the owner had her own blog. So hop over and check it out, she's got some lovely photos there. Later we headed back to Panera (because I love it) and we had a coffee and a cookie (well I had coffee) and we were able to see Holly's latest, Fun Flowers.

Here's Elizabeth's Big Sister Little Sister in Fun flowers.. so cute. It's just a darling quilt in any fabric. You saw it here in pieces but I don't know that she's shown the whole thing.. I can't find an entry but let me tell you. DARLING.

Fun flowers also comes in a soft brown colorway, very fun. I think you're going to love it.

The black is wonderful!! It's fabric to be happy about that's sure. Hope you enjoy your sneak peek peeps!

So that was it. The traffic was non-existant which was SHOCKING and AMAZING. Just a nice day all around. Hope you guys had a nice day too. xop

Super Sweet

Busy week for me this week, things to do almost every day! Shockeroo to the system people, mostly I'm lucky to have one planned outing! I had a great time yesterday with Frankie, we did some lunching and shopping and mostly yakking and catching up. And I don' t have a photo to show for it.

Anyway you know, not that I want to go all soft on you, but gosh blogging has brought me together with a lot of really great people. The other day I was reading Sharon's blog, she was sending a sweet treat to someone and I was thinking just what a generous thoughtful person she is..

and then look what shows up in the mail! She was thinking of me and she totally made my day. I'm so happy that she's there close to her kids and family. I'm thinking of you too Sharon, and feeling lucky to have your friendship!

And lucky to have met all you peeps! You guys make my day with your thoughtful comments all the time. Now I better kick it in gear, Elizabeth and I are off to see our friend Holly. Another lucky find via the blog. Life is good isn't it?