Quilt Rush

Day One

I picked up the "I shouldn't be doing this, very guilty" Karen and began the journey. We meet up the with the "I can't believe we're doing this" Stephanie in Stockton and the shopping began.

Store 1 - Quilters Quarter, Stockton - no purchases.
Store 2 - Country Sewing Center, Elk Grove - won a fat quarter of my choice, ordered an open toe free motion foot for the Juki.
Store 3 - Quilters Corner, Sacramento - one pattern and a lot of restraint, this shop has wonderful reproduction fabrics.
Store 4 - Thistle Dew, Fair Oaks - no purchases. Oops, the elusive Karen eluted us, it was so much fun having her join us the first day.
Store 5 - Fabric Garden, Sacramento - 5 fat quarters for $5 and two patterns.

Approximately 119 miles round trip - minor damage to the credit card.

Day Two

The day starts at a ridiculous hour of the morning. The "Boy do I need a girl's road trip" Nancy has joined "Wow, we really did make it to five stores yesterday" Stephanie and we are driving...and driving...and driving.  Finally we arrive in paradise...Paradise, CA that is.

Store 6 - Morning Star Quilts, Paradise - no purchases.
Store 7 - Debbie's Quilt Shop, Paradise - three yards of a wonderful reproduction print.
Store 8 - Rabbit Hole, Chico - no purchases
Store 9 - Cloth Carousel, Willows - oops, I thought this shop was in Colusa good thing we double checked the address - one yard of fabric, one pattern.
Store 10 - Sew So Shop, Yuba City - no purchases by me, we won't talk about Nancy.
Store 11 - Sugar Pine Quilt Shop, Grass Valley - one pattern.
Store 12 - Whistle Stop Quilt and Sew, Auburn - no purchases.
Store A - Angel Quilters, Lincoln - 9 yards of an amazing cheap inexpensive, perfect back fabric for the refracted oriental quilt
Store B - Sew Katie Jean, Lincoln - two charm packs of Moda Solids.

Wait a minute store A and B???? Yes, we actually managed to hit two stores that were not in the Quilt Rush. NINE stores in one day! 306 miles and one tired, almost grumpy driver.

Day Three

"You talked me into it" Nancy and "I'm ready to go home" Stephanie started without me. After filling up the car with gas "Lead foot, don't look at the speed dial" Joy arrived at the first shop within 5 minutes of "we already bought fabric and are ready to go" Nancy and Stephanie.

Store 13 - Cloth Carousel, Winters - barely got in the store, no purchases.
Vacaville Outlets, Vacaville - Oops how did that get in here.
Store 14 - Quilted Heart, Vacaville - no purchases.
Store 15 - Cornerstone Quilt Shoppe, Fairfield - two yards of clearance, extra wide backing fabric.

Approximately 140 miles round trip.

Wow! I can't believe "Can we really do all 15 stores" Stephanie and I managed to get to all the Quilt Rush stores and my credit card hasn't been revoked by the bank. It was a long three days, but it was also very fun, largely due to spending time with my great friends.

Wanna see the loot?

Attitude

I've been wanting to make these place mats ever since I saw them on Needled Mom's blog.  Mary was kind enough to share the paper pieced patterns and let me copy her design.

With the darker focal fabric (so much for making them in pink) I wanted less white so I created a paper pieced pot to fill in the space. Now to get them quilted.

Want to know a really good method to keep yourself from buy new fabric? Reorganize what you have!  Some how my fabric has gotten spread out all over the place so this weekend I've been sorting and regrouping my stash.  I'm only half done. OMG, slap my hand if I pull my wallet out to buy new fabric. LOL...wonder how long that attitude will last. Next weekend is Quilt Rush, Nancy, Stephanie and I are planning a road trip to hit at least five stores. I'm thinking my attitude won't last long.
 

Correction

Nancy would like it known that she did not kick my butt...she just strongly encouraged. And I'm glad she did...

 

I love the border on this quilt. This baby is BIG...80 x 97.

The tutorial pattern is Refracted by Melissa of Happy Quilting. It is a fun, easy, quick stack-n-slash pattern. As soon as I saw her tutorial for the quilt I knew it was perfect for these fabrics.

  

 

All but the green sashing fabric is from my stash.

 

 

Cranes, coins, bamboo, a variety of oriental scripts and dragons - love the dragons!

 

 

Wouldn't Tell a Lie

I was hoping to show you a finished quilt...I started out really gung ho then kinda fizzled. Nancy came over to sew today and kicked butt...mine.

I was thinking of stopping at the green sashing but Nancy kicked some more butt...mine...so I'll be adding the border fabric. Since it's a stripe I'm going to miter the corners. I haven't added a mitered border in ages, hope I remember how.

If Nancy says she didn't kick any butt...don't believe her...I wouldn't make something like that up.

Lucky Girl II

 

I recently won a couple of patterns from Sherri Falls of This & That.

 

 

How cute is Suzy's Sack! Thank you, Sherri. I'm looking forward to making both patterns. If you've never been to Sherri's blog before you need to go check it out. Besides having wonderful patterns that she sells, she has Mystery Mondays with some great free small projects.

 

Today was overcast and blah...but my daffodils are blooming like crazy.

I love their bright yellow.

I have been sewing, just nothing to show this week.

If you hear hysterical crying on Tuesday don't worry, it's just me getting my taxes done.

Lucky Girl

This is called cutting it close...

...very close.

Done with the flannels

Who knew...after I finished cleaning out the flannel bin I ended up with:
     1 - Turning Twenty quilt top cut out
     20 - 30" square strip blocks
     30 - 15"  square pieces and parts blocks
     8 - 14 x 16" brick blocks
     28 - 10" squares
     37 - 6.5" squares
and a shoe box full of 2.5" strips.

All from left over pieces from all the flannel quilts or backs I've made.

 

I know I said I wasn't going to do anything with the pieces and parts. I just started mindlessly sewing them together. It was kinda fun. All the pieced blocks are random, no thinking involved, as you can tell from the combination of colors and prints I put together. Who knew I'd end up with so MANY blocks. Next time I need a scrappy flannel back for a quilt I will be more than ready.

 

What else have I been doing? Stephanie and I did a mini-quilt shop hop a few weeks ago, last weekend I went to the Folsom Quilt Show with Nancy and Karen (with more shopping) and this weekend I loaded a quilt on the frame and cut out a new quilt (super easy, can't wait to show you).

 

I have the next two days off - wonder how much sewing I can get done.