California Quilt Shops

I always take the necessary books with me, one to do crossword puzzle in and one to find the quilt shops with.  I have an old edition of the Quilter's Travel Companion.  And most of the time the shops are still there.  I have learned to call ahead and find out if there are any changes but most of them welcome me by returning an email and inviting me to visit them.

I don't have any specific ones that we hit, just a few in a willy nilly sort of way.  When I have been to too many Automobile Museums or too many Train Museums, or just plain too many museums I get to add a quilt shop or two.  It is a trade off that allows us both to be happy.  Franklin will sometimes sit in the car and sleep but most of the time he comes in and finds someone to talk to and offers up his credit card for whatever local goodies I find to bring home with me. 

So in this California trip we did find a few goodies to bring home!  Check out the stores and the goodies below:

The first stop was in Auburn CA just outside of Sacramento but unfortunately the Cabin Fever Quilt Shoppe had closed about 3 weeks before.  We looked into the windows of an empty storefront and commiserated with the sad fact that the economy can have an effect on the small business woman.  The other quilt shops in the area knew she had closed and they all felt the loss.

Going Batty in Carson City, NV was hysterical.  I love that name for a quilt shop!  I did not meet the owner but met her delightful son who dutifully showed me around the really nice store.  The showroom was huge and open and had high high ceilings to add to the effect of openness.  The back classrooms could accommodate at least 20 to 30 per class.  And he showed me some of the new fabrics and a pattern that was unique to his mom.  I bought a Quilt As You Go pattern that Frank fell in love with.  It was hanging in the exact midpoint of the store, I don't know that that had anything to do with it........

In Reno NV he dropped me off at the Sierra Quilting Center while he snoozed in the car.  I bought some redwork patterns to bring home to Valerie.  Of course I did not take a picture of them, but one was a humpty dumpty sort of guy and the other was a really cool Halloween quilt.

At Lake Tahoe we met a sweet lady who owned the Quilting Tahoe shop.  Not only did she have a gorgeous view of Lake Tahoe but she had some unique stuff.  Her shop was small and catered to summer visitors and movie stars and then she took in quilts from all over the area to long arm quilt with intricately beautiful patterns.  In Lake Tahoe there are many Canadian Geese.  So one of her friends took MacKenna Ryan's Snow Geese pattern and converted it to a Canadian Geese pattern.  So of course I had to buy that kit! 

And she had put together a landscape quilt of Emerald Bay looking out to Lake Tahoe.  So of course I had to buy that kit too!

At Quilting Corner in Sacramento there were some adorable ladies who totally enjoyed my stories of anticipating seeing the friends from High School/College and being able to recognize them or not.  We laughed so hard the whole time I was in the shop!    But I knew they had a sense of humor when I saw this sign outside their door:

The local artist celebrity there is
Melinda Bula and her fabulous books about raw edge applique.  Being as I am not an applique person but can do raw edge applique, I did buy that one.  Melinda is fairly well known for her Orange Rose.

The ladies in the shop helped in putting this book together and it is indeed a work of art.

I also found this fabulous new fabric that is coated in vinyl.  It is pliable and easy to work with.  They had a kit for a tote bag using this fabric so I decided I could try that and then        get back with them for additional fabric if I liked it.  I know some people are going to love the fabric for purses and totes (hint hint Beth!)

I have quite a few projects for next years UFO lists!  I am sure Jesse will be pleased to hear that!  LOL.

I love visiting the quilt shops all around the country.  The people are so welcoming for the most part, and I love meeting them.  If you don't have a copy of The Quilters Travel Companion, visit your local quilt shop or call me.  There is a new edition out now, they come out every four years or so.  I couldn't live without mine!

glen:  happy travels

I'm baaaaaack!

We got in yesterday after the flight from hell -- a four and a half hour flight from Sacramento CA to Houston TX with a screaming 2 1/2 year old kicking the back of the seat of the Asian lady in the window seat next to Frank.  She tried 5 times very nicely asking the parents to make the kid stop and only got from them "Well he is only 2 1/2 years old, what can you expect?"  Aughhhh!  She did speak to the stewardess twice and got the statement that the plane was full they could do nothing about it.  We even tried talking to the stewardess because the kid was screaming at the top of his lungs, not crying, just plain screaming!

Then she tried twice to talk to to the kid sweetly and all cutsey.

Then she started getting mad after about 2 hours of this behavior and the parents not even trying to stop him.  At one point the father said to her that  she needed to be tied up and hauled off the plane.  Can you imagine??

THEN....she went ballistic twice.

Notice that not once did the stewardess ever try to intervene or ask the people to make the kid stop.  I thought they were going to call the air marshalls on the poor Asian lady.

It was insane.

Anyway, I have fabulous pictures and some stories about the 4 quilt shops I visited.

I got some really cool stuff !!!!!

glen

PS  -- here are the friends we visited ---- that is Louis, me, Cindy, Frank and Joe.  Susan was out of town on business.  Boy did we get old!  LOL

Sniff........I am going away......

But not for long, only a week.  We are heading out to California for the week.  We will be flying into Sacramento, then on to Lake Tahoe, Reno, Truckee and Yosemite National Park for a few days. 

Get this......

We are visiting our high school friends while in Sacramento.  We grew up in New Orleans and Metairie, LA.  In those days (the olden ones) there was something called the Desegregation Suit that went on until just recently (for over 46 years).  So the boys went to one school and the girls went to the other.  Then we had the Platoon System where the each school was divided into to two schools yet they shared the buildings by going from 6 AM to 11:30 AM and the other shift from Noon to 6 PM.  It flip-flopped each year so you didn't all have to go early or all late years.  Which ever you went it was bad.  But we made it through.

My best friends were Diane and Cindy and Susan, and Frank's best friends were Joe and Louis.  Well I married Frank, Cindy married Joe and Susan married Louis.  Diane married out of the circle and married Ralph.  Cindy/Joe and Susan/Louis moved to California.  Diane/Ralphie and Frank/me stayed home.  We are still married to the same guys. 

But..........

First Susan and Louis got divorced, then we heard that Cindy and Joe got divorced.  Then we heard that Susan and Joe got married,  And later we heard that Cindy and Louis got married. 

So now Frank and I are visiting California and will have dinner with ALL of them .......  yes.........at the same time!  They are all good friends still.  While I think that odd ( I would be the one involved in the cat fight of her life with the other woman) they do very nicely with it.  And it will be interesting to see our high school buddies from 39 years ago!

I can't wait!

glen:  I am sure to have stories to tell when we get back.  So if you miss me, that is why!

String Challenge last entry and Design Wall Monday

I have been working on the  No Strings Attached Challenge introduced by Stephanie at Loft Creations.  It is ending soon and I have been working on my last entry into the Challenge pool.  It was been amazing to see what people have made with their stash strings!  I think I had like 13 or maybe 14 projects done.

Thanks Stephanie!

This one will be a donation quilt for the place my mom lives now, Lake Sherwood Retirement Village.  She has Alzheimers and when they have games and fun things they alway have some give aways.  I thought I would send some quilts their way!

I love the large rick rack, and the orange.  I even used up old pieces of binding that was leftover from two quilts.  And the strips are super muslin from Hobby Lobby which I really love the feel of that fabric, it is dense and handles whatever I put it with.

This used up very little of the large bag of scraps I still have so I need to make like 12 more!

Anyway it is both my Design Wall Monday and my No Strings Attached Challenge entry!

glen

Saturday

Today is Saturday and I was so busy all day long.  But I did get to complete the bindings on two quilts.  One is the Wizard of Oz that I am taking with me when we visit my high school best friend in California.

And the other is the South Seas that has been sitting on the back of my sofa for months now with three sides bound properly. 

South Seas was the very first quilt I completed on my new mid arm machine.  I have Lemon Lime on it at the present time but will probably not be able to get to it until later in the month. 

I am pleased to finally have completed the bindings on these two quilts because, as we all know, I hate to sew bindings and labels.  Oh, I do need to do a label for the one I am bringing to Cindy. 

glen

Process or My Thoughts for This Quilt

I am going to do this Process Piece so I can get the hang of doing it like this.  Most of my stuff is Just-Off-The-Cuff-Improvisational and Go-Where-The-Wind-Takes-Me process.  So I am thinking I had better practice for the really big important stuff later on so they don't kick me out or ridicule me.  I so hate that.

Ok.......

The Why?  I was sitting at Lake Sherwood Retirement Village with my mom on Best Friend's Day.  I figured I was the best friend she had going so I had better be there.  And while we were singing My Wild Irish Rose and Put on Your Best Grey Bonnet over tea cakes and punch, I noticed the worker ladies gathering up some baskets of give-aways.  After the singing was over they began to announce winners of various categories, like:  the longest friendship, the oldest person there (which I figured was not a viable category because the same lady keeps winning every time and someone may try to knock her off to get to that easy win spot), and some others I can't remember.  I thought, hey, I can make some scrap quilts from that bag that  grows ever larger and donate some prize quilts! Yeah!

The What Of?  I have this large Target bag that seems to be collecting all the leftover pieces that are too big to throw away and too little to use.  And I saw a really cool pattern in one of the new quilt mags that used the Chinese Coin idea and made large blocks.  Perfect.  Not a lot of thought and fairly quick and best of all, uses up a lot of scraps.  Which I somehow have an abundance of.........

The Prep:  I sorted out a lot of piles from that Target bag.  I sorted not by width of the strip but by the length of the strip.  Some pieces are around 9 inches then there is the 7 inch pile.  The third pile is the scraps that can be sewn together to make either a 7 or a 9 inch strip.  And ultimately I did have to force myself to toss some pieces that would have been way too much trouble to put into the strip or put with other strips to make a usable strip.  And to prove to you that I CAN indeed toss something, here it is......for now.

The How:  After I had a huge pile of strips, I began to sew them together.  I really didn't worry about what colors were next to what colors but I did make sure that no two of the same fabrics were next to each other.  I found it easiest to chain piece three groups, then to piece the three groups together to make a long strip.  That way I was not working with excess fabric too much.  This went pretty quickly and by 10:30 last night I had three sections completed.  I had thought to only have three sections, but I think I need a fourth.  So I will do that in a minute.

The Trim:  After I had four sections completed I evened out the edge with a long ruler.  I am thinking that when I get it all together I may put some large orange rick rack down the center between the coin strips.  And that I will use muslin between the coin columns.

The Assembly:   I took the four strips and added that super muslin ( I love that stuff from Hobby Lobby) to the betweens and the edges for borders.  I made them the width of my 6 1/2 inch ruler just for the ease of it.  I dug deep into my stash for a backing piece and rustled up some batting from my mom's stuff.  Polyester, I hate polyester batting.  I have just been using flannel that has been washed twice to shrink as much as potentially possible.  I then quilted it with a large meandering.  Now I am contemplating adding some huge orange rick rack

Still working on copy and photos, a work in progress here.  I guess people do this by creating a document and completing it THEN posting the entirety to the blog......see I am learning!

glen

The Great Lining Debate

Ok, here is the innocent looking purse.............

and here is the tragic lining...........................

You decide!

glen:  all I can say is that I was in a hurry and it looked good in principle!

Design Wall Monday 6-7-10

My design wall is a mish mash of stuff this week.  I found part of a UFO in a bag stuffed in a corner of my quilt room.  So I pulled it out and completed the rows of 4 inch squares to give me a charity quilt.  Then I found some really nice linen material in my mom's stuff and made a purse with a really bad lining.....do they have a charity for purses?

THEN I put up my Patch No Work to make myself feel bad and finish it.

for more design walls, check out Judy's blog at:

 http://www.patchworktimes.com/2010/06/07/design-wall-june-7-2010/
I finally got the pictures up.  It is like that ever expanding mess, I went to post pictures but the computer kept blipping.  Not sure if it was because of the raging thunderstorm or the fact that my picture folder for the quilt stuff is so huge.  Since I couldn't do anything about the thunderstorm I started splitting up the years in my quilt pictures.  After that, the lightening was so bright and loud that Dutch was freaking out.  All 120 lbs of him was trying to get on my lap while I was moving pictures around.  (Sorry the computer doesn't want me putting a picture here.)  So I quit a bit and sat on the sofa with him.  We watched reruns of Two and a Half Men.  Then I still had to put the pictures up!

I think I have everything done now.  And I need to begin putting my pictures on CDs.  I can play them on the television if I do that and it saves them if the lightening hits the house.

Do you think I will be that on the ball?  Probably not, but it is a good thought.

glen

New Lusting Thing and Seeing the Albuquerque Family again

Ohhhhhh!

I have a new thing to lust after.......check it out! 

And then you ask, what in the world would you do with that?  I have no idea, but it sure does look cool.

http://www.wacom.com/bamboo/bamboo_fun.php


To celebrate seeing the displaced Louisiana to Albuquerque nephew and family we had crawfish and fixings at his momma's house in Addis, LA.  Boy did we feast.  It was good to see the kids, they are growing like weeds.    If you look closely you can see the deer sausage they tossed in the boiler. 

Jason, the boys and Rodney are headed off to Bayou Pigeon for a couple of days of fishing and man stuff.  Stacey will catch up with some of her friends and enjoy the sauna that is Louisiana. 

glen

Pillowcases for the Soldiers - A Process Piece

One of my Quilt Guilds has issued a personal challenge to the membership.  Make pillowcases for the children of soldiers from Louisiana bases.  One member collects photos from the base headquarters, prints them and distributes them to guild members.  This week I received my two photos.  One is complete and I am looking through my stash for another patriotic fabric to complete the other.  Here is the first one.

I used what is called the "hot dog" method.  First you have to remove the paper from the picture.  (Don't laugh, there were several who did not remove it!)  And you cut a main fabric 42 inches wide by 30 long and another contrasting fabric for the cuss 42 wide by 11 inches long. 

Sew the picture on to the pillow case body remembering that you will fold it in half. 

Then I sewed the cuff to the body on one side matching the 42 inch sides.  Some people like to put a decorative piece in here like a folded strip of fabric or a piece of ribbon.

Roll the main portion from the bottom up to about the center of the cuff.  You want to fold up the unsewn edge of the cuff up over the roll (this would be the hot dog part) and pin.  When you sew it be careful not to catch any of the hot dog in the seam.

When you have sewn all the way  across, then you can pull the hot dog out of the side of the cuff and you have enclosed seams on both sides! 

I sewed the long side with a french seam by putting worng sides together and sewing down the side with a 1/4 inch seam then turning to the inside with right sides together and sewing a bit larger  seam so it would catch the edges inside the seam case.  Before turning it back to the right side, I sewed across the bottom of the case.

And voila! you have a nice pillowcase!

And a soldier's kid gets to sleep near their dad. 

glen

Waz'up Wednesday

Everything is much slower when I have my mom with me.  It took me about 38 minutes to pick her up this morning, but we finally got out of the place and headed to where Frank was meeting us for breakfast, the Coffee Bean.  It is like an old time fast order greasy spoon without the fast order and greasy spoon part.  It is quite healthy and cheap!  They make great eggs to order, with bacon or not.  They have the most wonderful huge muffins and a no sugar added cinnamon bun to make CinnaBun jealous. They have 15 kinds of coffee and ways to fix it.  A lot of the customers know each other and they come in groups.

And that is just BREAKFAST! 

There was too many choices for my mom.  We got out of there an hour and a half later.  On to Carrie's to visit with Grand-dog Hugeaux.  He was glad to see his grandma and his great-grandma and walked with us to the new construction down the block.  We only go in the empty ones as the workers don't need to be disturbed, and we don't understand Mexican anyway!

And then Mom and I went to the grocery store whereupon I realized MY list was a home.  So we got a few things for her and after I dropped her off I went home and got my list.  By the time I got home again, it was after 1:30 PM.  What a loss of a day nearly. 

But I did find flaxseed and some of the weird mushrooms I wanted.  My tomatoes are ripening nicely and we can have feta and mushrooms and tomato on tilapia for dinner soon, real soon! 

Being as I am banned (by Frank) from talking politics with our Friday Night Dining Friends I must find a game for us to play this week.  Jason, my nephew - well, my cousin really) is supposed to be coming in this weekend from Albuquerque with his family.  How exciting.  We need to head out to Pimonyoli's and impress them with our wonderful BBQ restaurant find. 

I spent some of the afternoon sitting in the yard practicing with my new camera.  I caught Chloe trying to catch birds.  See if you think she got the bird....

Maybe tomorrow I will have some quilting stuff.  Yes, I will, definitely positively will have quilting stuff tomorrow. 

I am going to take a nap now.  I am getting very very very........very............sleepy.....................

glen