Shop Hop Day Two or Four :)

Saturday DJ and I hooked up with Ros, BJ, Alyssa and Lauren after they went to Quiltz and The Olde Worlde Quilt Shop. We met them on the west side at In Stitches which is where the Hunter's Star picture was taken. Here we all are getting our demo.


Finally got a picture of DJ too. The shop gal took pictures of us all with two cameras and somehow they didn't actually take...so since she was busy with another person DJ wound up taking the pictures again! I love that Happy Hour quilt in the background too!



Next we went to Bearly Stitchin and I should have taken photos as I went because it is all a blur what I bought where! This is the store that I left my Viking at for repair and I ordered their demo which was a cool ruler that locks onto your hst's for trimming. I think I have almost every ruler made now. LOL. This ruler has a channel on the bottom of it and it works like magic. I can't believe I haven't seen them all over blogs so far. I will show it when I get it!

For lunch we had Wildflower...I had french onion soup which was excellent and part of a sandwich which was also good and the other half was eaten for dinner much later! These amazing glass flowers were hanging in the restaurant...just had to get a picture of them!

After that we went to Quilter's Bee which is BJ's favorite store. There was a long demo of a few books with a cool cutting system to speed up your quiltmaking. DJ and I really wanted one of the books but since it was sold out we had to order it. I can't even remember the author's name but maybe Deb Caffrey?

The last shop hop store was SunValley Quilts where we turned in our stamped passports.

The bonus shop may have been my favorite of the day. At Arizona Quilts I fell in love with several fabrics on the fifty percent off rack and two others too.

At Arizona Quilts the gal there showed us her Civil War BOM from last year. This photo doesn't even do it justice. Both Lauren and I fell in love with it!

That cheddar and green block is my favorite!

Here are some of my fabrics...almost bought that top cheddar at two different stores! The light green with horses and the blue dots were on the clearance racks and the shirting has little roosters on it...I couldn't resist it!

Underneath these cheddars you can see the yard of backing fabric I bought. I love the cheater cloth stuff for my backings and I think this one will go on the back of the Bread and Butter quilt I prepped today.

In this stack you see some of the fabrics again...the bandana and cowboy/horse fabric was on clearance and I know it will wind up in a quilt for a little boy. The scizzors fabric I thought would be cute for either my iron cover that I might be making with the modern quilt guild, or for some sewing mat or something. It was supposed to be half off but my receipt doesn't show it...good thing I really like it!

Here is a better picture of the cute cowboy fabric...fifty percent off--how could I say no? I also bought a few things for my swap partner Shannon but not showing anything so I won't ruin her suprise!

Found some Packer fabic..hard to find in Arizona! My brother just asked me to make him a surgical cap out of Packer fabric so some of this is already cut and pinned (and in line which is fast backing up next to my non working machine!). DJ, Randy and I went to Dos Gringos to watch the Packers vs. Bears today too...was a good game! GO PACK GO!

Ah this is DJ's growing fabric pile. She kept picking things out and enjoyed herself more than I thought she would. The jelly roll and orange fabrics she already had here at home, bu all the rest was her loot from the shop hop. She wants to make a rainbow quilt. She also got good deals on her stuff.

After we finished the shop hop DJ and I drove out to see my sister and brother and nephew and then on to see my Mom and Dad. Spent a few hours there and had dinner before heading home. We figured we were in their neck of the woods so we should drop in (which we never do!). Mom is back from Disney and finally feeling well. She gave me a stuffed Cheshire Cat which I love! Well, it is 1 AM and I work tomorrow so I better get dinging (as my best friend Monica always says).

Shop Hop, Smith Mountain Morning and Santa Sack Swap Two Arrived!

Here is the Arizona Huggy Bench (minus our youngest member and DJ who took the photo) as we shop hopped! This photo was taken at one of the shops (I already can't recall which) but I did buy the ruler they were selling for the hunter's star quilt we posed in front of. I am making that Crown quilt for my sister and I think it will help it be a snap. Lots to show and tell you about day two, but will leave that for another post since I am not getting much sewing donw to talk about. My Viking is in the shop and my Singer and Janome are not working. Even hooked up the antique machine to see if it works but it isn't sewing (need to google that machine and see if I even have it threaded right!).

I got my first gifts from the Santa Sack Swap Two and have been remiss in posting about them! I can't open the gifts til Christmas so no idea what they are but I got a really cute handmade card with a sweet note inside from Shannon and here is my sack to put my presents in as they arrive. I think it is really perfect! I have it hanging in my quilting studio awaiting the next set of gifts.

So after the Packers kicked some Bear behind.... since I am not able to sew (seriously going nuts on that!) I did some more knitting and then started on some cutting. This is Smith Mountain Morning. All the peices are cut for this block except the muslim squares. So that was some forward progress!

Then I pinned the small brown logs to the centers on both sides and lined them up next to the machine (along with an Auntie's anvil block and a Bread and Butter flag I cut and pinned today) for sewing. Wish some actual sewing was going on...can't believe I own four machines and not a one of them works at present! GRRRR!!

Shop Hop Day Two :)

First I am SO happy that the missing cameral cord was located by my roommate! Now I can show you the phots from yesterday and today. Here is Auntie's Anvil designed by Bonnie K. Hunter...hoping to make another one of these blocks tonight but we will see how it goes.

The purple fabric will back Hannah's wallhanging (made of hst's left over from Carolina Christmas) though it is still in progress. The orange I just LOVED...Orange Crush mystery quilt turned me into an orange fabric lover. The gal who cut it was oohing and aahing over too, she had an orange shirt on.

1. This is the panel DJ wanted...she is going to try quilting it herself. She can hardly wait. I still have several things waiting for me to quilt so...
   One of the gals who was supposed to come with us today got in a major car accident five minutes from Ros' house this morning. Lauren is fine but her car is toast. We all decided to go ahead and pick up some civil war fabric for her sinice she was missing the first leg of the shop hop...her first one. When we were at the Bernina Connection, one of the owners heard the story and told us to pick out a half dozen fat eights to give to her on her behalf. Seriously a generous thing to do. I have to say they are a fabulous store! Here is a picture of the four of us that got to go (DJ went too but didn't pose...she snapped the pics oh and she didn't wear a tiarra either) so here are Alissa, BJ, Ros and I all bejeweled at The Cutting Edge. We had lunch down the street at Pockets. It was a compromise since we had gotten off to a late start we didn't really want a long drawn out meal, but some of us were hungry! The food was amazingly good and after Ros located her missing credit card (read that..search purse, search car, call quilt shop, and search purse again only to have it turn up after ten minutes) we had a nice lunch!
   
   
   Here are my purchases from Zoe's Trunk. The three fat quarter on the right are for Alicia. The two in middle are mine and the Halloween charm squares are mine too!

Next we went to Quilter's Oasis....this store is super friendly and we got quite a welcome from the customers who loved our tiarras. It was really fun...next year we might make T shirts, lol. I found these fabrics...the red civil war one will be part of my civil war swap on quiltvilleswap, the blue with the birds I will make some tissue covers with, it was just too cute to pass up and on clearance too. Last year I bought their special and this year I did too. They had the Deb Tucker Square squared....it will make trimming up square in a squares a cinch and since the tool last year was also a Deb Tucker and is my current favorite ruler I had to have it.

Our last stop of the day was Bernina Connection. This is Ros favorite store and I found several fabric deals. I was tempted by their special (an electronic seam ripper) but decided to try this other similar thing I have at home first. The grey alcohol fabric is for the back of Randy's Smith Mountain Morning (once it is together) and it was half off! The Halloween fabric was also half off and will be the back of whatever I make out of the charm squares or the panel I have at home. I picked out a few other little goodies and bought the shop hop pattern. I had been thinking about it and since I can use my new Deb Tucker ruler with it just decided to get it. May dig out my long had and not used batiks to make one of the "Sparkle, Shine and Shimmer" quilts. Here is the pattern pic a little closer up. Every store had this pattern on display, and each one was different. Really cool how the fabric choices create such variety!

Progress on Antie's Anvil and Shop Hop

(old photo but man, I love how this came out!) Today I worked my video relay job at 6 AM and after that went to interpret at the college I work at. As soon as work was done, Dj and I started the shop hop tonight since I have to work tomorrow morning and will be meeting up with the AZ Huggy Bunch after my morning work. So after work today DJ and I started out at Three Dudes…they were fabulous and friendly as always and guess what they were selling something that was on my list to look for to buy! So ofc I bought it. It is one of those whirilygig kind of rulers…you sew a bunch of squares together and then line up the ruler and cut and then resew and you have pinwheel kind of things. I keep seeing quilts made from this ruler on blogs and have had it on my list for awhile. I bought the smaller one that you use with charm squares, I am hoping to try it out with some Halloween fabric if I find some. They also had an inexpensive quilt marking pen that irons right off.

Next we went over to Quilter’s Ranch. They were selling a program for making quilt labels. I have one, I don’t use it. Didn’t buy anything there…they have great Halloween fabric but no little charm packs which is what I was looking for.

Last stop we went to Cutting Edge where I hope to meet up with the AHB tomorrow. They had the binding tool for sale. I have seen the youtube video about that and it looks fabulous but I am reminding myself that I have rulers and fabric from last years shop hop I need to use yet! I did manage to buy some orange and some purple fabric from the clearance section way in the back for 6 bucks a yard and one cool Christmas panel that DJ really liked…she wants to try actually quilting it into a tablerunner for us.
Tomorrow will be a blast because there will be six of us running from store to store and lunch together wearing tiarras...well, DJ isn't wearing a tiarra! I am really looking forward to it.

When we got home after a bit of cleaning I whipped up a test for my ASL 3 class (there seems to always be something, good thing I really enjoy it!) and took photos of my purchases. I then spent a good half hour running all over the house trying to find the camera. As you can see from the lack of photos in this post it was to no avail! Apparently Randy borrowed it and he is at work without his phone (don't you know) so I don't know where it is. Coleman tried a half dozen cords he had but hmm, too wide, too long, too something...so I snapped a quick photo of my Auntie's Anvil progress (yellow block made just before the camera cord search commenced) and at least I can show you that! Next up is orange!