My Very First Shop Hop!

BJ and I met up a little after 11 AM yesterday to begin our Valley of the Sun Shop Hop! It was my fist shop hop ever, but BJ has been on this one for the past few years. We started out at Three Dudes Quilting and went to a total of seven shops before 5 PM. Each shop gives you a part of a Debbie Caffery mystery when they stamp your passport. Three Dudes was smart enough to think of putting it in a page protector so it would hold up the whole way. Lucky us since this was the first shop we just kept adding clues to our page protector! I think I bought something at all but one of them! This first picture is of BJ with her Debbie Caffery mystery quilt from a few years ago. I love how this one turned out! We were at Cutting Edge when she showed it to the owner there...who by the way is very friendly! I think out of all the shops this one was the friendliest...though I would say most were friendly. They had cake and water (most of the shops has goodies!) though since I am trying to stay strong I avoided all treats til the very last store (Quilted Apple) where I had a snack size Hershey Bar...(oh and btw I lost 2.4 this week and biked every day :))

On the way to Quilter's Oasis my cousin called so I was talking on the phone to her when this truck got in front of us. Check out that awesome polyester quilt. Both BJ and I were so excited to see it! I think they were moving a piano or something.

Here is BJ's stack of purchases. She bought a little goodie for us and for June and Ros who were not able to be with us. I am not telling what though because they don't have theirs yet. You can also see my Puddle Jumping Mystery quilt in the background (meeting Ros today to get some finished quilts and give her this one) and the Vera Bradley bag I got from Grandma Nan.

When I got home I took pictures of my goodies too. The martini fabric reminded me of my Grandma Nan and Aunt Mary who love martinis of different flavors. The one and only martini I ever had was with them at Thanksgiving almost five years ago...lemon drop flavored. Some gals at the store I bought it at said I should make an apron from it...undecided yet but thinking I am going to make something for Mary. Next to that is the red with colored polka dots fabric. I LOVE polka dots. Then the cream fabric is a bit hard to see but has little baskets and such on it of different colors. Really unique looking I thought. And the last one with the big flowers will be the backing for my handsewn hexigon quilt I have been working on for awhile. It is the same line on the front.

You can see I also got several shirting looking fabrics in anticipation of Bonnie Hunter's next mystery. I usually go through quite a bit of that fabric and like a variety. I also bought two green fabrics. One is five yards of modern looking fabric I couldn't pass up from Bernina Connection. I bought one book of easy stuff because I liked one of the small patterns in it. I am a sucker for books.

Each shop has a tool or gadget or something that they demo for you and hope that you buy. I bought three out of seven of the gadgets and almost bought a forth. BJ bought that one and if she loves it and it sharpens her blade as promised I may have to get one too.

My very favorite tool of the day was this Pineapple tool (and book on backorder) from www.ColourfulStitches.com (picture from there as well) and Zoe's was selling it. It is to help you get really nice Pineapple blocks...and since I am working on that very block using Bonnie Hunter's directions I thought I would try it with this ruler and see if it is easier. The book has lots of great inspiring pictures, thank goodness because I couldn't take pictures of Mary's sample blocks which were really great in 30's fabric at Zoe's!


The other gadgets I got include Deb Tucker's "Tucker Trimmer" ruler which helps with trimming down half squares and quarter squares and with fussy cutting. I could have used this to help me trim those spool blocks that I didn't want to trim! And I bought some Thangles from the Cutting Edge. I have used them once and really liked them and decided to get the 2.0 inch finished to help when I have a ton of them to make.

Oh see that green and white fabric? BJ bought some and at the cutting table I decided I needed some too. It makes me smile! The cute doggie was a complete pincushion kit that I will make for Kathy for Christmas. She ususally doesn't read my blog so hopefully she won't see it here first. They had lots of different kits at the Quilted Apple and they were reasonably priced and half way made! I have never done anything like that so should be fun, but they put directions in there so I should be able to manage it. And Kathy doesn't have her very own pincushion so I couldn't resist!
When I got home I checked the mail and had a suprise package too! This potholder from Leslie in Florida (from my NewQuiltingClub group) decided to send me a RAK! Made my day even better. I love coffee and so of course I love it! The group just had a potholder swap which I didn't participate in so I thought it was sent to me by accident, but nope...just a RAK. Thanks Leslie!

The picture below shows my latest bluework block for the Colonial History quilt. Remember this? LOL was a LONG LONG LONG time ago that I last posted about it. I got tired of it and haven't worked on it much. I started this one on the way to Gma's funeral and finished it a few days ago. I have another one in progress, started before this one, and several more to go.

I spent some of last night remembering and watching 9/11 shows. I am still so shocked and horrified that that happened in my lifetime. It is sad to me that people feel the need to fight and kill each other when we think differently. I wish all wars could cease and people could just agree to disagree though I know it isn't possible because we have such varied beliefs. Especially where women are concerned. We will never forget...