Quilt Shop Miscellaneous

There were a few interesting things I had wanted to show you from our quilt shop day on Wednesday, and now's as good a time as any!

One of the shops we went to is called Material Girls.

The have the cutest saying in the bathroom...

While inside it started to rain, and then even hail! I of course had to take pics (from the safety of the shop door!)...

Within a few minutes it had stopped as though it had never happened!

The next shop we went to is called Pine Needles...

While walking into the store we saw an adorable mother duck and her chicks crossing the road...

She then led them up this VERY steep hill...can you see them?! Look carefully!

Almost at the top...

Made it!

Where they went next I have no idea, but it sure was funny watching them follow their mother! After watching the ducks, my Twilight-obsessed daughter then noticed something I never would have...

Oh to be 10 again!

Aussie meets Kiwi

On Tuesday night at my MIL's night quilt group meeting I met someone I don't normally meet here in the US - an Australian! She was brand new to the group and of course we had to have a great chat about our countries. There are so many similarities between NZ and Oz, and we just 'got' each other. It was fantastic! We bonded over the words we use that are strange to Americans, and the misunderstandings that happen. At one point I said to her, you know, if we talk long enough I bet we'll find someone we both know. And sure enough, within one minute we figured out not one, but TWO people we both knew! It was fantastic hearing her accent...even if it was Australian hehe :P But she was just great and enthusiastic about quilting, and I know she'll be a great addition to their guild.

They had a fun activity planned for their meeting. They are making a mystery quilt and everyone was given a list beforehand of fabric to cut into certain sizes. Then at the meeting that walked around giving each person a piece of their fabric, so everyone ended up with different fabrics than they started with! Here is Robbie, the Aussie chick and her swapped fabrics...

Isn't that a fun idea?!

New Fabric! Squeeeee!!

What quilter doesn't like new fabric?! Here are yesterday's purchases laid out for your viewing pleasure!

New Joel Dewberry and cute new BIG buttons (they are each about 2 inches across - so good for bags or cushions!)...

Clearance fat quarters, clearance yardage, and new Westminster fabrics...

I can't wait to get home and create with them!

Shopping Day

I was feel quite happy with myself just a few minutes ago, thinking that even though we've been out all day, that I'm home in time to get my blog done before midnight. Except I forgot that I'm now on Mountain time and my blog is set to Eastern time, so it's way after midnight back in NH! Oh well, I do what I can, and since I'm in Utah, I'll go with Utah time. If none of that made sense to you, ignore it, and read on!

My MIL and I (and Sofia!) spent the entire day out running errands, and of course some of those errands included quilt shops! I was a very good girl and didn't go too crazy, but I bought some yummy fabrics, some older ones on clearance, and some brand spanking new ones. Tonight I just have a photo of them in their bags for you, but tomorrow I'll do proper photos in the daylight.

I hope you are all having some fun quilty times!

Accu Quilt Go Cutter

Even though my mother-in-law isn't exactly a spring chicken, she loves to keep up with the latest goings on in the quilting world. Last year she bought the original large Accu Quilt machine, and ALL the dies that go with it! If you are familiar with it, you know what a monetary investment that is! My MIL is all or nothing when it comes to quilting. Gotta love it!

So we arrive here a few days ago and she shows me her latest toy - the new Accu Quilt Go Baby cutter...

and of course, once again, ALL the dies that go with it!

Here are just a couple...

She took it down to the quilt group today and we had a play. The Go Baby is small and portable so it worked out great. It's also so easy to use that even 10 year old Sofia played and had success!

See? I told you I had the best MIL!

Surrounded By Fabric

Tonight I am staying at my Mother-In-Law's house. I know that for a lot of you, the thought of staying with your Mother-In-Law is just not on your list of fun things to do, but I really hit the Mother-In-Law jackpot...not only is mine lovely and kind, but she's a quilter!

Her house is full of fabric. For most people this would seem strange, but to me...hmmm, not so much! I sit on her couch, look to the left, and I see this...

I look to the right, and I see this...

Tomorrow we are going to her quilt group and I'm excited to revisit with friends I met there 12 years ago as a fresh off the boat Kiwi in the US. I'm sure more photos will come tomorrow!

Seen-It-Sunday

Normally for Seen-It-Sunday I post about things I've seen online during the week, but since I've been on the road all week, I haven't had anytime for surfing the web. So instead I thought I'd show you what I saw today, Sunday, when Sofia saw Grandma for the first time in a year...

Grandma and Grandpa have a bunch of apricot trees which happen to be laden with ripe apricots, so this is what I saw when Coleman went searching for the perfect apricot...

And this is what I saw when Joaquin was chatting with his Uncle Anthony under the apricot tree...

Nothing beats family, and these photos and the memories with them are exactly why we drove 2500 miles this week :)

Barn Quilts

We have arrived! It's great to be back in Salt Lake City, especially after last night's debacle. I won't bore you with the whole story, but the short version is that we made reservations for wheelchair accessible rooms and when we arrived at 1.30 am, the hotel's idea of wheelchair accessible involved stairs, which made things rather impossible! To make matters worse, there was a rodeo in town and every single room in every single hotel was booked in all towns in an hour's radius! We finally found a place at 3am. Suffice it to say, it is good to have arrived at our final destination!

So I have something fun to show you tonight. Barn quilts!

I had been bugging everyone the entire trip to keep their eyes out for quilts painted on barns. I don't think they believed me (we are a rather sarcastic bunch!) and not seeing any along I-80 in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois didn't help any.

Then we hit Iowa, and in doing so, we hit the quilts on barns jackpot! We weren't on I-80 though, so maybe that was our problem all along.

So enjoy my little show of quilts on barns while we were speeding past at 75 miles per hour! (Some were far away, but if you look close enough you'll see them!)

I realllly want to make one for our shed out the back now!

On The Road

I think my hubby either forgot to post for me today or he's fallen asleep! Either way, I'm on the road in Nebraska and doing this on my phone, so no pictures! We are having a blast and will arrive at our destination (Salt Lake City) tomorrow. Then I'll be back to blogging!

Joanna's Quiltroom

Joanna gave me an assignment but I couldn't find the quilt! So while I was down there I took pictures of her desk so you can see what she's working on, and my daughters desk. Also I see she's put up the sign I bought. "Whatever you are, be a good one" I think it's a great motto!

Wordless Wednesday

The Corporate Art Collection

*Posts this week are bought to you by my hubby while I'm on the road. Enjoy!

Art in office spaces always interests me. It's difficult to choose art for a corporate space because so many themes that are common in art can't be used. You can't use nudity, religious art, or political themes. I'm lucky enough to work for a company with a large art collection. Here are a few of the pieces right around where I work.

now that one looks like a boring photo of rocks, but it's actually a pencil drawing, it's amazing. I walked past it for two years before someone told me it was pencil.

Yes the corporate art collection also includes quilts. And those are on the wall close to my desk. So even at work I am surrounded by quilts.

Fabrics!

I mentioned a week or so ago that I bought some new fabric. Today I finally photographed it so you can see all the yumminess I have in my hot little hands! There is some Kaffe in there (of course!)...

some of the new Loulouthi by Anna Maria Horner and some Art Gallery fabrics...

I love the look of them all together like this...

We start our cross country road trip tomorrow to Utah, so just in case I don't have internet access in the hotels we stay at, my hubby offered to be a guest poster for the week! I'm not exactly sure what he'll post about, but he did grow up with a mother who was immersed in the quilting world, so it's not completely foreign to him. I am rather intrigued at what he will post!

Seen-It-Sunday

The best thing I saw in blogland this week was a tutorial on how to piece batting together. It happened to be on a real life friend's blog, but it's so fantastic I would be posting about it even if she were a total stranger!

I won't tell you how it's done - just go and look at it on her blog, HERE, but I'll tell you that I've been quilting for 18 years now and it never entered my mind to piece batting together the way she shows. It is so easy and SO obvious! Just goes to show that you definitely can teach an old dog new tricks. I will never hand stitch batting together again. What a waste of time!

While you're there you can check out the finished quilt she quilted on my machine a few weeks ago. It looks beautiful, and the quilting is quite fabulous!

Eric Carle

Early this morning (as in 6am which is really early for us) my awesome sister-in-law who is vacationing here with us, woke up the kids and drove 2 hours each way to Amherst Massachusetts to the Eric Carle museum. I had mentioned to her that he was having a book signing and that was all she needed to hear! She is a Kindergarten teacher in Utah so of course Eric Carle books are one of her loves in life! So the arrived, got in line with the masses of people...

Had assistants give them Hungry Caterpillar tattoos

... Had more assistants open the books ready for him to sign...

...and finally the big moment arrived...

What witty things do you think they all said to him? I mean, you are meeting a legend. You better have something good to say to him, after all, you drove for 2 hours to meet him. Unless you get star struck. Then the wittiest thing you can think to say would be, "It's nice to meet you", followed by 3 minutes of awkward silence while he signs your 15 books! Yes, taking the 3 kids might have served an ulterior motive since you were allowed to get 3 books per person signed!

And what was in it for me? Sweet sweet alone time!

The Eric Carle museum is beautiful - we went there a couple of years ago. You get to see his original pictures from his books - yes, even the Hungry Caterpillar artwork! They also have a craft room where you can make artwork just like his, using tissue paper. I highly recommend it if you are ever in the New England area.