A bit of shopping

Tonight, I met Maddy, a dear old friend, for dinner at Bob Evans and to catch up. We laughed a lot and ate too much! And luckily, the restaurant was right in front of the Super JoAnn's!

I headed over there and looked at yarn and other things. They had a couple of free patterns that I picked up for baby blankets and then I found one for a CROCHETED SNUGGIE! Of course I grabbed that one! I picked up 3 skeins of the purple yarn to make a baby blanket for a gal at work. I picked up the yellow pound of love because it has the pattern for the hooded baby blanket that looks cute.

The 2 Artbin containers were on sale. Actually, the green one was on Clearance. I'm thinking that it will work for the 1,000th post giveaway! (As an update, I'm just a few posts shy of 900!! It won't be much longer!!)



When I got home, I was going to work on the 4 patches for the Secret quilts, but I was pooped and so tired that I couldn't sit still. I figured that I would just share another black and white picture!



Tomorrow, I have the day off and will be running a few errands, but I fully intend on tackling these strips and beating them into submission!! That should be fun!

Shop Hop - Day 1

The day started out with breakfast at Bob Evans. Unfortunately, there was not an IHOP in the vicinity of where we were meeting, so I had to settle. It was still good. :) Dominique hadn't meet Maddy before and had only met Cathy once, but we all got along beautifully all day and laughed and joked with each other. We all had a great time! At breakfast, we discussed food, our lists of things to look for, quilts, patterns and tons of other topics.

After breakfast, we left our cars and all piled into Dom's car with the pan of cookies that she made especially for the day at my request. They were a God send! And we were off to Best Friends!

Maddy signed up for a class that Linda, Cathy and I had already signed up for. She is very excited to be taking the class with us. I found fabric for the One Block Wonder class and I picked up a can of spray adhesive and the September BOM kit.



Next, we headed to Quilt Bug in Indiana. They had some really nice fabric marked 50% off and I found a nice print and got a few yards to have on hand for a backing (left) and this fabric for a backing on a charity quilt (right).



Then, we ate some cookies and made our way to Cabin Arts in Burlington, Kentucky. This store has so many bolts of fabric that it is almost hard to walk through the store! Maddy found a awesome batik with music notes on it and she only bought a half yard. When Dom saw the fabric in the parking lot, she ordered Maddy back into the store to buy at least another half yard!! At first, I just bought a couple of packs of pins to split with Jeanette, but then I saw this wall hanging ...



... so I had to buy the kit for it!



We left there and headed down to The Quilt Box in Dry Ridge. I found some nice fabrics for the log cabin class that I am taking at Best Friends. I got some yardage and then looked in their sale section and found a great fabric for backing for the Lover's Lane! I also got a couple of spools of thread that were needed for projects.



We left the Quilt Box and made a pit stop at Cracker Barrel for a late lunch. They were having a 70% off clearance sale and we had to look through the crap, er uh, items. he he Dom found a stuffed turtle that she was going to buy and then wasn't going to buy and when I tried to grab it to buy it for my dear friend R the I, Dom grabbed it back and bought it. Sorry, R, I tried!

After food, we headed to the Victorian Quilt shop. They were packed so we didn't stay too long. Just long enough to get our stamps, buy a small amount of fabric (Dom) and a pattern (me) and we were outta there!



This was the last shop that we had actually planned on getting to today, but it was only 4:30, so we decided to get to a couple more. We ate some more cookies and headed to Sew Ezy. They had a couple of demonstrations that I got stuck watching so I am not sure what the other ladies did or bought. I found a book that I liked and a panel that would work up really cute and that is what I bought.



Here is how they had the panel worked up.



When we left Sew Ezy, we still had about 20 minutes to drive a mile or 2 down the road to Aunt Ruth's Scrapbasket before they would close. We made it! And as we walked into the store, Dom locked Maddy, Cathy and I out of the store. Corry and the other workers and shoppers had no idea what the commotion was about, but a good laugh was had by all when Dom realized that she really had locked us out and then couldn't unlock the door! I didn't get anything at this store.

We drove back to our cars to separate the bags and go our separate ways. This is what we found when we opened the trunk for the last time.



What a day! Each store participating in the Shop Hop designed their own block with the line of fabric that the stores picked for the Hop for this year. Each store also worked up their block into a quilt and, so far, each store has had a drastically different quilt layout. I have taken pictures of each quilt, but I will wait and post all of the quilts from all 10 stores in a separate post. I have also been buying the kits to make the blocks from each store. I like the fabrics this year and there is another chance to win something so I figured, "Why not?" :)

Well, it's late and I am tired from the excitement of the day. Tomorrow, we are going to lunch and then we have 3 shops to hit. Maddy has some family obligations so it will be Cathy, Dom and me.

Am ... so ... sleeeepppyyy!

Even though I had my camera with me at my work station at the retreat, I really didn't take many pictures. We all had a great time chatting and sewing and showing off what we were working on.

On Saturday morning, I woke up around 6 or 6:30 and spent a few minutes checking some emails and then I went into the sewing room and got myself and space in order. Before you knew it, they were ringing the bell for breakfast so we all went and ate. When we got done, Maddy finished working on her little top that she started on Friday night. We decided that she could use it as a table runner. She did this without a pattern - just by sewing some scraps together that she had won at the April retreat.



While Maddy was working on this, I worked on my pants. I traced the pattern onto pattern paper for my size and then cut out pieces of muslin so that I could make sure that the size would work. It did so I was off to the gym with my fabric and pattern and scissors. I cut out fabric for 6 pairs of pants! I think right about now, it was lunch time. After lunch, I started working on the Jetsons pants and helped Maddy get started on her binding.

Some of the ladies decided to run out to a local quilt shop and Ben Franklin's. Since I had made the runaround bags, a couple of the ladies wanted me to show them how to make them and they needed zippers. While they were gone, we watched National Treasure 2. Great movie! Once everyone got back with supplies, it was just abut dinner time so we waited on the class until after dinner.

While everyone was gone, I got the binding ready and sewn down on the 2 quilts that I took. I left the last little bit so that I could show Maddy how to finish off the binding correctly. I helped her with 2 and then she did the third of her quilts on her own!

I still didn't get a picture of Carol and her purses, but here is Jane (behind Billie) and her purse.



Once we got done with the class, I was able to finish the Jetsons pants. Everyone loved my Real Women Quilt shirt, by the way! I love these pants - definitely not clown pants!



As a thank you for helping her with the purse, Jane made me a little coiled bowl. Perfect for a candy bowl!



For the rest of Saturday and Sunday, I worked on chain piecing my pants. I got pretty far along, but I didn't get anything else finished.

All in all, it was a very fun and productive weekend! I can't wait until the next getaway! Now, I need to get some sleep!

Friday at the Retreat

So far, Bubba is cooperating. We have had a couple of trying times, but not enough to make me pull out the other machine. I got 2 more runaround bags completed. The ladies in the room where I am are all really nice. We are having a good time laughing and catching up. We also watched the Bucket List. The only bummer is that we are on the very back wall of the building and I can't keep the internet up on my laptop so I can't chat with anyone while sewing and I can't check or send emails. Tomorrow, I might have to make a little time to check emails and read some posts. I have 85 new emails and over 200 posts to read. :(

Here are the pictures of the 2 bags that I finished tonight. I forgot to get Carol's picture with hers so I will have to do that tomorrow.

Here is Brenda. She loves the Wizard of Oz!



And here is Maddy. She likes hers, too.



Tomorrow, Maddy and I are working on bindings. She has 3 quilts to bind and I have 2. Hopefully, I will be able to get mine done quickly and start working on my pants while I help Maddy finish hers. OK, I am off to bed so that I can get up and get to work early! We get monkey bread for breakfast! Yippee!!

One more thing - we have also had some discussion on the next year's St Jude Quilt Retreat. We have some great ideas! I am very excited!