Bounty

I was so tired yesterday all I did was read and nap. I did help Johnny tie up some tomato vines. I had saved the end strips when I would straighten a piece of fabric. Since some parts are wider than others it makes a nice cradle for the vines without cutting into the plant. Also adds color to the garden with all the different fabrics. I finally got around to unloading all the different bags I had collected.

Here it is stacked on the cutting table.

Black and white fat quarters, shirting, and red and brown for an ocean waves pattern and pink and brown for a basket pattern.

The brown with red is border for the ocean wave quilt. I bought a good bit of yardage. Several pieces of white on white and the background for 3 different patterns I want to make. I'm telling myself I have to finish a couple of things first before I start either of these but that is going to be real hard to do. I did pick up a few pieces of blue to replenish my blue stash and two possible border fabrics for the blue and white Jacobs Ladder. Lucked up and got both of them on sale tables. However most of what I bought was new prices, $9.90 - $11.00 was pretty much the norm. Most fat quarters when they had them was $3.00. We saw a lot of pretty shop models and some that we had done at Quilters Refuge. We didn't find a whole lot of civil war or 30's in fact shop number 19 had the best selection of both. We did find a lot of brights, batiks and black and whites. Saw a lot of Moda lines by designers we knew. Some Kansas Trouble and Thimbleberry in almost all shops.

one last look

As I write this I am now at home after a very long trip. We got away from Lyons by 8:30 with plans to stop at 3 more shops before we left Kansas. As we were loading the car Tootsie was laying on our stuff like  she didn't want us to leave.

I really think she was ready for to go, we had been in her space just a little too long.

The Saturday before as we were driving into Kansas on a different route than Barbara had been before we saw one of those straight water towers that usually have the name of the town, but this one said "Needle in a Haystack" and we realized this was a quilt shop. So this was our first stop.

It was a really nice shop, Barbara and Linda found a good buy on some bobbins and Cathy found a back for her Hocus Pocus on the sale table. I bought yardage of a blue I may use for a border. She told us about another shop that was only about 2 miles down the road. It was another good shop. I got yardage of both black and white. We couldn't believe how far out in the country both these shops were and yet both were very busy on this Saturday morning.

We  were very disappointed that the shop in Independence was closed. But going down the road I remembered there was a shop in Joplin that we didn't make on the trip out. So in the GPS the address went and off we go. It was a good thing we had the GPS because this shop was even further off the beaten path than the first two. The shop was called Bittersweet Quilts and it had some of the primitive items some of us were looking for, it also had the border fabric that I used on my "Laps around the pool". I knew I didn't have enough left for a binding and had been looking in every shop for more of that fabric. Finally at the 19th shop I found it.

We stopped in Springfield for Andy's frozen custard (ice cream) at about 5:30 and planned to drive on a ways before stopping for the night. We failed to remember this was a holiday weekend and ended up driving all the way to Jonesburo, Arkansas before finding a room. Over 14 hours of driving. Needless to say we slept in this morning and got back to Hartselle about 3 pm. A bunch of tired puppies. Had a great time but I won't be able to afford anything like that again for a long time. We were too tired to get final total so will save that for the get together here on Friday. To anyone coming Friday remember to bring swimsuit if you want to swim before or after stitching.

Farewells

It is time to think about leaving Kansas. No shopping today. This morning each of us totaled our receipts but did not share the total yet as we have other shops pending. However we were all a little shocked. As you can see we have shopped until we dropped.

Gina was downstairs and Barbara had gone to her room for naps and as usual I'm playing on the computer with camera close at hand. After naps we went to Dairy Queen for ice cream to take to Betty. She has a special liking for strawberry Sundas. We needed to make one last stop so in there so we could all say goodbye.

Don't they all look alike, Barb, Sue and Betty.
For dinner we met Gina's sister Denise and husband Mark at a Mexican restaurant in Great Bend where the nights special was 99 cent margaritas.

Did I also mention that today is Linda's birthday. I had no idea how they could celebrate a birthday but we found out.

Linda was such a good sport about the cool whip in the face.

Lots of laughter to end the evening. Wayne plans to fix us breakfast for before leave in the morning. There are 3 other shops we are going to try to catch tomorrow before if we can get there before closing. One in Independence and two in Severy, hopefully we can get to all three.

Thursday

We had a slower day today, we only went to one shop and it was the closest to Lyons. Prairie Flower Crafts is in Alden which is just a few miles from Lyons. We came back home for lunch and a little stitching on the patio before we went to play cards with Betty. We played a game called 65. I think it is a cross between Gin Rummy and Chicken foot dominoes. It's a lot of fun but you have to pay attention because each hand you have a different number of cards and a different wild card. I can tell you it is real easy to throw away a wild card that you really need. We played two rounds and then got Sonic for dinner which is one of Betty's favorite places to eat. They are killing my diet. Aunt Grace lives across the street and keeps bringing over baked items. I will have to work triple hard the week after we are back to try to even get back to where I was when I left on this trip.  Tomorrow night we plan to meet Gina's sister and her husband for dinner but I don't think we have much else planned for the day except maybe start packing the car. We brought a sewing machine, books, magazines, fabric and notions out to Tammy, Barbara's niece who lost everything in a fire last year, so we assumed we would have plenty of space for our purchases going back. I'm not sure there is going to be a big difference in the needed space. There are 3 more shops we plan to hit on Saturday but a lot will depend on how quick we get away and how late the shops are open. We will probably stay in Springfield again on the way back and then get up and drive the rest of the way Sunday morning. I hope traffic won't be too bad since it is the beginning of Memorial Day weekend. It has been a fun trip, I can't believe it is coming to a close but I'll confess it's not too soon for my wallet. No clue on who will win the book guessing the amount spent but I think a few know their guess was too low. I may still be too high but I don't think I will miss it by much. I have to keep reminding everyone to keep up with their receipts. We each have an envelope to put them in for safe keeping. And just for the record the total will NEVER be reported here or anywhere only the best guesser will be announced.

No pictures today but this was something we saw in Springfield. Fluffy Puppy Mobile Grooming.

5 shops in one day

On the road to Wichita, Cathy took her turn behind the wheel with Gina as co-pilot. Our first stop was Material Girls Quilt Shoppe. They had a lot of brights and a huge selection of batiks. Gramma'a Calico Cupboard was next with a good variety of all fabrics. Donna we are not finding very many civil war fabrics and almost no cheddar. After lunch we made it to Hen Feathers Quilt Shop where I entertained them with my southern accent. Bye Yall! Most all shops asked where we were from and couldn't believe we came all the way from Alabama. We were met at the door of both Hen Feather and Picket Fence Quilt Company by the shop dog or dogs. The Picket Fence gave each of us free quilt block kits and three other shops gave us all pens.

This was the front of Hen Feathers. Their marque said "don't ask a quilter to mend"

The last shop of the day was Sunflower Quits in Derby which is near Wichita. Then a stop to pick up some molding tape to repair a piece of molding on top of the car that had come loose. The wind was blowing pretty bad today.

On the way back to Lyons had a better shot of one of the many oil refineries. Only one shop scheduled for tomorrow then a hot card game with Betty (Barbara's mother). Will try to post again tomorrow.

Tuesday's trip to Hutch and Yoders

Ada and Barbara waiting outside a shop in Yoders. We were all so full after lunch at the Carriage House in Yoders we had to rest between shops. The shop in Hutchinson was called Cottonwood Quilts. We found a lot of pretty stuff there.

I'm glad this was not our method of travel.

We heard this was where Kansas quilters stored their stash.

Can you see the prairie dog on the right next to the stick above the 05?

Aren't we a good looking bunch? This was one non-quilting stop we made. The very friendly shop owner came out and took our picture.

This is one of the many grain elevators we have seen. Some of shorter ones held salt instead of grain.
We elected not to take the tour of the underground salt mines.

Wheat fields as far as you can see is the norm of the day after day after day.

At the end of the day this is what the back end of the van looked like.

Happy hour on Monday night, do you think we were able to stitch a straight line?

Oh and for the record we just didn't get pictures of the rest of the bunch.

Shopping on Monday

We had three stops planned for today. The first was Stitches in McPherson, I found a good little fat quarter  bundle of black and white and a few other little items. Cathy, Barb, Linda and Gina found some Halloween fabric and white with snow flakes among other things. Ada was collecting a few fat quarters. The next stop was the Quilting Bee in Selina. I was corrected several times on the pronunciation of this town. Sue found a hanger for the calendar  quilts we made her as a hostess gift. Picture below is May done by Linda. I don't know if you can see the hanger but it has a star on top.

We had a third stop planned in Abilene but was closed on Monday. Gina is cooking chicken nachos tonight. Another busy day with a stop a Yoders. Stay tuned more to come.

Kansas

We are in Kansa now, spent 2 days supporting the economy in Missouri. This is picture of merchandise claimed in Missouri plus one shop in Arkansas.

Now remember this is the accumulation  of 6 people. Quilt Sampler in Springfield had all our jaws dropping as well as adrenalin flowing. Merrily We Quilt in Springfield and Block by Block in Carthedge we very nice as well.

We arrived at Sue's after 8 pm and a very long drive. Enjoyed visiting until nearly 11 pm then everyone collapsed. Just a little fyi make sure you have toothpaste in hand rather than some other cream before you brush your teeth. Everyone had a good laugh over this. We are having a day of rest and visiting today. This is probably the most active we will get.

Road Trip

Well it finally got here, the beginning of our road trip. We left Cathy's bright and early Friday morning  and our first stop was for breakfast in Muscle Shoals. A very nice gentleman offered to take the photo so I could be in the shot too. Our first quilt shop stop was in Jonesboro, Arkansas then on to Thayor, Missouri. At our next stop on Willow Springs, Missouri  where we had to do a little repacking of the van. This shop carried some beautifully made Amish baskets. I don't think it is necessary to say more than that.

Just before Thayor we stopped at Mammoth springs, it was a beautiful place to stretch our legs. I did get a picture of them with their back to me looking at the bubbling springs, but I was vetoed on the back "butt" photo.

 

We made it as far as Springfield and had dinner at Hemingway's at the Bass Pro Shop. Thought that might impress the men in our life. It was very nice but we were very tired.

 

I'm an early riser but the others are still asleep as I post this in my temporary office aka bathroom. What I will do for some computer time, lol. Another shop filled day planed. Hopefully we won't be too late getting to our destination tonight but we can't leave Springfield without checking out their two large quilt shops, so I doubt we leave town before lunch. Oh well we are not on any time clock. More later. 

dwm

I should say design cutting table, these are the last 10 blocks for the blue and white Jacob's Ladder. With only 4 days until our big road trip I don't think I'll get them put together this week but maybe. Hope I can find something nice for borders.



This is my first embroidery attempt it is a patten from Bird Brain designs. I've still got to add the borders and quilt. It will be a little table runner. When our stitching group gets together we mostly do hand work and I was running out of quilts to bind so I gave this a try. Enjoyed it very much so will probably try another one

graduation

Friday May 11,2012 my other niece Michelle graduated for Calhoun Community College.

She has worked very hard to get this degree, working full time and going to school. Now on to Athens State University for the next one. Earlier this year she was at the house and saw part of the blocks for Bonnie Hunter's mystery Orca Bay on my design wall and said "that needs to be my graduation quilt" since she usually gets any of my quilts that she wants I didn't think this was a problem. It just eliminated my need to shop or even decide what to get her.

Here she is the day after graduation with the quilt. She will probably kill me for including this photo because she felt so bad. Allergies give her a fit this time of the year.

Since I have yet to include myself in any of my postings so far I thought I would include the one taken of me and Michelle at graduation.

Sew Day

Friday is our day to get together and stitch a little and talk a lot. This Friday we met at my house again and enjoyed sitting on the patio even though it a little windy today. It was supposed to get in the upper 70's but I not sure it got much over 70 in the shade so some dug out the jackets. The group consists of Ada, Barb, Cathy, Dianna, Donna, Faye, Gina, Linda and me, we occasionally have others join for the day. Last week Linda's niece Frankie joined us and sometimes Pam visits when she is back in the area. Gina was out today, she is traveling to Mobile to see daughter Sarah graduate. A great big congrats to Sarah. Bonnie will also drop by to see us when school and work permit.

Ada and Linda checking out Cathy's pattern.

Donna and Dianna.

Barb's always the cold one.

Faye and Ada and sometimes Lucy was on the couch between the getting a little attention. I think I got everyone today but me and just didn't think about giving the camera to anyone else. Pictures of Lucy to follow at later day. Lucy is our spoiled yellow lab mix baby.

Binding Scraps

What do you do with the left overs after binding a quilt? This is not a true picture, lots are still stuffed down in the bag that you can't see. I'm not really sure why I have saved them all these years. I really don't mind doing binding and I'm pretty quick although not as fast as my friend Ada. Because I didn't mind doing binding and in fact really enjoy it I have done a good bit of binding for other folks as well as shop models when I worked at the quilt shop. So I have lots of pieces left over, usually not very much but sometimes a good bit. I even have a couple of whole bindings where I made the binding when I finished the top but by the time I got the quilt top quilted I had forgotten about making that first binding and made another. I'm sure no one else has done that. I can only remember once  pulling binding scraps from the bag to make a scrapy binding for a quilt so is it worth it to hang on to this bag on the chance that I will need another scrapy binding?

May UFO

I am trying to follow Judy from Patchwork Times UFO challenge and May's number 2 was my scrapy trip around the world. It is a variation of Bonnie Hunter's pattern. I used 8 strips 2 1/2 by 21inche strips and cut 8 sections. This made the block finish at 16 inches which let me make fewer blocks. I still made 36 blocks and added a 8 inch border so that the quilt would finish 112 inches square. I am calling this on Laps around the pool.

This is the finished top.

This is the fabric chosen for the back. Still continueing on with the pool theme. I probably won't get this one quilted in May because my quilter buddies will all be on the road trip with me. At least this will be another UFO marked off my list. Hopefully before long I will loose my status as queen of the UFO's. Tell me what you think.