This very sweet and romantic quilt was pieced and appliqued by my friend Janice.  It has a funny story behind it.  A few (or more!) years ago around this time of the year Janice and I traveled to Pawley’s Island to visit Island Threads Quilt Shop.  We had some purchasing plans for some specific projects in mind.  While we were perusing the shop Janice found this quilt kit and fell in love with it but because it was so close to Christmas she was feeling guilty about purchasing something so “big.”  She kept saying she should just buy it and give it to Bill (her DH) to give her for Christmas but what if he already had purchased something and he really did like to surprise her.  So I said, “Hey, I think I can take care of this problem” and I walked out onto the porch of the shop and called Bill on his cell phone.  He is in industrial sales and travels all around the LowCountry but luckily he was in cell range and I got him on the phone.  Did he have a present for Janice yet?  No?  Well, there is a quilt kit here she is drooling over but she won’t buy it.  Would you like me to buy it so you can give it to her for Christmas.  “YE S!!  That would be great,” says Bill.  So back into the shop I march and pick up the kit and buy it.  Of course, Janice is aware of all of this.  I take it home, Bill comes by and picks it up and reimburses me and takes it home and wraps it up and on Christmas Eve when Janice unwraps it she gives the academy award winning ”Oh, my!!  How did you know I wanted this??” surprise act.  All are happy.  Merry Merry Christmas.

Fast forward a few years and……………….here it is all finished for this Christmas.

I used Sew Fine by Superior thread on the top with Bottom Line (also by Superior) in the bobbin.  Cream in the light areas and a dusty pink in the colored sashings, borders, and hearts.  Janice used a busy fabric on the back but the quilting is still pretty visible thanks to Dream Puff batting.

Callie Cat loves to get under quilts.  As soon as I placed this one on the big table for pictures and went to get my camera I came back to this – the quilt had grown a big lump!

Her story is she’s inspecting for threads I missed when I was burying them. 

………..is absolutely beautiful and perfect for me!   Now I can enjoy my night time wine in the manner I deserve!  Thanks so much to my good friend the Divine Miss Maureen.

The “box” it came in is pretty darn cool, too.   I’m going to browse the website Designs by Lolita to shop for some Christmas and birthday presents.  In addition to the hand painted decorations, there is also a cocktail recipe called Princess on the bottom of the goblet.  It calls for peach schnapps, vodka, white wine, and lemonade.  Since I love peach bellinis, I think I’d like this also.  Cheers!

While we were in Jacksonville at Quiltfest we also visited The Olde Green Cupboard quilt shop.  Not only did it have thousands of bolts of fabric and patterns and books and great samples and excellent sales people – it also had fabulous displays of home dec items in a seasonal theme.  Since I LOVE fall I was just captivated by all the beautiful eye candy and inspiration.  I highly recommend a visit to this shop if you ever have the opportunity.  I’ll be back later this week with some quilts pics from Quiltfest. 

Tomorrow morning Corky, Joanne, Frances and I are boarding a jet at Charleston International Airport and taking off for………..

………….the city of cable cars…………..

………..a famous bridge……………

…………………chocolate…………..

……….tours…………………..……………….sinister places…………..

………………..fresh seafood……………….

Yes, we are off to San Francisco.  I am so excited – have never been on the west coast.  We are going to rent bikes and ride across the Golden Gate Bridge and we are planning to do a Segway tour.  Pretty good for four gals who all qualify at Belks for the Senior Citizen Discount!!

After San Francisco we head down the coast to Monterey for a couple of days there before checking into Asilomar for the Empty Spools Seminar and 5 1/2 days of QUILTING!!

I’m planning to do a blog post every day if I can so check back for the travelogue.

In just a week I am off to California with Corky, Frances, and Joanne.  We are ultimately headed to Asilomar in Pacific Grove for the Empty Spools Seminar (Session IV).  I’m taking a class from Janet Fogg called Innovative Traditionals.  I’ve always made traditional or folk art style quilts and I love them and always will.  But I’m feeling the pull to also try art quilting and I thought this would be a good class for me. 

But of course there is no pattern – we are to just bring fabric and maybe a germ of an idea.  Man does that produce anxiety in me.  And it hasn’t helped that I’ve been so busy and focused on some other important projects like the QSC Spring Meeting that was held last weekend. 

One night I woke up and realized I was thinking about three colors: red, gold, and black.  I decided that had to be my subconcious sending me a message.  I’ve also been walking a lot and during one long walk my mind “saw” a quilt.  So that is my germ of an idea.  I’ve tried to put some of it on paper and I have big doubts that I can ever render it in fabric but I’m going to try. 

So I’ve been pulling fabrics from my stash and Corky’s stash and of course, also shopping……..made a run up to Gastonia in the rain last week to Mary Jo’s.  The color pallette has been refined and expanded and here is what is traveling to CA with me:

If that was all I had to take I wouldn’t be worried!  We are renting machines there, but have to take the notions, the iron, the cutting mat, the light, the power strip, etc etc.  Last night I crammed it all into a suitcase and then weighed it.  It felt like a ton but the scales said I was under the 50 pound limit.  I think tomorrow I’m going to cart the suitcase up to my friendly ACE Hardware store and get them to weigh it on their UPS shipping scale.  I don’t want to get to the airport and have a rude awakening.

We are going out a week early to do touring in San Francisco and then Monterey area.  So I also need to pack enough clothes for a week.  There are laundry facilities at Asilomar so the first thing I will do when we get there is wash clothes!  And I need to leave room in that suitcase for purchases.  You know I will make some.

I am excited about the trip as I’ve never been to the West Coast.  And I’m thrilled to be going with some of the TTT gang.  We have an all day bus tour planned for the first day.  We’re going to rent bikes and ride the Golden Gate Bridge one day.  And we’re planning to take a Segway tour of San Francisco another day.  Pretty cool for some old ladies!!

I added some bling to the quilted mirror and it’s ready to get wrapped up and sent out to the lucky birthday sister.  In addition to being a nice little wall ornament it can also be laid flat and used as a candle mat with a pretty pillar candle.  I’m going to shop for one to go with it this week.

This past Tuesday the TTT gang loaded up two vans and traveled to Aiken, SC to the Aiken Quilt Guild show.  The show is hung in the Aiken Historical Museum and hangs for almost the entire month of November.  It is a beautiful setting for the show and we enjoyed viewing the quilts close-up and without a lot of other viewers.  Entry to the show is free but there is a donation box to support the museum. 

On the way to Aiken we stopped in Blackville, SC to eat at The BreadBasket – a down-home eatery that is owned and operated by a Mennonite family.  The Blackville area is home to a number of Mennonites.  The food was wonderful, the desserts even better, and the various homemade breads were out of this world!

After visiting the quilt show we went into downtown Aiken.  While there has been growth in the outlying areas with the requisite strip malls, big box stores, chain resturants, etc., Aiken has managed to maintain a vital and very eclectic downtown shopping area.  It also has a very nice performing arts center.  Located in western SC near the border with Georgia and very close to Augusta, Aiken has long been known for horse-raising and horse-racing.  If you are ever in the area it is worth spending a day or more visiting this charming and historic town.

There is a fairly new quilt shop in Aiken – The Aiken Quilt Shop located on Haynes St.  It is small but well arranged and most of us contributed to it’s economy while there.

Here are some pics of the trip.  I didn’t get any of The BreakBasket.  As always, the thumbnail pics are clickable for a larger view.

I love traveling and visiting new places and new quilt shops.  Last weekend Jolene and I went to Burnsville, NC.  It is a darling town in the mountains of NC.  A cute square, quaint buildings, and BEST OF ALL – quilt blocks adorn many of the buildings.  We started asking questions and found out that Yancy county had started the program as a way to encourage tourism – it has grown and now includes Mitchell county as well.  They call it the Quilt Trail – have a brochure and a map of all the sites with quilt blocks – they are up to NINETY-ONE.  Of course my mind is planning a TTT field trip to spend a weekend trying to find and photo shoot all of them.  Here are a few pics of the ones we just happened across last Saturday.

We also found a wonderful quilt shop called Needle Me This.  It’s nice sized – not huge – good variety of fabrics and styles – and was very very friendly.  I want to go back SOON.  While we were checking out we mentioned that we had a group that liked to travel to quilt shops and hold quilting retreats and the owner of the shop told me she owns a house outside of Burnsville that is set up just for that – three stories on 25 mountain acres – one floor just for sewing/scrapbooking/ whatever.  It will sleep 8 and we could bring blow up mattresses if need be to sleep a few more.  I will be checking this out and planning a trip very soon.

This week I’ve managed to finish sewing together my gigantic Blooming Nine Patch and quilt a BQ for Janice.  I’m still fighting some kind of sinus/allergy crud. 

Stay tuned for reports on the STRING WEEKEND commencing tomorrow morning in the studio with most of the TTT gang!

75 cotton FQs - brights, black and whites, and earth/fall colors

Sew What Fabrics and Batiks, Etc just had a Fat Quarter Frenzy sale and I couldn’t resist!  Look at all my wonderful surprises!

100 different batik FQs - black and whites, brights, fall/earth, and assorted colors

………..Can be another quilter’s TREASURE TROVE!!!

My guild, Cobblestone Quilters Guild, holds an annual silent auction where the members donate used/unwanted quilting items.  Lots of fabrics, etc.  And sometimes orphan blocks and UFOs.  

I scored big Thursday night and captured two UFOs.  The first is a Storm at Sea in blues/aquas – paperpieced – and ready to become a quilt top with just a few seams!!  I could not believe it when I got home and really investigated the package.  Three rows already together – another two sewn together – and two more rows done but not sewn to others.  There were some partial blocks and more paperpiecing foundations but I decided 7 rows were perfect and tossed the partials.  Removed the paper from the rows that still had paper on them and now all I have to do is sew the rows together and stay stitch around the outer edge and this puppy will be ready to go on the quilting frame. 

The other bonanza was a set of twenty blocks – they are done very very very well – sixteen of them are exactly the same except for color change in the center of the block.  Four of them are almost the same as the sixteen with a difference in the outer part of the block.  I don’t know if there were to be more of the latter and the piecer got tired of working on them or what.  Right now they are all on my design wall and I’m trying to decide if I’m going to piece them all into one quilt or pull out the four different ones and use them separately (table runner/pillow shams??).  In the picture the four different ones are on the outer corners.  Also need to decide if they need sashing (I think they probably do) and if I have anything in my stash that is suitable or if I need to go shopping.

I’ve had the piecing bug lately and put together another sample for our Quilters’ Day Out in September.  Same block as in previous post about Quilters’ Day Out but  turned to give a completely different look.  Once I quilt this one it will go to Hope Lodge.  I also found a sweet little print with blue and green in it and a great green at Sew n Sew’s finish the bolt sale and brought them home, paired them with a blue from my stash, and pieced a double four patch for Hope Lodge.  Both of these tops are a departure for me – I usually don’t work a lot with pastels.  They are so calming to look at and I hope they will comfort cancer patients at Hope Lodge.

I have been out of town – first at our guild Beach Retreat from July 11-14.  Got home Monday afternoon on the fourteenth from the retreat – unloaded everything into the studio – packed new bags and headed out early Tuesday morning, the fifteenth, for West Virginia.  I carried 13 quilts with me to be entered into the WV State Guild Show.  I spent the rest of the week helping with the show, visiting the show, visiting with family and friends, and of course, quilt shop hopping.  Drove home yesterday and today is recuperation day.  I have lots of pictures to download from the camera and will be posting pics and reports daily beginning tonight.  Right now it’s laundry, putting everything away here in the house and up in the studio, and getting some much needed rest.