SoCal Quilters' Run!

OK....I procrastinate. I admit it. BUT!

I've been exercising with Linda every other day in her pool. The woman is a hard taskmaster, but I've actually begun looking forward to those sessions & feel so virtuous afterward. Yay us!

AND We did 1/3 of the Quilters' Run over the last 2 weekends, ending with 6 San Diego Co. shops yesterday. I'm whipped! It was a lot of fun, even though I was totally unprepared: no bars, no snacks, no camera -- what was I thinking? So I don't have pictures for you, but I will tell you about our favorite shops. And the adorable charms the shops were giving out -- too cute. Check out the charms at my flickr badge.

Our very favorite of all the stores we visited (13/39) was Cozy Quilts in El Cajon (www.cozyquilt.com) where we laughed till we cried, Elaine got a sweet deal on a new Bernina with bsr, & we were fed chocolate chip cookies, warm from the oven!!! How could we not love this place & these women, I ask you?!? This was the best fun we had at any of the stores, & we did have a lot of fun on this run, I assure you.

There were only a couple of clinkers in the bunch, but I won't bore you with those. I'll just tell you that the best non-machine deals to be had were at Temecula Quilt Co, where sweet Nicolette gently coerced us into buying the darling mini-bundles to make the wonderful little quilts in the booklet. Ten bucks for the booklet, ten bucks for the bundle & the backing muslin was thrown in as a bonus. Of course I came home with several, & I have it on good authority that the owner of another shop actually made a special trip to TQC to collect some of this tiny goodness for herself! True Bill!

There is one San Diego County store that I've now visited twice, & I won't be going back. I just didn't feel the love either time, so too bad, so sad. If ever there was a time for the staff to put themselves out for their customers, it would be during the Run, but no! They just couldn't do it. Ah, well. Their loss. I'm a loyal girl, but there has to be some love first, you know?

The final stop of our personal Run was in Santee, at Memory Lane (http://www.memorylanequiltshop.com/). What a lovely store, & the owner, Chris, is darling. Beautiful skin, too, but I digress. She has designed a number of nifty quilts & her patterns are actually for sale in the store, with some terrific samples to show them off. Her husband was on hand to do lots of the scut work, & he maintained a happy attitude throughout. Mind you, this was LATE on Saturday night, the next-to-last day of the Run. These people were TIRED, but they were a lot of fun, nonetheless. We had a great time there, & when we left, we were content to call it a day. None of that 'feeling like we missed something' for us!

The full list of shops we visited is: Calico Cottage, Quilter's Coop, Temecula Quilt Co., A Time to Sew, Bears Quilts, Stars & Scraps, Quilter's Paradise, Quilter's Cottage, Sowing Sisters, Quilt in a Day, Flying Geese Fabric, Cozy Quilt Shop, and Memory Lane. There were 26 more shops on the Run, but we were out of time & way past out of money, so 13 was darn good, I'd say. whew! Good thing I don't plan to go to Long Beach next week, huh?

Here's the link to Sew Special, the shop I was telling you about that's closing. There are coupons on the website, & it looks like there will be additional reductions as the summer goes on, so keep checking back. http://www.sewspecialfabrics.com/

I know, I know: nothing at all for a solid month, then 3 posts in a single day. Well, feast or famine, you'll get what you get. I make no promises.
I completely forgot to tell you about my outing today. Friend Linda told me about a quilt store going out of business (ooooohhhh, nooooooo!), so we headed down to Vista (CA) this morning for a little quilty therapy. We managed to assist the ladies at Sew Special in their quest to retire while they're still young...in other words, we bought a boatload of fabric. I found some great dinosaur fabric & coordinates for a quilt for little Charlie; a nice Hawaiian print that will coordinate well with the UM yardage I have for Josh; some pretty border prints for table runners, & a couple of panels that will make cute kid quilts. All in all, a good outing. Lunch at Panera (thank you, Linda) followed, then we headed home. There is still plenty of fabric left at the store: lots of different-patterned chenille, flannel & Hawaiian prints, some kits, & the cutest little dresses & jackets made from cottons & chenilles. It's a nice, small store with a lot of good stuff.
Abi, over at Snippets & Blabbery, is touting the Indigo Girls, & I have to say I'm grateful to her for exposing me to those lovely harmonies & great picking/strumming. Nice work, ladies. OK. Now I have to go do some shopping at iTunes. 'scuse me.

Fun Video

Just finished reading Ami Simms' latest newsletter & found a link to this video: Dancing with Matt -- so fun! You'll like it, too, I'm guessing. While I'm here, I should ask: Do you have your own Priority: Alzheimer's quilt yet? If not, check out the latest auction for some really terrific little quilts that could be yours! I'm a fan of Sue Grafton's alphabet series of books, and she signed a square that has been turned into a nifty little quilt. Go check out that auction, will you? The link is in my list on the left. I'll bet you'll find at least one great quilt that's worth bidding on. Yep, I'm pretty sure. I always find at least one that I really, really want to live with me. Some get some pretty substantial bids, while others seem to languish with few or no bids. I can never predict which ones will go for how much, but this is such a worthy cause that it's easy to bid just a little bit more....go ahead -- you're gonna love this auction deal. I'm in no hurry. I can wait for you. And when you win one (or more!) let me know, OK? That would be fun.

Yippee! A new blog!

Long time gone, eh? Well, it's been a busy, busy month, but I'm back! This morning, while quickly scanning the latest from my favorite online quilt store, Over the Rainbow, I saw a link to what sounded like a fun blog, so of course I went there. Well! I'm so happy to share this link with you. Sugar Shop is intelligently written & of course, Dena is as nutty about fabric as the rest of us -- go figure! But wait! There's more (thanks, Ellen, for permanently imprinting that in my head!): Dena's descripton of her little one's fascination with bugs is enchanting. Just click on the link to the left & go see for yourself. Go on. I'll wait.


Time for me to get my childhood haircolor restored. I'll check back later.