This was our view on Sunday morning, the last day of the Valley of the Mist first annual quilt retreat. We stayed at Vina de Lestonnac http://www.vinalestonnac.com/ in Temecula's wine country. So peaceful and beautiful. The balloons are an every-weekend thing in the area, but this was the first time I'd seen them. Pretty spectacular.

The weekend was a lot of fun, with lots of food, prizes, laughter, and of course, sewing. Every finished top was greeted with oohs and ahs and cheers. We are such an enabling group! Of course, every single one of us was inspired by the others' workmanship, choice of colors and design. Check out the pictures in my Flickr badge, on the left.

Beginning Saturday morning with a nice massage was a real treat. Thank you, Linda! You can borrow my car any old time. I finally settled on a project, after rejecting three others. It took a long time to get a block made, after sewing lots of strips together and cutting them into smaller units, over and over and over again. Then, things began to come together, not just for me, but for everyone, it seemed.

The convent food was just OK. Maybe not even that, but there was plenty of it, and the atmosphere throughout the retreat center was a welcoming one. Our Friday afternoon tea, on the other hand, was a big hit, with lots of savory and sweet treats, along with a very nice assortment of teas. My scones were a hit, and I am now the official scone baker for future retreats. Works for me -- I'm happy to have an excuse to make them.

We did it. We finished on Sunday. Got the pictures posted to Flickr the same day, but I forgot to let you know. So. Here they are -- just click on the flickr badge on the left and you can see the progress we made. I actually sewed a few seams on Sunday evening. Yippee!!

Happy New Year!

It's been a long time, I know. There's just been so much going on. And not so much, at the same time. We went to Las Vegas for both Thanksgiving & Christmas this year -- different on both counts. Didn't go back to IL because we'll be there the end of this month for the mother of all showers. A big tea party! What fun, huh? I'm really looking forward to it for so many reasons: seeing Patty, Julie, Julie's girls, my boys, etc; the shower itself, as we have a wonderful gift; we'll have Christmas with all the IL family. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it a lot. I miss my kids.

We started working on the 2nd guest room, turning it into my sewing room. I've given up trying to use the porch -- it's just too cold or too hot most of the year. No, I'm not Goldilocks! I just need me some hvac to make my workroom functional. I also needed better lighting & more outlets, so the move into the house really was inevitable. We'll put the queen from that room out on the porch & I'll use it for laying out quilts when we don't have guests. We'll still have the same number of beds, but the one on the porch just won't be air conditioned. On the other hand, nights are generally OK, even in the summer, & we can add warmth in the winter -- so no worries.

So. . . . we stripped the wallpaper, got all the goop off the walls & the holes patched. We even got it painted, although I'm not loving the color I chose. It looks kind of ill. I'm pretty sure it will be OK once I get the furniture moved in, but in the meantime? yuck.

The best news? I'm no longer an officer of my lovely group, so this year I can enjoy it more without stressing about each meeting. That's a very good thing. AND I don't have to attend board meetings anymore -- that's one evening meeting down! Of course, I have volunteered to serve on a couple of committees, so I'm not a complete slug. In fact, I'll be leaving one of them after next month -- too much stress for me on that one.

All the critters have survived to greet the new year, although we had to separate the cats last week. Little Grace was very stressed by Pearl & wasn't using the litter box, so we moved Pearl out of the bedroom & into the hall & bathroom. She now has 3 beds: in the hall, on top of the scratching post & inside a bathroom cabinet. She has said scratching post, as well as the track ball thingy & all her toys, with her food, water & box in the bathroom. She's adjusting pretty well so far, although I know she misses sleeping with me. Little Grace has returned to her own goofy, fully-present self & woke me up the other night sitting on my face! She's really happy again -- I guess she likes to be the only cat. Funny, because she didn't act like this when Blossom was alive.
So now you're fairly current with what's happening. Oh, my beginners' class is coming along very nicely. I have 4 or 5 regulars, & a new student will be joining us next week. I like doing this -- it gets my week off to a nice start & helps me to clarify my thinking about how & why I do things the way I do. It's all good, as I expect the rest of the year to be. Mostly.

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.

Creative Everyday

Now I want to return to including some creativity in each day's activities. Yesterday, I was able to make all the snowball blocks for my current red & white effort. I'm liking the way the 9-patches & the dark corners of the snowballs create a star. It took me awhile to see it, but whoomp! There it is. I'm liking it. Later on, I finished hand quilting one of the Glory Be minis & started on the next one. I so love this little quilt.

Only one more day before we officially begin retreating -- can't wait! Tomorrow we'll head up to Crystal Lake to a great OLD quilt shop, the kind with wooden floors & 15 foot ceilings. We'll meet up with our friend Lynn for lunch, then wander the little shops in town for a bit before heading back here to the grocery for supplies for the week's lunches & breakfasts. I'll cook some spicy sesame noodles for Patty's & my dinner (her DH will be playing softball) & then I can get some more cutting done on my balloon quilt. Tuesday morning, Verna arrives! Woo hoo!!! Terry will join us, depending on her MIL's situation, & we'll be off & running. Dinner will be at Cheesecake Factory, then we'll head to guild (our local, Sarah's Grove Quilters Circle) for a program on maintaing our sewing machines. With Verna & me in attendance, the total of people there will jump to about 25!
Wednesday we'll be making a last pilgrimmage to our old favorite, Calico in Racine, WI. It'll be the last time we'll get to wander through that darling old house, visit with Kathy, Jane & Linda, & get some great deals as they close down their store. sigh. We'll stop at the Jelly Belly factory store on the way home. Goodie! We will have started our crockpot salsa chicken before we left home, so it will be waiting for us on our return. Thursday, it will be all sewing, all the time. Ditto for Friday, I'm thinking. Thursday night we'll head over to Lou Malnati's for some of their individual deep dish pizzas & some fabulous Lou's salad with gorgonzola dressing. Friday's dinner will be carried in by Patty's DH from Portillo's -- I'll be having their wonderful fruit & chicken salad with poppyseed dressing. SO yummy! Saturday morning, Verna will head back to IN. That night, my DH & I will join Patty & hers in meeting our couples gourmet group for dinner at the Ram. I expect lots of hugs & laughter all week. Are you jealous yet? Well, why not?!?!? I look forward to this week all year long & we do have a great time. It's exhausting, & sometimes I don't even get much done, but the "fellowship" as my friend, Mary, says, is soul-satisfying & feeds me for the next 12 months.
I promise, I'll start posting pictures on Tuesday. I did quite a bit of sewing today & got the top of my 13 Colonies put together. I'll be looking for a border & back for it tomorrow. Happy, happy, joy, joy!

Traffic on the "L" (the block wall between our house & the neighbors') is getting dense! The lizards are abundant this year & they are just bopping back & forth on the wall like crazy. I always wonder: is it safer to be on top of the wall than on the ground? Are dogs on the ground more dangerous than the neighbor's cats who also use this highway, or the hawks & owls? Just wondering. Lizard push-ups continue to amuse me -- there's one now! This one is at least 8" long, too. Big ones seem much more prevalent this year. Who would've thought I'd be so enchanted with these little buggers? I do remember the house chameleon we had in Hawaii -- it was my hero, eating its weight in cockroaches daily. So maybe my fascination with the lizards is a result of that early appreciation? Dunno, but I'm very glad to see them now. This is the spring of the SoCal BUGS!! Some of them are neat, like the "Mosquito Hawks" (our little neighbors' name for them)& some not so much: hordes of flies in all shapes & sizes. I had to scrub, scrub, scrub the bug juice off my windshield last night after the gas station scrubber did nothing but get the glass wet. Then I scrubbed Alan's, too. It was nice to start out this morning with a sparkling clean view, but the bugs are still getting squished as I rock down the highway. sigh.
Applique class was sparsley attended today, & since I spent a lot of time visiting with Theresa, among others, I didn't get a lot done. I'll finish all the prep work on block #4 this weekend, then I can take it & #3 with me for handwork. I ran into Theresa again in Main St, while on my way to the Olive Oil store. She reminded me that Norma was at the Coop, sewing for Quilts of Valor, so I stopped in there on my way. She has a real sweatshop going on -- there were 4 or 5 people sewing & big stacks of blocks waiting to be turned into tops. Very impressive! Norma's such a honey. She's adopted this path & has turned it into a mission: she wants to provide every single serviceman & woman with a handmade quilt. If anyone can achieve that goal it will be our Norma. Rock on, my friend!
Haven't heard from my honey yet, so I'm going to mosey on to my sewing room & make a travel pillowcase for my little pillow. Maybe it will remind me to take it with me when I get off the plane, & when I leave Patty's. I have to find a pretty & striking print for this. I believe I know just where to look.....

Creativity has taken a hit this week. I've been trying to get something finished, but haven't succeeded so far. Maybe tomorrow......

I did have a creative chat with 2 friends today: Verna via long distance phone from IN; & Ellen right here in my sewing room. How nice to be able to visit with two quilty friends in one day.

Did you hear about the 5.3 earthquake in Southern IL? Verna (in Northern IN) was awakened by it! I'm cracking up. Not once in the 50+ years I lived in the Midwest did I ever experience an earthquake; now that I live in SoCal, the Midwest gets a whopper! Go figure.

Plans for the 8th (?) annual Girlfriends quilting retreat are proceeding nicely. One of our very favorite quilt shops is going out of business, as the 3 darling owners have decided to join their husbands in retirement. sigh. Calico, Colors & Canvas, in Racine, WI, http://www.calicocanvasandcolors.com/index.htm has begun a going-out-of-business sale. I'm just crushed. I have loved this store and its owners since I first made their acquaintance about 15 years ago. So we will make one last pilgrimage as a group when we get together in 2 weeks & head up to Racine for a final visit & shopping spree. I'll have to redeem my 2 full punch cards. big, big sigh.

My students rock! All 3 had accomplishments to show off today: Linda created the back for her snowball quilt & began cutting for her next project, Diane had put together her wonky 9-patches & started on her borders, & Ramona -- well! She had cut & pieced all her rail fence blocks & had designed a layout she's pleased with. She got about 1/3 of her rows put together before it was time to break up. Well done, ladies!
Next week, Linda says she'll be ready to start sewing, Diane will be ready to choose her back & the fabric for her next quilt, & Ramona will be adding borders to her rail fence. They're just zooming along.
I got a few more tiny hst's trimmed while I watched the girls sew. Not a big accomplishment for me, but I wasn't there for me, so I don't feel too badly.

The really big news is that Sheryl gave me several wonderful small quilts for the Huck Finn Jubilee -- wheeeeee! We're on our way! Thanks so much, Sheryl. These will fly out of our booth, I know.
On the way home, I followed directions from Stacy & Nicolette & found the strawberry stand they had both raved about. The strawberries are grown & harvested from the field that surrounds the stand -- talk about shopping locally! They didn't have any of the oranges the girls had told me about, so I'll have to go back again. Can't wait to sample the berries -- they are so beautiful & smell divine. Gotta love SoCal.