Tired of Sad!

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of sad. I'm probably as tired of writing about sad stuff as you are reading about it. So let me tell you about what I did today.

In my "normal" life, the perfect weekend is one where I can live the life of a hermit--drive home from work on Friday night and not have to leave again until Monday morning. Of course, weekends don't always work out that way, but when they do, I'm happy as a pig in you-know-what. I spend my time quilting, watching some TV, reading books, reading blogs, writing blogs, cooking, etc. So here I am with the rest of the week off work--a great opportunity to indulge in my hermit existence, right? Well, I got to thinking about it, and I kind of thought that if I spent three days hanging around the house, under the current circumstances, I just might start feeling even more down about life. So what could I do instead? Well, it just so happened that today was the first of four days of our annual central northern California quilt shop hop--Quilt Rush. Did I want to do a little shopping? You betcha! It seemed to me that time spent driving would be the perfect opportunity for a little reflection, and time spent shopping would mean I wouldn't get to feeling too sad and sorry for myself.

Last year, my good friends Patty (from Florida) and Kairle (from Utah) came to stay and "hop" with me, and we had a wonderful time. In fact, I've done the "hop" every year since it began--I think the first year was 2000, so this would be the eighth year. I had decided a month or two ago that this year, I'd skip it. But here I was with time off and no commitments until Saturday when my brother comes to visit, so I decided I'd visit a few of the local shops.

My first stop was at Bear Paws and Hollyhocks--not one of the Quilt Rush shops but one of four shops hosting a separate hop. (Last year, Kairle, Patty, and I did both hops for a total of 20 quilt shops and about 650 miles in two days!) Not only is BP&HH the shop I spend the most time (and money) in, but for the hop, all fabric was 25% off--couldn't pass that up! Here are the few little things I couldn't manage to leave the store without:

Next, I drove a bit south of Sacramento to Country Sewing Center in Elk Grove. This shop is one of my favorites, but I don't visit it very often because it's about a 40 minute drive from my house and they're not open on Sundays. Again, I managed to find a few things to buy (that bundled fabric is a kit--it goes with the pattern to the right):

Heading back to Sacramento, I stopped at Quilter's Corner (another regular stop for me) and Tayo's. I managed to be a bit more thrifty at those shops, although I absolutely had to splurge on the woven FQ bundle at Quilter's Corner. (That photo at the top of my blog was taken of one of the displays inside QC.)

My last stop of the day was at a quilt shop not too far from home, Stitching Station in Roseville. In honor of the hop, they handed out a couple "freebie" patterns (top row, far right and far left)--they really have a great selection of patterns at their shop. They also had a great selection of discounted FQs, so of course I had to bring some FQs and patterns home with me. Oh, and I won that little Moda needle case on the bottom center--my name was drawn during their hourly drawing:

Originally, I contemplated doing the northern loop of shops tomorrow, which would take me by the town where my mom lives and would give me an opportunity to stop by and visit with her for a bit, but I think I've had my fill of driving, shopping, and goodies. It's still a possibility, but I think it might be the hermit act for me tomorrow--I'll just give my mom a call and chat a bit. I also have a house that's accumulated quite a bit of dust, dirt, and odds and ends that aren't in their proper places, and as much as I hate doing the cleaning, a clean house always makes me feel better. Today I also managed to drag myself around the grocery store before I finally headed home, so that "chore" is taken care of. I had to laugh because I bought a pizza to bake later this week, and when I got it home, I found it wouldn't fit in my side-by-side fridge--so it was pizza for dinner tonight! Oh well, after all the running around, I didn't feel much like cooking anyway.

But blueberries were on sale, so I bought some. Maybe tomorrow I'll bake a cobbler or something equally scrumptious and tempt you with pictures. Maybe I'll finish the piecing on my appliqued Jo Morton quilt top and share a photo with you. Maybe I'll end up with a clean house and feel like I'm a little more in control of my world. And maybe I'll play with some of the goodies I bought today! Happy quilting!