Quilt Stuff

My daugher called yesterday--another good reason to have been home! She had just gone to pick up her mail from the post office and found her cell phone bill, a notice about a speeding ticket she received a week before, and a notice from the IRS. Poor baby! But among all this less-than-happy mail was a package from me containing her Halloween quilt, and that seemed to make everything else a little easier to bear. Isn't that what quilts are for?!

I got an email this morning from Kris McBride. Do you know Kris? Not long after I started quilting and got into Thimbleberries, I "met" my friend Patty (whose blog link is in my sidebar). At that time, Patty had an online Thimbleberries shop and I loved shopping with her because her prices were so low and she was quite personable. Sadly, she gave up her shop, but we're still good friends. Around the same time, I found Kris, who also has an online shop. Kris sells mostly Thimbleberries and Moda fabrics and has a very good stock of quilt books, etc. Best of all, her prices are reasonable ($5.60 to $6/yard). Kris sends out emails to her customers, letting them know when she's getting new books, patterns, and fabrics, and many of these sell quickly as soon as the emails go out. If this interests you, visit Kris and get on her "mailing" list. You can also check out her books, fabrics, and other quilty things. She still lists pieces from various older lines, so if you need something to complete a UFO or want fabric for a quilt back, Kris might just have what you're looking for. Visit Handmade by Kris.

And speaking of quilt backs and since I'm sharing some of my online sources with you, here are a couple more. Have you shopped at $5 Bucks a Yard? Or Thousands of Bolts, Only One Nut? Both carry older fabrics at low prices. Sometimes I find things to go with an older line I'm working with or the perfect quilt backing.

So now you know my "secret" sources--when I'm not shopping at the Fat Quarter Shop or at one of the shops listed with QuiltShops.com. Do you have any "secret sources" to share?

Cabin Fever!

Remember a couple weeks ago--Labor Day weekend, actually--my husband and I went up to Auburn for lunch and to visit the quilt shop? I'm kind of excited to report that Cabin Fever, the quilt shop we visited, is in the new Quilt Sampler magazine that just came out this week!

If any of you happen to be traveling in Northern California's Gold Country, make a stop in Auburn and say hi to Don and Patti Henderson and their staff! I'm so pleased for Don and Patti that their shop has been so successful. Before they owned it, another quilt shop called Fabrications occupied the space, and the few times I stopped in, the people just didn't seem very friendly. Don and Patti have done much to change that, and Patti's a lovely, warm woman--you'll like her the moment you meet her! You probably won't see much of Don--he tends to hide himself away upstairs, taking care of the business end of running the shop and building wooden "things" that they use to display their merchandise and sell in the shop. Of course, when the shop gets busy, Don will emerge, and he does a fine job helping customers and working the register. (That's Don on the far right, and Patti is seated next to him.)

When my husband and I first moved to Sacramento over 20 years ago, my husband went to work for a company called Biggers Industrial-Gerlinger's where they sold parts for machinery--like tractors and such. That's where he first met Don. Don and his wife, Patti, lived up toward the foothills, and when they both "retired," they decided to open a quilt shop, since Patti was a long-time quilter.

I wish I had brought my camera on the last trip so I could share some photos with you, but for now, these from the magazine will have to do. I guess it's a good excuse to go back, though. I can always count on Don to keep my husband occupied, talking about cars and other "boy stuff," while I shop! (If your husband happens to come with you, ask for Don--I'm pretty sure he knows all about distracting husbands when it comes time to ring up the bill!)

And, if you should be traveling in this direction in the fall, after you stop at the quilt shop, hop on Highway 49 south. You can stop and see the site where California gold was first discovered. Then, just east of Placerville off Highway 50 is the Apple Hill area, where all the small farmers open their farms and sell apples, apple products, and all kinds of other goodies. On weekends, many of the farms host craft vendors as well.

Well, I think I've just talked myself into a weekend of activities for my husband and me--late September/early October will be perfect! Next time, I'll get photos. And if you should stop by Cabin Fever, tell Patti and Don I sent you!

Marysville Rest Stop

Boy, am I tired tonight! I made the trip up to Oroville today to take care of some business for my parents and visit, so I've done my "good daughter" stuff for the weekend. Tomorrow is "my" day, and I'm planning to sleep in and then quilt. Maybe I won't even get dressed! Well, I probably will, but it sure is nice to know that I don't HAVE to if I don't want to! I mentioned before that when I travel to Oroville, I like to stop in Marysville, which is about the halfway point. Good thing too, because there's really no other place to stop unless you want to visit someone's orchard or farm fields. The photo above is the view of the lake from the Starbuck's. Nice lake, huh?! LOL! I know, I know--you can barely see it in this photo and I was trying hard to get a picture between cars and trucks, but it's a heavily traveled road so it didn't quite turn out the way I planned. There really is a nice lake and park there, but they've started putting in a little strip mall on the street, and it blocks this particular view. You may remember, if you read that earlier post, that I talked a little bit about these lighted metal supports that criss cross each intersection on the old main street. Well, here's a photo of that (did I mention that I'm a really poor photographer? I really didn't MEAN to feature the garbage can in the photo! LOL!):

You can see the closest one and then off in the distance is another. I'm not sure how many there are, but I'd guess maybe six or seven. They look really cool after dark with the lights on. And right behind me is the quilt shop I mentioned. Yes, I did visit it--first time too. AND the fabric fairies were smiling down on me today! Now I think I have also said that I'm a Thimbleberries fan, so you can imagine I was pretty excited to find some older ("vintage"!) Thimbleberries fabric as well as some older fabrics from other designers. I'll share some photos of my "haul" with you:

Here's the Thimbleberries fabrics--from several of the older lines. They had a bunch of their fabric precut in one yard lengths, so that's what you'll see with some of these. A pretty decent bargain too at $6.50 a yard!

Then I picked up some pink fabrics. I'm not a pink kind of person, but these appealed to me and would look nice made into something in my daughter's former room--I painted the room a light green earlier this year. The top two are from an old Robyn Pandolph line back when she was still with Moda.

Finally, here are some odds and ends. The piece on the bottom is a flannel that I had been searching for. There's a visually excellent but simply pieced quilt that this line was used for--I've seen the quilt made up in shops a few times--and with this fabric, I have the main pieces and can "fake" the rest. So that was a pretty cool find, and I almost missed it because I wasn't really looking at the flannels. The blue piece in the back is more old Robyn Pandolph--really a pretty blue shade. Finally, the middle piece is from Kansas Troubles, an old line called Stitches on the Oregon Trail, I think. I remember this stuff was in shops when I first started quilting.

I guess I'm going to have to stop in Marysville more often! LOL!

Once I got back to the city, I finally did my grocery shopping. After putting it off for a couple weeks, the grocery bill made my fabric bill look quite small! LOL! Now I'm thinking about French toast for breakfast. A blueberry crumble bread for the toast with some whipped honey sweetened cream cheese and blueberry jam between two slices. How does that sound? With a pot of Starbuck's coffee? You're welcome to come over--just don't arrive too early, because I'm sleeping in!