Oh the Places we went!

“Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.”  aka Dr. Seuss....Theodor Seuss Geisel)

 

So much to show you, I've been in the car for the past four days. I have been around the world, shop hopping with Debbie and Ally and then up to Asheville to help E & R with their new home, aka the Biltmore Annex. More on that later.

First I want to share the shop hop extravaganza report. We had a ball did the whole hop...12 shops. I did 10. I had to get ready to leave for Asheville on Saturday so I did not make it to the last two shops...Ally and Deb flew in and barely made it before the shops closed.  We all were so tired. Shop hoppin in Atlanta is WORK people!!! Quilters everywhere having so much fun. There was electricity in the air. So much fun. The theme for the shop this year was:"  A Quilter's Tour of Homes".   Each shop had a "  house"   theme. I took a few photos. I was so busy talking to fellow quilters and checking out the decor of each shop..and then we had to jump in the car and drive 40 bazzilion miles. Here are a few photos.

Ally and Deb. Mother in Law and her new DIL. Buyin it up on the hop.

A Scarlet Thread. OH MY...there was a LOT GOIN ON!

Mary Ellen aka The Queen Bee at the "Hive" Those wings were so funny. Every employee had them on. Cracked me up!

Adorable fabric childrens book written by Maetha (owner of Tiny Stitches) and made by...I can't remember. I think maybe Melinda...sorry. Any way it used all the blocks of the other houses in the shop in their book. SOOO CREATIVE. Each shop has a block and must make a quilt using their block and all the other blocks from the other stores on the hop. It was fun to see the quilts everyone made!

OK so I'm in the bathroom at Sweet Home Quilt Co. (Melisa's) and I got a little distracted by the decor and proceeded to take photos. (Melisa would have preferred that I concentrate on the decor of her shop hop theme)  I was horrified when I walked out and there was a line to get in........ with ladies about to die they had to go so bad...Sometimes I worry about myself.

Guess what Ally bought on the hop!!!!!YUP the baby quilter has a new baby sewing machine!.Look at her and her cute Cowboy boots buying up the machine! I'm going to get a skirt and some cowboy boots next time we hop.

A  Scarlet Thread and their quilt for the hop. Their theme was The Green House. All the other shops blocks were  around the greenhouse.

Holey Cow, This is In Town's quilt. It blew my skirt right up!  

This quilt is haunting me. Taffy made this quilt. She did a fabulous job. I know now what I am going to do with my polka dot fabrics! Yes I do!

Another scene from the bathroom window. I will never do this again! I will remain focused on quilting!

I have lots more to share including photos of Thimble quilts from Last weekend! I'll be back.

Shop Hop Today

He who is impatient waits twice.

-Mack McGinnis

The Atlanta Shop Hop begins today. I don't hop well, I don't even jump well...I'm a sitter feet planted firmly on terra firma!!! I'm not a big crowd shopper either, I go to Wal Mart in the early morning before the people come out. It's a problem I know. However I do love a good crowd of quilters on a mission! Thousands of quilters visiting every shop in the Atlanta Metro area..and let me tell you people that is covering some ground!!! (over 400 miles I think) I will be riding shot gun with Debbie and her DIL who is a brand new baby quilter. I love brand new baby quilters! I love to help them spend vast amount of money! I love the questions they ask and the enthusiasm in the discovering the joy of quilting.  It will be my job to navigate (not drive!) Debbie's new car to every shop in the land, or as many as we can get to in 1 1/2 days. As for me I'm going to refrain from making any purchases that resemble fabric. OOOPS my nose just grew so long it hit my computer screen. Pinocchio style.  Lets just see how I do. Liar Liar pants on fire!

This should be fun. I will take Mary Beth's my camera and try to catch the lighter side of the hop. Stay tuned. Do you think any of the shops will hand out little bags of cheetos to help us keep up our strength as we hop along? probably a big fat NO    

I'M BLOWN AWAY!

The optimist is the kind of person that believes that a housefly is looking for a way out.

-George Jean Nathan

A wonderful, amazing,very a special thing has happened to me in the last week...I am so blown away to be honored for a Golden Quilter Award 2011 which is taking place on  SewCalGal's blog. There are 10 nomination categories. I am nominated under the best teacher category. The names are in alphabetical order so I'll save you time..I'm the last one (gotta love that "  W "  last name!).  

There are a few things I would like to say about this nomination. First of all to the one who dun it! I love you more than Cheetos! Thank you Becky, your friendship is such a joy in my life, we have many more years ahead to enjoy our friendship and quilting. Second, of all the categories to be nominated this one means the most to me. If I have been a part of bringing the joy of quilting to ONE person and helped them move up the ladder of quilting success then I am a happy successful  quilt teacher. Quilting is more than a hobby, it is an art form and I don't care what "kind" of quilter you are or what "type" of quilting you prefer...it is art to be enjoyed, nurtured and shared! That is my goal and will always be my goal. Third..Holey Cow just to have my named listed with the other quilt teachers in this category blows my skirt up!!! I'm speechless (and that is sayin sumthin!!!) 


If you would like to check out these awards and categories cast your vote by hopping on over using the above link to "vote early and vote often" as Sir Quilt Dude says..hahaha (he likes me he really likes me..). Voting is open until March 31. 

WOW now this was fun!

Hurry UP!

One of the great disadvantages of hurry is that it takes such a long time.

G.K. Chesterton

Hurry! I swear that should be my middle name. YUP! Pat "Hurry up" Wys that is me for sure. Always in a hurry. So much to be done in every day..no in every hour of every day. Then we have the added issue of the stupid CLOCK PEOPLE who decided we should SPRING FORWARD. Who are these people? I did not ask to give up an hour of sleep (which there is precious little of in my world). I WANT MY HOUR BACK and I don't want to wait until fall...I need my hour now..today, quilt market looms, designs in the making, patterns to be written, photographed....fliers, booth styling, teaching, lectures, cooking, spring cleaning, flowers to be planted, THE BLOODY LIST IS ENDLESS and I'm always in a hurry. Oh and lets not forget that now.... people are calling me to find out if I'm okay because I haven't been BLOGGING (I love those people I swear I do...thank you for your love and support! I'm not kidding either).  

So, since I'm in a hurry today........ as I MUST finish a quilt to give to Leisa tomorrow for quilting...and the borders are not going well...I decided to go have a mani and pedi and contemplate being in a hurry. When in doubt...procrastinate right?

To the CLOCK PEOPLE...I still want my hour back. If you give me my hour back I will make you a quilt........... JUST STOP IT PLEASE it is not nice to take things without permission!

New Favorite Thing

Raindrops on Roses and whiskers on kittens....deedahdahdeedahdahdahdahdahdee...These are a few of my favorite things!

I love me some new goodies for sewing!!!  Here is a new fav for me. (I am not paid to say this either!) I love these little scissors. I love them sew much I'm going to buy the big ones. I love them so much I'm going to blog about it...... Karen Kay Buckley scissors!  They are called Perfect Scissors. Well named!
 
These scissors  have   micro serrated edges. TEENY TINY choppers! They grip and grab the fabric and cut so smooth. I think...but have no scientific proof  that they also cut down on the ravel factor. That alone is fantastic! They are extremely lightweight, which made me think at first that they were "cheap" feeling...oh boy howdy was I wrong! They also have kinda fat handles which make them easy to pick up, grab and cut. I'm not saying they are made for people who have fat fingers...I would never even think of THAT!


The fact that I love these babies so much is sayin sumthin because I'm a major Gingher scissor girl.  I still love my Ginghers and I have previously sold a kidney to purchase them... I tried these new scissors and fell in love. (is it possible to love this many scissors?..do I need a support group?). BTW I think I paid $19.99 for them (code for $20 bucks).


Where have I been the past couple of days? Sewing my brains out with my new niffty scissors!!

What is in your car???

"  I hope some day to make you all a cup of coffee."

-Johnny Depp

The camera is toast. Gone Baby Gone. So, I will steal Mary Beth's for awhile until I decide on a new camera. At this precise moment I don't have time to research and determine what camera I want. I'm torn between wanting a super nice digital SLR... but I know that it will be a lot to haul around. Perhaps I should consider a point and shoot camera. Frankly I feel like a pack mule half the time with all the crap goodies I tote everywhere. Here is the list. 

What is in YOUR car?










 Sewing Notions and Goodies: With me in the car at all times, remember I'm on the go with  a lot of groups and classes so I have doubles of most of my favorite things I use to sew, there may be a melted candy bar at the bottom of the case, and yes I have a Cheeto picker in the bag as well as in the sewing room. I should be so embarrassed.


Tote bag aka portable office. Files, forms, invoices, current class handouts, retreat forms, class patterns and books, file folders with my coupons and other files of importance to me.













Basket of 12 copies of each of my patterns, this rides around in the trunk of my car. Gets moved to the back with the purchase of new bags of Cheetos.

Handbag...oh lordy you don't even want to know what is in there. Formally, the home of the camera..now it is an iPad. This is known as  "  Baby".   We have to know where Baby is at all times. We do not want Baby to go the way of the camera (I believe I mentioned that in my last post) 


Then there is the cell phone,GPS,  iPod and all the cords for  the car, blah blah blah. I have a special electronics bag for those goodies. Can you believe how many cords we have to have these days!!!! AND THE Lap top bag.  Carrying this around less and less...Baby is in the lead now. We'll see how that goes in the future.











Small sewing machine in rolling cart. Yup goes everywhere. (Featherweight or my Janome 760).











Small handwork project currently a red work pillow I a doing for my bedroom. Have to keep my hands busy and ready to sew at all times.

 Turvis Tumbler. Hydration a very good thing.














Maybe I will just get an iphone with a camera on it.........kill two birds with one stone the above list gives me a headache.

Back to sewing with photos next post I promise!

Insert photo

What was lost has not been found....yet...(and it has been 3 weeks)

-me 

 I have been stripped of my blog voice..gone....lost. I'm photoless.........my camera is lost. What am I going to do? I'll have to go shopping. (I'll skip Best Buy they still won't let me in the store due to my Mel Gibson episode.) How does one loose a camera? repeat..how does a blogger loose a camera. It is like a quilter loosing a sewing machine, a chef loosing a stove. This simply cannot happen. 

(insert photo here)


I know I haven't blogged lately. I'm sorry. I've been very busy and have seen many wonderful quilts and fabrics.The blog post would have been wonderful.

(insert photo here)

I promise I will do better. I miss my blog.  Send me your photos please until I find buy a new camera, then I can be the blogger I once was. Don't force me to steal photos from other blogs. That is just not nice.

(insert photo here).

I'm sad... but it is just a thing that is lost...I should not be sad over the loss of a thing right?


(insert photo here)


I have a solution....I'm going to borrow steal my daughters brand new camera. She won't know it is missing cuz she starts her new job next week (they don't let the nurses take pictures of their sick patients right?...especially in surgery right?) That's it I'll just steal it. 


(insert photo here)


PS. I dreamed last night I lost my ipad..this camera thing has got me unglued!!!!!