Quilter's Run Day 1

Here are some pictures of Day 1 !!!

Now, on to Day 2 tomorrow !!! The Three Quilting Amigos run once more !!

Quilter's Run - 2007

Well, here is OUR Day 1 of the Quilter's Run !!! The QR actually started on Thursday last week, but since we all had to work we had to wait until Saturday to get started. The day started at 9:00 a.m. when Joy & Yvette met at my house. I had previously mapped out our entire route and got directions from store-to-store the day before. We all jumped in the car and couldn't wait to get started. As we headed out, we were deciding how we would go.....knowing that we would be at Leah's Fabric Gallery in Orange on Sunday, we bypassed them and went to our first stop Leah's in Mission Viejo. We made it there in about 30 minutes, even though traffic was bad....obviously from all the quilters having the same idea as us going to the southern stores....ha, ha, ha!!! We should have known how the day was going to go as Leah's was already sold out of the "quilter's pins" by the time we got there and only had the "2007 bar", but we were not to be discouraged and were told we could get them at the next stop. We received our first "charm", a little kitty because Miss Leah loves cats, as well as our first set of 4 "charm" squares of fabric !!! Each store was giving away these little charm fabric squares and charms. The QR was "movie themed" at each place, or were supposed to be. The ladies at the Mission Viejo store were wearing "white veil's" and I was trying to figure out what movie they were supposed to be from but it really did not matter. They were really nice and helpful. Anyway, we browsed around Leah's for a bit and decided to move on, anxious to get to the next place.

Next, stop was Sowing Sisters Quilt Shop in Carlsbad....luckily Leah's had NEW directions to their shop because they had MOVED after the flyer had been printed and sent out !!! But what a beautiful and quaint little town Carlsbad was. I had never been to Carlsbad before and we loved it. We decided to park on the main drag and walk to the quilt shop !!! The shop was cute in the middle of downtown and the people there were so nice and friendly. We were able to buy our Quilter's Run 2007 pin and got our next charm. They had lots of brochures on Janome's so I picked up quite a few. Each of us picked up something there (can't really remember what Joy & Yvette bought, but I got a pattern), we decided to move on once again.

Next stop the infamous Eleanor Burns Quilt-in-a-Day shop in San Marcos !!! It was only supposed to be like a 10-minute ride from the Carlsbad shop, but there was this teeny-tiny street sign that none of us saw, probably because we were having way too much fun giggling and laughing in the car. This was the first time we got lost along the way, snicker ! Anyway, I don't have a picture of the store but you can see it on Joy's blog at http://joy-denise.blogspot.com/ , and be sure to check out the slide-show pictures Joy took. The pictures posted here were sent to me from Yvette. Obviously, Eleanor Burns has her own parking space but it cracked us up what it said.....Eleanor Burns "The Stripper".....violators will be "stitched in the ditch"...I'm sure only quilters got a kick out of this.

Yvette and Joy especially wanted to see this place. We found some really great deals there too. Joy & Yvette each want to make the Eleanor Burns' Magic Vine quilt, but neither of them wanted to buy the book at it's retail price. We were browsing using around and one of the ladies that works there told us that there were some "damaged" books in the classroom for 50% off...low and behold, there were brand new Magic Vine books with like bent corners or whatever in there for half off !!!! Yvette & Joy each snatched one up. I have always wanted to make the double wedding ring quilt and there is a pattern in her Egg Money Quilt which has reproduction 1930's quilt blocks in it. This book was also 50% off...well, how could I possibly pass that up. They also had an entire room of material on sale for $4 a yard, and I just had to buy some.

Of course, we couldn't leave the store without Joy posing with Eleanor for a picture.

Wanting to make a getaway before I totally went overboard, we pressed on to the next stop to Quilter's Paradise in Escondido. I totally loved this store !!! We were browsing around and everyone was looking at everything and what to my surprise...I found some more burgundy material that I'm using in Amie's quilt there. I had previously purchased everything they had a Leah's in Orange when I started Amie's quilt and I fell in love with this material. I just had to buy some more so I picked up three yards. I only bought three more yards and I am KICKING myself now that I did not buy the end of the bolt because it was only a little over six yards. However, I wanted to pace myself and save some money for the other stores. I may just have to call them and ask them to send me the rest of this material because it's gorgeous. Oh, yeah, we got a "free" pattern there as well and since I spent $50 there, I'm automatically in the drawing to win a quilt !!! I loved their charm too......a martini glass !!! Although I don't drink martinis, it does remind me of a margarita so to me that's what it is !!!! Anxious to get going to the next place, we left Quilter's Paradise around 12:30 pm and were trying to find a place to eat on our way to Quilter's Cottage in Fallbrook. We stopped at a Subway (I don't even remember where) and oh my goodness what a nightmare that was....It was like 100 degrees inside this place. There were like 15 people in there who all looked miserable. I think the employees wanted to make sure NO ONE wanted to stay and eat there so they could go home...but this place literally had no air conditioning. Yvette, Joy and I were miserable until we went outside to eat, which was actually COOLER than inside !!! But, oh well, we just laughed and giggled about it.

After lunch, we went to Fallbrook or attempted to !!! This was the second time we got lost along the way. This place was unbelievably hard to find. Yvette & I get car sick and we had to go through all these winding roads. We eventually found the place, but it was SOOOO small and tiny that you had to walk the isles single file. I said to Yvette, "You know, I feel dizzy" and she said, "yeah, I thought it was the car ride, but maybe not...I feel claustrophobic !" Well, we all couldn't wait to beat it out of there. By this time we were heading back to Orange County....moving on, we hit the next place, Quilter's Coop in Temecula. What a great place that was. They apparently had some jazz festival or street festival going on and there were hundred's of people there. Jazz music coming from everywhere....Craig would have been in 7th heaven !!! This was one of the nicest quilt shops we had seen so far. Yvette even said she'd drive from her home in Cerritos back to this store if they were having a 30% off sale. Apparently, she loves wool fabric and they had tons of it. Well, we couldn't stay there forever and we headed out to our final destination, Calico Cottage in Murrieta. As far as the movie themes go, this place WINS hands down. They had Pirates of the Caribbean music playing and a cut-out life size Captain Jack. All the employees were dressed up as pirates and the store was like 65 degrees !!! We were in an island paradise. We just laughed and laughed listening to these wonderful ladies greet all the quilters with "yar, ye mate-ies !!! To the back with ye !!!" This was where we had to check in and the smell of fresh popcorn permeated throughout the shop. It was great !!! This was about 4:30 or so. We had been so hot throughout the day that we decided to stop for some frozen yogurt ! I got a smoothie, Joy got a low-carb mocha, and Yvette just got a dish of frozen yogurt ! It was the best way to end the day.

Heading back home, we hit tons of traffic on the 91 Freeway. We just continued like we had throughout the day, laughing and enjoying each other's company. Then we decided to hit Joy's house before coming all the way home so Yvette could see Joy's sewing set up ! By this time, it was now 6:00 p.m. We were all pooped and ready to call it quits. We ended up at my house around 6:20 p.m. We all said good-bye knowing we would all talk about our day in class on Sunday !!! Well, what a great day ....mishaps and all....it was a perfect day with wonderful friends !!! On to next weekend for Day 2 !

Love to all, Karene

Babies, Babies, and More Babies

Ok, dear friends....you are not going to believe this !!! Four of Matt and Junior's friends are having babies, and pretty much all within two months of each other as well. I guess you could call me crazy, but I wanted to make them baby blankets in order for me to practice my "stippling" technique. Three of these kids are having boy babies and one is having a girl. The first quilt is for the baby girl and was my very first attempt at actually "stippling" it myself. I tried to do this on my Singer sewing machine but was having a bit of trouble because I could not get the darning foot to work with the feed dog cover plate, but I tried anyway.


I took the quilt to the teacher extraordinaire, Ms Janet, for critiquing and was quite embarrassed to show it to her. She said I did "okay" and I'm sure she didn't want me to be discouraged. Anyway, she told me how I could do some things better. One thing she suggested was that I could use the darning foot WITH the feed dogs and low and behold, IT WORKED!!!


Here is the close-up of this quilt. It was a panel piece and I just added borders and quilted it. I actually bought two of the same panel because I was under the impression that two babies were supposed to be girls. These kids are all related and the babies are all going to be "cousins" so I thought how cute to have similar quilts. Anyway, once I had the pink quilts made I found out that one of the girls was actually now a boy so I had to come up with something quick.

Junior's best friend, Anthony, loves the Dallas Cowboys football team and he said, "hey, Mom, do you think you could make a Cowboys quilt for his baby." Well, how could I say no. I found this material from an online fabric store and bought a couple of yards of it.


This pattern was quick and easy and since Anthony's cousin's baby turned out to be a boy instead of a girl (as mentioned above), I thought great I can make the boy cousins the same baby blanket but with different backings. Anthony's has a white backing and the other one has this blue backing that was used for the inner border and binding too!!! These were my second and third attempts at "stippling", which I think I did pretty good considering. I finally got my darning foot to work (per Janet's expert advice) and tried stippling again.

I was determined to get this down. I thought if Yvette, a friend from class, can do it, I can do it !!! So, I tried and tried. I did Anthony's quilt and then his cousin's. Here is a close up of MY third stippling attempt, which is not too bad.

I had one more quilt to make and that one was for the oldest of the babies, which was born a few months ago. I couldn't possible give three of the cousins a blanket and not his baby one.

So I found this cute Winnie the Pooh material and again just added borders & backing! This was my fourth attempt at stippling and I was very happy with this one !!! It really turned out cute. The stippling design is not the best, but it will get better with practice.




According to some of the quilting web sites that Joy and I look at it takes 200-400 hours to learn how to work a long arm machine and I'm sure it takes at least a few hundred hours on how to stipple to get to be as good as the magical Janet. But, I endeavor to persevere !!! I brought these to class last Sunday and Janet again critiqued them. She was so supportive and proud that I'm just jumping in and doing it.

Yvette did great on hers and Joy is even meandering on Patricia's quilt (a lady we work with that has cancer). We are all going to get this down !!! We are all having so much fun with it too after pulling our hair out!!! Oh yeah, the other pink quilt I made (like the first one above), my mom bought it to give as a baby shower gift on Saturday!!! Does this make me a "professional" quilter ????.....just kidding !!!

Anyway, Joy, Yvette and myself are heading out for the 2007 Quilter's Run and will be hitting quilt shops all day looking for deals (details to follow since Joy & Yvette will be snapping pictures all along the way) !!! Check out Joy's blog too for some great info.

http://joy-denise.blogspot.com/

Love to all, Karene