Monday Sew Day

I wanted to post about this sooner, but got a little behind. I took a vacation day this past Monday for a very special sew day. It's retreat planning time and getting to be pincushion time all over again. (YIPEE!) Deb, Susan and I met up at Alex's studio to sew and laugh all day. We took time out for a little lunch too. Between working on our projects, eating and laughing, we managed to get a few retreat items ironed out too! Alex's husband, John was home working in his office, it was nice having him join us for lunch (so much for girl talk! LOL) It's always fun to sew at Alex's. Besides having a fabulous studio, she always has exciting news. She is so busy. I love hearing what she is up to. Here are a few pictures of our day, and lunch too! Deb made us this fabulous taco salad with homemade salsa. Alex also posted about our day on her daily blog over at The Quilt Show. About the picture in her post: I'm usually camera shy, so this doesn't happen very often. There is Deb up front working on her socks, Susan on the right with short hair, and I'm sitting in the back supervising! Along with hearing about Alex's journeys, she also gave me a bit of news. I recently made some pin cushions out of her new line, Never Enough Romance and they used them for market! Not a kit this year, but WOW, slick, glossy paper, full color and the whole shebang! I'm thrilled. Thanks for the wonderful day Alex, John, Deb and Susan! I hope we can do it again soon. These pincushions are disguised for our AAQ 2008 retreators protection *wink*

Boy, get a life and you can get behind in your blogging really quick! Saturday, my friend Deb was up from San Luis Obispo for our big sew day planned for Monday. We took this as an opportunity to also visit a couple of shops. I took some pictures as I know we all like looking at pictures. The first ones are from Prairie Queen Quilt Shop It's a wonderful shop just stuffed with wonderful things. I don't get there often enough! After picking up another quilting friend we stopped in for a visit at One Quilt At A time in Newark. This shop just moved across the parking lot for double the space they had previously. It's so comfy there, very nice class room area. These kind of days pass too quickly,after a nice visit and some snacks I headed home to work on... what else? SOCKS!!! Here are some beautiful flowers in Deb's Aunt's yard. I think these are Calla Lilys? At least someone has a green thumb!!

We're havin a heat wave, and it isn't tropical. The humidity in my part of California isn't much to talk about. It's just plain hot, I think today got up to about 99 degrees. I'm a whimp, it's a good thing I don't live in Arizona, or the desert. Fortunately I have central air conditioning at home, the car and the office, so it isn't bad. The bay area weather is usually mild. In the dead of summer and in the early fall we've been known to hit the hundreds for a few days running, but this seems early or maybe I'm just not ready for it. I'm so sorry, you would think I would have more to post about than the weather! But my life is kinda BORING! It's been another long week. I've spent today just relaxing and working on Lost Socks. I'm finished with the 20 large socks. Now I have the forty small socks all prepped and ready to go minus heels and toes. I should be putting my Cherry Baby blocks together, but ahhh, I'm still thinking about them. While I'm working on the Cherry Baby and the Lost Socks, my Prairie Paisley collection is reproducing at an alarming rate. If I don't stop I will be making a few quilts out of this line! Oh and I still need to make my PIFs. I've got to stop poking! Tomorrow I'm going to visit a friend who is up from San Luis Obispo. Hope to visit a few shops in the Fremont/San Jose area. Should be fun. And last, but not least, here is a picture of my Big Boy Tomato plant. He's getting tall and a little thin, don't you think? Please, any advice you could give me. I would love to get at least one tomato for my trouble! Something is different in blogger, my pictures are coming up as code. Very strange. Hope t0 have more pictures tomorrow!

Hiatus

That's word I was looking for: noun, plural -tus·es, -tus. 1.a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc. 2.a missing part; gap or lacuna: Scholars attempted to account for the hiatus in the medieval manuscript. 3.any gap or opening. 4.Grammar, Prosody. the coming together, with or without break or slight pause, and without contraction, of two vowels in successive words or syllables, as in see easily. 5.Anatomy. a natural fissure, cleft, or foramen in a bone or other structure. There are some big holes in my blog reading, I'm really missing Sharon, Cheryl , Carol and Nan. Hope they return soon. It's a good thing that there are so many others that fill in the gaps. Editors note: Nan's BACK!!!! Well, like I've said before I've been doing a lot planning, I seem to be stuck in that mode, all I can think about is planning and shopping. But enough is enough. I've just learned that my sister-in-law is going to have a baby girl! A baby shower is planned for the end of the month, so now I've put the PIF and Prairie Paisley projects on the back burner (sorry girls) and I'm cooking up a little baby quilt with Lake House Cherry Baby fabrics. I'm so pleased to have an excuse to surround myself in this sweet fabric line. Hope to have pictures soon.

I wish you a happy Mother's Day.

I think I scared a bunch of commenters off with my PIF. Don't worry, I've got my three takers and I'm so pleased. Thank you Kristin at Quiltilicious, Yvonne at Quilting Down the Stairs and Darlene at Quilting Daze. I've got everything planned (you know I love to plan) and will be starting soon. This is gonna be fun!

This week I've been busy trying to get the 20 large socks done for my Lost Sock Swap. I only need two more. Then I can start on the 40 small socks. This is a good project for after work while I watch American Idol and Dancing with the Stars. Hope something else good comes up, these shows are almost over and I've got a lot of socks to do!

I did manage to complete something this weekend, remember the pumpkin swap? I've got them together and put on the outside borders this afternoon. I love it!

Are you ready for a pumpkin parade? This pattern is called "Frost On the Pumpkin" by Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs. I have couple of pictures of the same quilt for you. The first one is from last year at Quilting in the Garden. The second one is my friend Holly's who was in the swap with me and the third one is mine. I decided not to use a few of the pumpkins from the swap and made a few of my own. Also Holly had the great idea to tea dye the blocks that were too light. I'm really happy with it and I hope I can get Holly to quilt it for me.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend! xoxomar