Shop Hop!

No rain this morning, but now we have FOG! Yesterday was much better except for a couple of sudden downpours! No one got wet!

And we saw a rainbow last evening, so hopefully, that means the rain is over. The weather is supposed to get better, so let's hope! 

A rainbow

It was all about the Shop Hop yesterday, and most of the group went out at various times. Susan, Maryke, and I headed out after lunch, and we stopped at all four shops -- Ye Old Fabric Shop, The Quilt Place, Quilting by Design, and Heart N Home Creations. I had a list, and I mostly stuck to the list. There were a couple of extra things that got put in the bag. I mean, how could one resist a lime green, 7" zipper with big teeth? 

I saw many fabrics and panels with bicycles on them, and I don't need more, so I bought no bicycle fabric. I saw amazing patterns and certainly don't need more of those. 

I found fabric for my dress, the jacket and fabric for a border. I also found some 30-weight threads, so I came home happy. We made a couple of other stops along the way, including Value Village, the dollar store, the pie shop, and The British Touch, which was a thriving hive of activity yesterday. Does the Coronation on Saturday have anything to do with it? You bet! So it was a jam-packed afternoon!

OH -- we had to stop for gas, and Maryke chose a station along the way that ended up being FULL SERVICE. Yes -- we didn't get out of the car, the windows all got cleaned, she got a full gas tank, and we all got a sucker! OK --- that was worth the extra she paid for the gas! 

A lollipop!

If you're in Stratford and want full service -- this is the place to go!!! Thanks for the great service, Neumeister Motors!!

Full-service gas station

At The Quilt Place in Shakespeare, we saw this quilt made with tiny hexagons. Those were about the same size as the one found the previous day! What a great idea to applique them onto a background so you don't have to make so many! 

A tiny hexie quilt

You can't read this sign, but it was so cute we had to take a picture. It's outside a church and says, "God doesn't take sides, but we do. Go, Leaves, Go!" Obviously, God was watching and didn't appreciate the bias! Our Leaf fans were NOT happy last night. 

The church supporting the Leafs

Here's the barn quilt sign outside Quilting by Design. It's PINK! Perhaps in honor of Tula Pink, which they stock most of her fabric!! 

Barn Quilt block

And there are loads of bunnies in the neighborhood, and they are hopping everywhere, and we saw a groundhog as well. 

Bunnies everywhere

I didn't get much sewing done yesterday, and that's OK. Retreats are all about being with friends. I didn't touch the serger yesterday, but I got some of the blocks for my 365-Day quilt. I cut 10 blocks before I left, and three are now pieced. I also have to complete some homework for the class on the weekend, and since some retreat participants are also in that class, I'm sewing the blocks when no one is around, which means it's very early in the morning! They have no idea! 

Blocks for the 365-day quilt

Bit by bit, I'll get that quilt done. It is a tremendous amount of work, and there are NO instructions for piecing the blocks. Well, that's not entirely true -- there are diagrams, but some of the methods? Well, there's loads of room to provide tips - IF I were teaching it, but I'm not and never will! Anyway -- three more blocks are pieced, and I have seven to do today. 

Then I'll be back to the serger, although I have quite a few half-square triangles to trim, and I might do that for a change. Thank goodness, others have brought rulers, as I totally forgot to bring any! 

On that note -- I'm out of here!

Have a super day!

Ciao!!

Road Trip

I had to hustle in the morning, so I could be ready when my ride arrived. Dede and I were off for a quilt shop road trip. Dede is somewhat of a new quilter and hasn't been to a lot of quilt shops. After one of our rowdy discussions at the retreat, it was time to do some exploring. With the help of Shelly and some research on my part, we set off to visit four shops. Three of them I had never visited myself, so it was just as much new for me as it was for Dede.

We definitely had a sweet ride! We were hoping for a beautiful day, but that didn't happen. However, we were still fortunate to drive with the top down for part of the drive, and that was great! I think that was my first time driving (yes - we shared the driving) a convertible with the top down. I lead such a sheltered life!

Our road trip wheels

Let's just say that if you have the top down, there's not a lot of room for purchases unless you have it locked in a suitcase strapped in the backseat!

Because of the pandemic, I called ahead to check if the shops were open. And we found most shops were open in the area we hit. One shop wasn't open yesterday, and one other was open by appointment, and we didn't have time to hit several others that were also open. That's for the next trip. And YES - there'll be another trip. We had a blast!   No appointments, so that was nice and required a whole lot less planning. Masks, of course, were mandatory, as was hand sanitizing! But we could touch and feel to our heart's content, and I didn't feel uncomfortable in the least.

I forgot to get a picture of the first shop we hit. But it's called Kalidoscope of Quilts in St. Mary's. This is an excellent shop with a variety of modern, wool felt, and traditional. It's situated in a gorgeous old building that we didn't really appreciate until we were driving away. It's so sad that many of these small towns have few businesses left in their downtowns.

The next stop was The Quilt Kitchen in Exeter.

The Quilt Kitchen

This shop is modern, and we noticed that there are lots of bag making supplies in these stores. I saw lots of great hardware from Emmaline Bags. I would have been a bit miffed if I would have found the hardware that I just ordered, but nope - it wasn't in the shops. Phew!!! Lots of great new "modern" quilt patterns. Don't worry - I'll share with you later.

I was a bit worried about the day since there are not a lot of bathrooms open to the public. We decided that this was an excellent place to stop for lunch, and we ate INSIDE - the first time in months. It was just fine, and we ate at the Huron Family Restaurant. A family-style restaurant with huge portions and great food. Social distancing protocols in place, of course. We got to use the washroom, and we were off.

It was a shame that we weren't able to have the top down on that convertible the entire time because we were on the country roads, and it would have been perfect. But we still got some excellent "air time" in. The clouds were dark and threatening, but we chose our top down times perfectly. At one point, we would have had to stop because it started to pour. We would have gotten a wee bit soaked as we waited for the roof to shut.

The other thing about this area is the GPS. We plugged the addresses into the GPS. But many of the addresses come up with the County Name, not the name of the town. However, I could tell by the big GPS map that it was the right place, and then we were off.


The next stop was E & E Cloth Creations in Newton. This is another gorgeous old building. I swear - it makes me want to move to this area and buy an old building and build a studio in it. How fun would that be? Oh - I'm sure many of them would require lots of work. Still...............

E & E Cloth Creations

This is a great shop. A bit more traditional, but the prices are RIGHT!!!  Most of the prints (including digital prints) - a whopping $12.95 a meter!!!! Now that's a bargain. And the service?? It couldn't be better. Dede was looking to purchase an entire bolt of solid black. None on the shelves. As we were getting ready to check out, the Canpar truck arrived with FIVE boxes of fabric.

The staff member actually opened ALL the boxes to see if the black that was on order was in the boxes. Can you believe that???  I was truly impressed and a HUGE shout out to E&E Cloth Creations for doing that.

Let's open the order to see if there's black in there

They also had other fun stuff like seeds - look at this one - Bodacious Corn. I wonder what it tastes like. We should have stopped and bought some sweet corn as there were many stands along the road selling corn, flowers, and other fresh veggies.

Bodacious corn seed

Shoot - I'm running out of time this morning. I'm getting ready for the retreat, and well - time is of the essence. I'll finish off the road trip tomorrow.

Don't forget that today there's a blog post on QUILTsocial for you to read. More great tips and inspiration for you. You NEED to check this post out to see the Word Sculpt wall art that I made. I LOVE IT!!

On that note, I'm out of here to pack the car.

Have a great day!!!

Cio!!!

Day tripping

I don't even know where to start. Yesterday was an amazing day - everywhere we turned or where we went there was something spectacular to see.

We were up early (again, I didn't sleep all that well) and on our way to the airport.  I had booked a van to take the four of us to the airport so we could pick up our rental car (I mean standard size SUV). There wasn't that much traffic in the morning (despite it being rush hour), although we did have trouble getting into the car rental place.  The front entrance was NOT that well marked. Thank goodness it wasn't me in the car trying to get in.  I choose a WHITE SUV - keep that in mind.

Got the address for our first stop plugged into the GPS and we were off. Well, not before we crammed everything into the car. We didn't pack as well as if we were going to the airport to get on a plane so there was stuff everywhere.

Now keep in mind, there are four women in the car and you know what means? Pit stops!  We stopped at McDonald's once we got out of the city and the three of them proceeded to have breakfast. I had already had breakfast at the hotel so I really didn't need anything, but a bathroom break was welcomed as I had water and orange juice at the hotel.

We had a four-hour drive so there was another pit stop required. I saw a symbol for a restaurant on my GPS and we pulled into this little town. I see a gas station and was shocked to find it filled with old cars and in each car were mannequins!!  It was totally creepy and needless to say, we did NOT stop for a pee break there.  Back on the road until we found the next McDonalds.  Yes - these ladies love McDonald's.  I do not.  I think it's because I ate at McDonald's so much when M was little that I can't entertain the thought.  Give me Tim's any day so when I can't have Tim's, I just do without!  Isn't that just ridiculous on my part?

We finally arrived at our first destination around 1 PM.  We weren't sure if we were going to stop there, but decided to do so since the next two stops were very close and we wanted to make sure that we got to our third stop before they closed at 5 PM.  As we were getting closer to our first stop, we knew that we were in quilt country as we saw several quilt blocks on the barns.  Of course, I'm driving so there is no way that I can take pictures.

BTW - I don't even now what brand of SUV that I picked, however, it's got that damn system that beeps when you cross the yellow/white lines.  I know you can shut it off, but I didn't. Just for the fun of it.  But what is really cool is that it has a HUD.  Do you know what that is??  A heads up display!  Yes - when I look ahead of me, I can see the temperature, the gear that I''m in and my speed are projected onto the windshield that only the driver can see.  It's pretty weird - I do like the speed part - perhaps it's there to constantly remind people of their speed?  It would need to be positioned just a tad differently for me if it were my car.

Anyway, our first stop was Shearwoods which is a shop run by the Amish. A lot of interesting things in the shop - a LOT of our product in the shop which was exciting. It was one of those shops (like most quilt shops) that is out in the middle of nowhere. I mean nowhere!  But the GPS knew where to take us.  Yes - I did acquire a few things in the shop that I didn't have at home.  How could that be?  It's amazing how we go from "I don't need anything" to "Oh my - I need to buy that".

We piled back into the car and decided that instead of hitting the next quilt shop that we should check into our hotel so we plugged that address into the GPS.  It was about 20 miles away.  Hmmmm - my GPS didn't pick up the address, but Jen's phone did. Let's put it this way - my WHITE SUV was caked in mud by the time we arrived. Oh yes - it started to rain about noon and the RANCH that we were staying at was on dirt roads (at least they are gravelled so it's all good).  After one or two false starts, we did manage to find the place.  All I can say is WOW!!!!!!   This place would blow your mind.

There is one main building, the bunk house and a number of small cabins. It was almost the same price for us to rent the bunk house as it was to go to the hotel.  I'm very glad that we stayed here - I did question it, but the reviews were amazing and we followed Jen's lead.  I'm not even sure where to start to explain this place.  The main house has three or four floors. There are only SIX guest rooms in the main house which was built mostly for this entrepreneur to have a place to gather with his family.  There is a whole story about it online.  It's called Morrell Ranch. The kitchen is almost the same size as the main floor of my house which is a decent size. There are TWO MASSIVE islands, four sinks, two huge ranges, two sets of dining tables (there is no other formal dining room).  There are TWO separate guest suites with their own quaint kitchen facilities and four other large guest bedrooms on the main floor. And let's not forget the MASSIVE great room with a grand piano that is dwarfed by the three story ceiling. A wide veranda that is calling my name with a pack of hexies.  Can I just live here forever?

Wrapping on three sides of the great room (on the second floor) are bookshelves filled with books and we could bring whatever we wanted to the bunk house.  Apparently there is a secret apartment in the house where the owner lives when he is here.  The basement has a pool room (yes - there is a small pool and a hot tub), a billiard room, or at least a room with GUNS on the wall and pool cues and a table. We did have a quick game of pool.  Hey Ronda and Shelley - where were you when I needed you?  An exercise room, a lounge area, and I'm sure there is a lot of other stuff, but we needed to get moving.

Our bunkhouse has FOUR beautiful bedrooms that are to die for.  Two bathrooms, a decent sized but well equpped kitchen, laundry room and a great room that isn't large, but certainly functional and well appointed.  I took some pictures, but everywhere we looked there is more to see.  It's absolutely amazing.

There is a large pond with swans and ducks, there are cows somewhere nearby, and the cutest little baby fawn.  He is new born and I don't remember his story, but he's here and so cute. They are bottle feeding him and we were trying to get to the 8 PM feeding, but when we arrived there was no one else around.

I forgot to mention that there is another HUGE facility which is the guest facility.  Should you want to get married or have a party, there's a large rotunda and eating area and the fawn is there along with the check-in area.

Here's the bizarre thing - the place is wide open until 10 PM and we are the only ones here.  No, there are supposed to be a couple of quilters here as well and we did run into one lady trying to figure out the hot tub, but other than her, the only people we saw was the lady that checked us in and she was long gone when we got back from our other appointment.

We did toss our bags in our rooms and headed out to our third stop of the day. We did all the checking out of this place once we were back from that. Otherwise we would have missed the shopping at MISSOURI STAR COMANY.

Yes - here we are not far from Hamilton, Missouri, home of Jenny Doan and Missouri Star.  It's like Mecca for quilters.  I will save that for another day, but let's just say that I heard my credit card groan as we walked through the door of the FIRST of about 12 shops - all Missouri Star.  It's incredible.

We had a quick bite to eat because there are not a lot of choices in Hamilton. We also stopped for a few groceries (trying to save money so we can spend more at the quilt shop! I think even the non-quilters amongst us will be converted by the time we leave. EVERYONE was drooling over the shops!)

When we got back to the ranch, that's when we did our exploring that I mentioned above. As we came out of the main house (to feed the fawn), it was about 8 PM and there was the MOST beautiful rainbow that I've ever seen.  This place is supposed to have some spiritual connection and after seeing that rainbow, I truly believe it.  My phone had died by this time and my camera was in the bunkhouse so I relied on the others to take pictures which they did - it was posted to Facebook last night.  Absolutely breath-taking.  Stunning - I can't say enough about how gorgeous it was.

Now we're getting ready for the day which includes spending as MUCH time at the Missouri Star as possible although we have a flight out this afternoon so we will have to leave shortly after lunch.  Boo hoo!!!   But still lots of time to do some serious damage. I wonder how much I can shove into my suitcase?

Have a super day and stay tuned for the amazing review of Missouri Star which I hope to get tomorrow.

Ciao!!!!!