Feeling Chatty-Cathyish...

Remember Chatty Cathy? Yeah, somebody pulled my string!!! :o)

I think I am finally recouperated from my weekend. I can't believe I haven't posted since the bridal shower. My, oh my, how time flies.

There was a small shop hop here in Orange County this weekend called Spring Fling. Seven shops in the surrounding area all giving away 5" charms (about 5) and a free project sheet/pattern. Who could resist? NOT ME!!! lol And not the girlfriends of TNT (Thursday Night Therapy). We were supposed to get away for the weekend up to my friend Sherrie's condo in Lake Arrowhead but she just got back from a retreat and wasn't really ready to go away again so we decided to do the "Fling" and have a sew-in.

So, we got started on Friday with the first shop, Cozy Cottage Fabrics. I had a $25 gift card for the store so I splurged and bought a pattern for apron blocks. They're doing a BOM with it and the samples in the store were freakin' adorable!!! Kris, the owner was there and she let me take a sneak peek at her computer with a picture of some fabric she designed with Hoffman Fabrics for the big So. Cal Quilter's Run in July. It is verrrrry cute fabric and I know I'll have to have some. It was beachy and oh-so California! Oh, I almost forgot. I won a charm pack too! Woot woot. Thank you Kris!!

From there, we went to Calico House and my friend Susan just moved her Curves location right next door so we had to stop in and say hello to her too. We made our purchases at Calico House and FLEW to the next shop in the area. We knew if we didn't get there on Friday, we would be hard pressed to get there over the weekend with our sewing plans. After some crazy directions and not being familiar with the area, we found it, Quilter's Garden. They don't have a website but there are some pictures here on the quilt run site. I don't know why, but I never think to take pictures on shop hops. I figure they's slap my hands or something. LOL I highly recommend all three of these shops as a nice little trip. They are reasonably close to each other and all offer a different flavor. Quilter's Garden is jam packed with fabrics and samples. Well worth a trip on it's own. There is a great 'authentic' Mexican restaurant in the same parking lot so after some major shopping, you can treat yourself to a good meal like we did. Yum!

That evening we went back to my house and I made these two little tooth fairy pillows for my husband's great nieces. They will be six in July and will be losing teefies. I got the request for them when they were visiting during the holidays. Hmmm, four months to fill an order? Not bad....for me! lol

I got the adorable pattern for these from my talented friend Michelle. The link is to the post with the tooth fairy pillow but you should check out her site since then. She is a busy mama with all kinds of fun stuff knit, crocheted, quilted and crafted. :o)

Okay, try and condense this NOVEL!! Saturday we hit the other four shops in the Spring Fling: Timeless Quilts-a small shop but good to visit if you're in the area, The Quilt Cupboard-which is moving this next week and Bear's Quilt Shop. Bear's is in a warehouse area and we keep trying to give these guys the benefit of the doubt and visit them during the hops. The shop is always dirty and this time, we were met by a barking dog. I don't know what the story was on the pooch but it doesn't seem like a good idea to keep a dog in the shop when there is the traffic from a shop hop. The last stop was Flying Geese Fabrics , just down the street from Sherrie's house. Sherrie bought this cute caddy pattern. We're all going to make one for classes, retreats and TNT. We figured we better get it cut and sewed right away before we tackle one of those other million and a half projects on our to-do list!!!!
We stopped and ate lunch (aaahhhhh...food) and hit the strawberry stand on the way back to Sherrie's house. We FINALLY got to sewing at 4:00 in the afternoon. Sherrie (on the left) and Neena (on right) sat in the sewing room while I was out the door in the garage on the longarm.

Sherrie worked on her BOM banners and Neena worked on some aprons for her daughter and granddaughter. (I forgot to take pics of all of that!) I didn't take any pictures of me either. I just didn't think of it. I know what I look like when I'm working. LOL

Anyway, the first project I did was Neena's quilt for her mom. She gave her the top over a year ago for a birthday gift. It was time to get this puppy quilted! I used a simple butterfly pantograph.

Isn't it pretty? The colors are so soft and romantic. It only took me two hours to quilt because I already had loaded it on the machine on TNT. Here's a close up pic.

Because that panto went so fast, and because I didn't know what the heck I wanted to do to my quilt, I loaded it up and did the same butterflies on it. I got my binding sewed on Sunday night and have been tacking it down the last few nights. I've had other stuff going on so I've been working on it in spurts. Here's a peek. The blocks are from an online swap called Sunshine & Blue Skies and the block is the split nine patch.

Sherrie was the hostess with the mostess. Not only did she make us meatloaf, red pototatoes and green beans for dinner, she also walked in the room with this pretty plate and this delicious treat......

And...slurp......they 'were' delicious. We licked the plate clean!!!!!! What a GREAT weekend!