My husband & I took a little road trip to an event in Twin Falls last week, while everyone else was going the opposite direction to Sisters for the quilt show!
The added bonus was visiting two quilt shops that I hadn't been to before!
I am probably the only living quilter in Idaho, who had never visited The Gathering Place in Rupert, but now I've done it, and guess what, I didn't have to take out a loan! But spend money, I did, in fact they decided it would be good to double bag my purchases! Who can resist a back room full of wonderful prints that were on sale for $4.99 a yard! Backings my friends!!!! The only reason my bank account didn't need a complete transfusion was because I knew I'd be back that way this coming weekend, plus we still had one more stop to make. A wedding in Twin Falls this weekend means we're heading south again and has provided me time to mull over some of the other lovelies that didn't make it home with me in the first round!
After The Gathering Place we went up the hill to Hailey which is a little town just west of Ketchum and Sun Valley. There we visited the Sun Valley Fabric Granary, which is housed in an old granary building with brick walls, wonderfully creaky wood floors and beautiful glowing tin inset ceilings. I was able to lower my bank balance on this visit too! The vestibule entrance has a wonderful quilty star tile work border which I didn't notice until we were leaving, and nope, I didn't take pictures! The only picture I took, was not of the banana yellow crop dusting plane buzzing back and forth over the freeway, but this Elk warning sign on the highway just west of Hailey. I think it's quite effective in getting the message across, "Don't mess with Lincoln County Elk! They're a cranky bunch!!!"
I love some of the road signs we see in our travels..., the blobby, almost puzzling antelope signs here and there, the bulls with the swishing tails in Southern Oregon, the wild horse signs in the open range of Nevada and the Mama & Bear Cub signs on the NE drive between Lake Tahoe and Carson City!
Now, I haven't shown this anywhere before, 'cuz it's a secret! I'm counting on you not to tell!
Our little Granddaughter is turning 2 in September! ALREADY!
Her Mama is planning a Mermaid party!
This is the completed test block that, will hopefully become a family of 12 little Mermaids in the very near future!
The original Aloha Mermaid pattern from Red Brolly has 9 Mermaids, but I'm increasing the length so that it will fit her big girl bed! Fat Quarter Shop listed it as their Sale Pattern of the Month in June, for which I am so grateful, because getting even 1 little pattern shipped from Australia isn't cheap!
I've decided that Mermaids, being mystical creatures who live amongst other with brightly colored sea creatures, can have any color of hair they want, and when I saw this aqua print, I saw wonderful floaty aqua hair! Of course not everyone can have aqua hair...or polka dot skin!
I'm thinking about Mermaid Names too! Shelly, Finley...
Here's my progress on Buttermilk Basin's Free 2016 BOM!
I finished the last little bits of stitching and embellishment on the S block on Friday, while back Buttermilk Basin Central, Stacy, who was still recovering from the excitement of attending the Sisters Quilt Show, was frantically cutting and stitching up the N block!
Poor girl! The 3rd Friday of the month snuck up on her too! Such a sweet girl! She could've said, "Sorry, maybe tomorrow" or even, "how about next Friday?" but no...she doesn't want to disappoint!
I haven't named any of the previous snowmen, but I think I'm going to call this little guy "Shiver".
I used this luscious thick furry looking bit of grey wool for the fur on his hat, which reminds me of our Shiver, whose long cashmere-like fiber is still bagged up, waiting for me to dig the spinning wheel back out of storage & get practiced up enough to do something with it. Shiver was not a large llama, but he had fiber...in fact he had extra special secret fiber. Anyone casually looking saw a little guy with long brown fiber, pretty enough, but those who inspected closer found this lovely blue grey, hiding like gold to be mined, under the brown. Such a funny boy he was. I never think of him without the mental image of him kushed in his favorite deep puddle of irrigation water with that long fiber elegantly floating on the surface. It was a picture that always made my day!
Happy Monday Everyone!
~Nancie Anne
