Viva Las Vegas, New Mexico

Between my parents visiting for 11 days and working a lot, I haven't had time to catch up on blog posts.  We all had a wonderful time with my parents and their dog Shiloh visiting.  They enjoyed their time in Santa Fe and we miss them already.

During their visit, my parents got to experience all of Santa Fe's Spring weather:  warm sunny, cool sunny, windy, breezy, really windy, light rain, hard rain, graupel, thunderstorms, and some dramatic cloudy skies.











We took them all over downtown Santa Fe and to our favorite local restaurants, including Whoo's Donuts, which is definitely in my top 15 favorite things about Santa Fe. Maybe in the top 10 because their Boston Cream donuts (top row) are to die for as is their Dulce de Leche (third row).

Now that we are all hungry, let's move on to some sightseeing reports------














One of the nearby towns I have wanted to visit is Las Vegas, NM, located about an hour from Santa Fe on the east side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.  So my parents and I took a day trip to do some sightseeing.  Las Vegas is a great historic downtown with shops, restaurants, museums, and a town plaza.

Las Vegas, NM train depot 

Historic fire station

Historic Kiva Theater

Las Vegas has an amazingly intact historic Fred Harvey hotel right next to the train depot.  It's called the Hotel Casteñada and is being rehabilitated for use as a hotel again.  I can't wait to see the completed project in a year or two.  This photo only shows half of the building, the building is U-shaped with another wing.

Many films and movies were filmed in Las Vegas
including one of my favorites--the Coen brothers movie "No Country for Old Men" at the Plaza Hotel.  











Currently, the TV series "Longmire" is being filmed again in Las Vegas and Santa Fe.  You may recognize this building as the county courthouse in the show, which takes place in Durant, WY (left half of building).  On the right half of the building is ThreadBear Quilt Shop.

Such a bonus to have a wonderful quilt shop in a wonderful historic downtown.  I love the large quilt block in the display windows and their beautiful intact storefront.  

I just loved this shop and hope to return again soon.  They have a good varied selection of fabrics, patterns, & notions; friendly staff; good prices; and a good selection of knitting supplies and yarn too.

Mom and I were lucky to find some older French General lines for projects we are working on.  Mom picked out some French General fabrics for a new project she is working on (a Bunny Hill snowman quilt). And I snagged some sought-after Rouenneries to make a new purse.

More sightseeing on the next post but I'll end this one with a photo of Shiloh.

Weekend Report: Sewing, Cats, Oscars

I did manage to squeeze in some sewing time on Saturday to work on a project from retreat earlier in the month.  I had finished all the blocks for the quilt I am calling "Chocolate Raspberry Truffle" (after my favorite ice cream at the local Bruster's ice cream chain).

I started sewing the rows together with help from Stella.  I think she is making sure the colors are all distributed evenly.

The fabric is French General's Maison de Garance.  Yummy yummy yummy.

I got about half of the top together so maybe I'll get the other half sewn this upcoming weekend.

My Battle Hymn fabric project is calling me and I sewed one of the star blocks together to see what it looked like.

Hmmm need to think on this.












On Sunday, I worked at Starbucks all morning. On my way home, my truck (Xena) drove itself to Intown Quilters to rest in the parking lot while I browsed inside.

Really it was Xena's fault, she wanted to rest in the beautiful spring-like sun for awhile.

Really.  That's the story and we are sticking to it.

I hadn't been in the shop in a long time, even though it is on the way home from Starbucks and my day job, I try to be good and only stop every once and awhile. The shop is filled to the brim with Modern Quilt fabrics, Kaffe Fassett, brights, and batiks.

I had a "filled" shopper card so snagged some goodies with a discount.  A couple of yards of Robert Kaufman organic cotton solid in gray.  I'm looking forward to sewing with this.  A cool laptop bag pattern by Fig Tree Quilts. Some Valdani thread for wool appliqué in pretty purples.  And a patterns to make owl potholders.  Owls as potholders. Oh owly love!  These would be great in my kitchen.  Now I just need some time to make all this LOL!

Did you stay up late watching the Oscars?  S. and I said we were not going to this year because we only saw a couple of the movies that were nominated for several of the main awards (Moneyball, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Bridesmaids).  We stayed up until the end anyway.  I was sorry that Brad Pitt didn't win for Moneyball because I thought he was really good in the movie.  I was so happy that Meryl Streep won though. She is class and graciousness personified as well as being an unparalleled actor extraordinaire.

A Saturday Back in Atlanta

Did you think I would never come back?  I really wanted to stay in Michigan because I was having such a super fantastic fun Fall time but I did come back Tuesday night.

And was very sad Wednesday to not have this little sweetie around.  

She looks like she is in a Smart Car.

If you look close, she has a Starbucks hoodie on.  You can only get this kinda cool if you have an aunt who works at Starbucks!


The rest of this week zoomed by and today I finally got around to unpacking my suitcase and downloading my photos.

Packed in my suitcase were the quilty goodies I picked up in Michigan at some of my favorite shops.  Mabelena's in Ortonville is a really great shop.  Brenda, the owner, is just the sweetest person, and the shop always has wonderful new stuff and shop displays for just about anything you are looking for.  As you can see, I found a few things to bring home.  Check out the awesome floursack tea towels I found.  Aren't the colors just great?  I'm planning some funky Halloween stitchery for these for next year.  I also picked up the book-azine "Sew Scrappy", some fat quarters, and a couple of half-yards.


We also went to Guildcrafters in Berkeley.  I love this shop too and they always have lots and lots of great samples and kits. The best thing about their kits is they have kits in a wide variety of price ranges and a wide variety of projects.  I picked up a cute owl pincushion pattern that I hope to make sometime soon. Another cool thing about the shop is their little pincushion kits (I have three from previous trips...).   I also picked up a few fat quarters in Halloween & Civil War fabrics.


More tomorrow....

More from NC Trip--Places to Stop

On the way to Snowbird, we always stop in Franklin, North Carolina, to have lunch and do some shopping in the historic downtown. Franklin is a great little town.  We were very sad to see that our favorite restaurant, The Frog and Owl, had closed and a sandwich shop and gift shop called Rosebud Cottage replaced it.  We ate there and the sandwiches were good. We also found out that the owners of the Frog and Owl had opened an Italian restaurant (Rana Rinata) just outside of downtown so we'll have to try that next time. Some of the antique stores had closed.  The wonderful yarn shop, Silver Threads & Golden Needles, was still on Main Street.  There is a great bookstore called Books Unlimited with new and used books and a bookshop cat.  I picked up a Dr. Seuss book for Mackenzie there.

 Franklin also has a great quilt shop called Deb's Cats n Quilts.  The shop had expanded and added an addition since I was there in March 2010. 

In the lower level addition, there was a huge selection of reproduction and Moda fabrics, lots of samples, and a huge classroom space.

 The shop also is a participant in the western NC quilt trail program. We saw lots of other quilt blocks on barns as we traveled to Snowbird. 


I highly recommend a stop by the shop if you are in the area.  The staff is friendly and they have a large selection of cat (and dog) fabric. 








Of course I *had* to help out a local business.  Here are my purchases--on the left, all of this was from the sale area (bonus!) and on the right, some Civil War reproductions for the FWQAL & CW BOW I'm working on.

 On the way home, we stopped by a great big farm stand north of Gainesville, Georgia, called Jaemor's Farm. I loaded up a cart full of peaches, blueberries, blackberries, lady peas, cantaloupe, and mayhaw jelly.  Some peach fried pies to take home and some of the most super awesome peach ice cream rounded out the trip.   

Atlanta Quilt Shop Hop 2011

Thursday through Sunday is Atlanta's Quilt Shop Hop.  I missed the past couple of years and really didn't need to go this year but a little retail therapy would be good about now and well, there's my excuse.  The theme this year is A Quilter's Tour of Homes.
Thursday, I stopped by Intown Quilters on the way home from work. Intown's style is mostly modern fabrics, Kaffe Fassett, Amy Butler, batiks, and a lot of fabric from Freespirit and Westminster companies.  Intown was decked out like a coffee & tea shop. 

I can never resist gray and purple fabrics and I found a couple of fat quarters and a cute-as-can-be pattern for an owl tea cozy. 

I may have to make several owl tea cozies.

On Friday, I took a half-day off work and zoomed up to Little Quilts in Marietta.  To get to the shop, you turn at the Big Chicken.





 There is so much traffic in the metro area you can take photos from inside your vehicle. Not that I know first hand or anything...

Here is Little Quilts. 
Little Quilts can be very dangerous on the pocketbook....


I always want one of everything when I go there.... 







The shop was decked out as a bee hive.  With a super-cute display at the front door. 

I found some Barbara Brackman Civil War Reunion fabric for my Civil War block of the week quilt.  Red for the sashing and the purple-y fabric for  ????? I don't know but I really needed some.  I also picked up a few fat quarters to use in the quilt.  Little Quilts has the most tempting little fat quarter bundles all tied with ribbon. 



Next stop was Tiny Stitches in another part of Marietta.  I really should have taken photos of the shop dressed up as a castle and the Queen herself holding court. Check out the photos on my friend Becky's blog (she has some great ones).
Oh good you are back. Tiny Stitches is a great shop to find any kind of fabric.  They have LOTS!  Whatever you are looking for, it is probably there.  I bought some Lilac Hill fabric to go with the jelly roll I already have. 

I had to hurry before traffic got bad worse Dante's seventh circle of hell nightmarish.  I zoomed around the eastern side of Atlanta in a big arc south to Conyers to visit Sweet Home Quilt Co.
Sweet Home was decorated as a school house.  Since I am there at least once a month if not every other week, it was challenging to find something that I needed.   But look! I found a little bundle of purple wool.  Isn't that handy? Goes perfect with Lilac Hill.  Hmm. Needed that.

Saturday I stayed home and sewed sewed sewed on Eventide. I am ready to be done with this quilt!

Happy Mail

 
Don't you just love getting happy mail in the mailbox?  Happy mail like....

Pips!!! 

Oh Sherbet Pips how I love you so!

I pre-ordered this layer cake from Green Fairy Quilts and it arrived last week. Every time I walk by this fabric sitting on the ironing board.  It just makes me smile. 

Another happy package arrived today from Fat Quarter Shop courtesy of peer pressure from Karin and an irresistible offer from Vickie at Spun Sugar Quilts. 

I really didn't need another jelly roll and really, sincerely tried to talk myself out of getting a Lilac Hill jelly roll just like Karin had.  But when I saw Vickie's coupon, I lost all willpower and

with a voila....


and a Bob's your uncle....

Poof!  Goodies from Kimberly and the good folks at FQS.  

Thank you all my quilty enablers ;)

Limbo Week (no not the dance...)

Yes it's the week between Christmas and New Year. I don't know why I've been so slack in blogging; I just it's just the slow-down-quietness of the week.  I've been one of the few people at the office this week (I love driving to downtown Atlanta during Limbo Week--no traffic :) Trying to get projects done before the end of the year when the phones and emails are quiet.  I love Limbo Week.

Let's see what have I been up to...

working on the gazillion of 1 1/2" finished half-square triangles for the Bonnie Hunter mystery. I have 240 of the 600 needed so far. I'm using Thangles to make these and it may never end...




Here are a couple of cool lucky wins I won right before Christmas
from Sinta and Sherri's Le Petite Projects of the Year monthly giveaway a gift certificate to Quilt Taffy.  Here's my loot with a sweet note from lovely Corrie.  You can visit her blog here and the etsy shop at the link above--great prices and fast shipping gotta love it!






and a giveaway from the most wonderful Alma of Blackbird Designs
Little bitty cutie charm packs of 2-inch squares of their new line for Moda called Antique Fair.  These are too cute and precious to open! 

Ah hem I also bought a wee little bit of a present or two for myself during those great holiday sales that kept overflowing my inbox (I have no willpower....)
A fat eighth bundle of "Morris Tapestry" (I CANNOT resist William Morris fabric especially in purple and especially with the Strawberry Thief design) and a couple of charm packs of the new Kate Spain "Central Park" (great new line love it!) from Crazyquiltgirl Fabric Shop (another great shop with super fast shipping!)  And a couple of patterns from Fat Quarter Shop's sale.

And lastly, a recommendation of an excellent book for history buffs.  I borrowed my copy from the library but lots of you bloggers out there got those spiffy new e-readers so you may want to check it out electronically. I really enjoyed Simon Winchester's previous books:  Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded;  The Meaning of Everything:  The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary; and A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906. If you like well-written, accessible, and interesting  history, science, natural phenomena, weather, naval history, military history, social history, oceanography, biology, anthropology, and many many other ologies, you will probably enjoy this book.  I like lots of ologies but that's just me.

OK I think I'm all caught up.  One more day of 2010 to go.

Labor Day Weekend Rambles

Warning: Long rambley post....

I have been celebrating my first Labor Day weekend off in eight years. I used to celebrate three-day weekends by being happy to only work one job for three days. This not having to work at all for three days is really great. I did all my errand running, grocery shopping, and housework on Wednesday and Thursday so I could stay home the rest of the weekend.

Let's catch up on the past few days. The new fridge didn't arrive until 6:30PM Wednesday evening. I was the last delivery of the day and I felt really bad for the delivery guys having to deal with my crazy old house--steep granite stairs to the back door, sloping ceiling in the back hall because it is an enclosed rear porch, and galley kitchen with maybe an extra 1/8 of an inch to squeeze in the fridge.

The guys were so nice and professional, I called their supervisor on Thursday to give kudos where kudos were due. Good karma is a good thing.
So here is the new fridge. We have cold and unspoiled food again. I love the fridge except for one thing...
magnets don't stick to stainless steel. Who knew? Not me. So I guess I can't cover the front of this with Mutts comics, postcards, souvenir magnets, and photos of Mackenzie. Oh no! What is an aunt to do?
Cover the side. Here are new photos sent from my mom.

On Thursday, I received the giveaway I won over at Thelma's wonderful blog Cupcakes n' Daisies. Thank you again Thelma!! I can't believe how quickly it arrived all the way from Green Fairy Quilts in Utah. I think there is a fleet of green fairies that zoom all over delivering fabric goodies. If you are as addicted to Moda pre-cuts as I am, go visit the Green Fairy shop.
For the giveaway, I chose a Luna Notte layer cake and Arcadia honeybun.Luna Notte is another winner from Moda. There are some luscious grays in there and I am all about gray fabric.

Saturday was the first meeting of the Groovy Girls club at Sweet Home Quilt Co. I am excited about this new club by Terry Atkinson and even more excited to have another reason to visit Melisa at Sweet Home. The focus of the club is small projects and new techniques.
I was there bright and early (8:30 AM is early for a Saturday) on a gorgeous morning. Melisa had a groovy-themed breakfast table.
Click on the photo for Melisa's cool idea to make flowers from buttons and a table full of projects for neat gift ideas.
During this session, Melisa demo'ed bags and zippers. I've never tried doing zippers but our homework challenge is a bag with zipper so I will tackle this. I love the display of Terry's brightly colored zippers. Wonderful colors you could just look at all day. Melisa lived up to her Bad Melisa nickname so I came home with some patterns to use up some stash.

The rest of the day, I worked on Double Delight (ugh I wish this quilt would hurry up and finish itself!) and watched/listened to marathons of "House" and "Burn Notice". It was so nice out, I turned off the A/C and opened the windows. The cats hung out in the windows and enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air.
Gomez looking sweet
and Gomez and Morpheus artistically posed.

Michigan Report: Part 1

Finally got the photos downloaded and organized from my Michigan trip. So here's a little recap of my visit the first week of July. Most of the trip was spent entertaining Ms. Mackenzie who turned 4 months old and is as cute as she can be!
She loves going places and gets bored rather easily so I called her "miss high maintenance!". She likes to go go go and didn't want to take her naps or go to bed because she might miss something. We kept her so busy and entertained that she slept 11 hours straight after we left. Whew! I was exhausted too!

I also spent lots of quality time with nephew dog Jack who is doing a great job getting used to having Mackenzie as a baby sister. I always bring Jack extra-special dog treats when I visit. He likes pumpkin-flavored organic treats and will "talk" to me with little howls and barks until I get up and get him treats (not that his aunt Gretchen spoils him or anything....).
And we cannot forget the Princess Shiloh, my parents' dog (AKA my adopted half-sister) Shiloh is one of the calmest, most laid back dogs ever. She even likes to sleep late in the AM! (Wish the cats liked to sleep in some days...) Shiloh gets treats too don't worry about that!)

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know my mom, SIL, and me always go on mini-shop hops around the area (not that we need more fabric but we like to help out the Michigan economy). I didn't do anything to help the MI economy this time though! We went to Mabelena's and I didn't buy a thing. How terrible! (I'm very happy they have a website, twitter, & facebook pages now so y'all can visit them too!)

We also took a day trip to Bay City and went to some of the best antique stores I've been to in a long long time. Everyone else bought stuff; I didn't buy anything. We even found this super fantastic historic building with a quilt store
I LOVE this building! It even has its original display windows. Gorgeous! You can visit Fabric Fair online too. I didn't buy anything here either... I feel like such a bad quilter...

I did find a great linen tablecloth at a yard sale for $3 though. Does that count?

Back from Michigan and Mackenzie's Big Day Out

S. and I went to Michigan for a long weekend (Friday was a furlough day). We left on Thursday and got back to Atlanta last night. I was so excited because I got to meet my niece Mackenzie for the first time in person. I am so happy that my SIL said I could put photos of Mackenzie on my blog because I know all my readers want to see The Cutest Baby Ever.

Here she is!!! 6 weeks old and stylin' in stripes!
Here she is in an outfit I bought for her (note: I do not "do" PINK for babies!).
I thought this outfit looked a little Tim Burton-ish from his Beetlejuice period what with the stripes and all. People who know me and my brother will completely understand. We are big-time Beetlejuice fans from way back. 1988 to be exact.

I also got to play with Mackenzie's big brother Jack. Jack says "I know I'm Aunt Gretchen's favorite because she brought me fancy organic dog biscuits and the baby got none haha! I'm also going to play with her toys when no one is looking hee hee!"

My mom, SIL, and I took Mackenzie on her first big day out....to a quilt store!!!! Yep, Mackenzie visited one of our favorite shops Mabelena (check out their website and you can "friend" them on Facebook too!).
She loved being at the quilt store and looking at all the colors. I guess the batiks put her to sleep though.
But of course, she is a Moda girl at heart! Look at that smile!!!

Anyway, S. and I had a great time visiting with family and playing with Mackenzie and talking about Mackenzie and taking lots of pictures of Mackenzie.

PS: I am not a "baby" person except when it comes to Mackenzie.
PPS: I already miss Jack...
and Mackenzie.