I, for one, was lucky enough to have had my best friend over for a visit. We ran the roads, we ate, we laughed, we did show and tell and dodged snowflakes. Martha is such a cool pal. She's easy going with a wicked sense of humor and my little JRT LOVES her! Olive can't get enough of her 'Aunty M".
My friend brought her most recently completed quilt. Its a fabulous piece, colorful yo-yos sewn down onto a deep aqua green Bali background. The yo-yos remind her of barnacles she told me. To me they looked like the most colorful and wonderful sea anemones I've ever seen. Something that you would expect to see on Jacques Cousteau Undersea World or the Discovery Channel. The quilting was simply, stitch in the ditch, but that is all this quilt really needed. Two plus years of work and the binding is almost done! She should be very proud of it!
We went to one of our most favorite NJ Quilt shop, Olde City Quilts in Burlington, NJ. We stopped there first so they could look at my Bernina 380 which was having a tension issue. We shopped while they helped customers, as the snow was falling quite hard outside. I picked out 14 fat quarters in various shades of green, almost every one they had in the shop that day. I also purchased several yards of solid fabrics to be used to complete my modern quilt in progress. Everyone joked that I must be making a St. Patrick's Day quilt because of all the green I purchased. I also bought backing for the green quilt, wide enough so it doesn't need to be pieced. We were happy because they offer a birthday month special. You get a discount percentage off one item equal to your age. Plus you also get one yard of any given fabric for 20% off. I got a ton of goods for a very good deal. AND, they were able to find the problem with my machine and fix it on the spot. It turns out that it was a small piece of thread that was caught in the tension clip on the bobbin. Thank you to the ladies at OCQ for getting me sewing again on my new favorite machine.
Martha purchased loads of goodies at OCQ as well. I think she got enough to make two kids quilts. One was a block of the month kit, the other was a pattern that she hand selected fabrics for herself and with the help of the ladies in the shop. It was fun and we had a good birthday retail therapy event that morning.
As we ventured onto the next stop, the snow was really coming down hard and coating everything. We decided to stop at a yarn shop in Mt. Holly that we have driven by several times in the past on the way to our next quilt shop stop. Wool Bearers is the name of the shop. While I am not into knitting or crocheting, I can tell you that this shop is spectacular. They had so many beautiful skeins of every type of wool in a rainbow of colors and blends. They offer both knitting, crochet, spinning and weaving lessons and the samples hanging around the shop were a real treat to drool over. Martha even found a pair of Cinderella Clogs. They are clear, so the hand knit socks you wear with them can be seen on your feet. Pretty cool huh? I'd never seen anything like them. I was moseying around the shop and found some spectacular shawl pins that I really loved. I pointed them out to my friend and she had to pick one for herself.
After we left the yarn shop, we headed over to one of the most unique quilt shops in NJ, called the Village Quilter, also in Mt. Holly. We had found this shop via the 2012 NJ Shop Hop. Its a cute little place, where the quilts and fabrics are different than what is offered in many other shops. We love the variety of what they stock and they are also so helpful and friendly. They happened to be having a 20% off sale of all Jelly Rolls and strip bundles. Plus they offer a Birthday month discount as well, so we were able to get a nice discount at the shop on our purchases.
Martha decided that she wanted this cute Cabana beach themed quilt. She picked out all beachy fabrics, including a great grey and white starfish print and some with red steamed crabs on it. One of the prints has little clams on it with eyeballs peaking out from the open clams. When Mike saw it he thought they were aliens. They also had this brand new fabric line that we both liked, and we each bought a jelly roll of it. I also picked up some yardage to use with it, 2 solid grey colors, and 1 orange that were also in this architectural printed fabrics plus one print that looks alot like pencil scratching on a pad. Martha bought some of the other prints as yardage to make a quilt for her son.
I also found a bright batik jelly roll that just seemed to have my name on it.
After they cut and packaged up our goods, and calculated the total cost, minus discount, we were on our way to lunch. We asked the ladies at VQ if there was a nice place to eat nearby. We ended up going to the Robin's Nest to eat, within walking distance of the quilt shop. It was delicious and we decided it was the perfect end to a nice National Quilting Day 2013. As we walked in the snow to the Robin's Nest, we passed the Crow Bar. Turns out this little place is a historic building and used to be the jail house. We paused long enough so I could snap a picture of my BFF to share.
My weekend ended perfectly on Sunday evening on a very high note. After enjoying some delectable homemade Corned Beef sandwiches, a long nap with the doggies, watching my beautiful niece on ESPN3 score a 9.825 on her floor routine, and sewing on my green quilt to my hearts content, I logged onto Facebook to discover that I was the lucky winner of a batch of Cherrywood fabrics given away by the Bad Ass Quilter's Society. My #8 entry on Mattie's web page helped me to win this lovely gift by a very special lady. It can't get any better than this.
Hanging by a thread--Diane
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