New Years Eve

 We had year-end dinner with friends tonight,

 a tradition since about 2017,

then home to read 

Early dinner means pretty sunset view

and watch movies until midnight

(ha! I’ll make it to midnight - himself might see 10:30. 😂)

I asked hubby if we could take the restaurant ceiling home but he said no. ☹️

Farewell, 2024, not going to miss you, although you had some great highlights. Best wishes to all for a happy, healthy 2025!

Outtake: making the best of the eye situation. Can’t get new glasses until my eye(s) are fixed, so the doctor removed one lens from my glasses. It’s my new party trick. 😂😂

Ups and Downs

This African Iris is one of my favorite yard treasures and it’s really outdone itself this year.

Yesterday it looked like a giant blossom snowball. Of course, I forgot to take a pic.

The bonus for waiting til today is raindrop sparklies. So beautiful. 

Procrastination (or forgetfulness) does (sometimes) pay off. 

Spent the weekend moving and sorting my friend Karen’s fabric stash, 

Preteen for size comparison 

then taking it to Carpinteria for pricing ahead of the quilt guild’s upcoming sale. (June 24! Santa Barbara! Great stuff, fabulous prices!) Which is also the day her yarn stash will be for sale at the spinning guild meeting in Camarillo. She wanted her treasures to go to people who would use them and that’s exactly what’s happening. She’d be so pleased.

This and That

We did our second escape room today - still didn’t beat the clock but we had a lot of fun. I think I’m done for awhile . . . or at least until Karina comes back out to visit her grandma again. 

I’ve been taking Donovan and Jackie to the park to run out some energy before taekwondo (the teacher expects them to be able stand still in class . . .) They get to run and jump and slide, while I can walk laps around the play area. Win, win, win! This week, the bigger kids were playing too rough, running over the littles (not maliciously, just careless) so we had to make do with the pretty trees. 

Remember the robot snakes? I had to do surgery on them . . . first time out, they ran under the couch and got cat hair wrapped around the wheel mechanisms. They’re back in action - and still very popular with the littles. 

My reward for not pressing the panic button during my shoulder MRI. I earned every.bite. So awful. 

Prison Escape

Did my first ever escape room today and it was so much fun!

We came sooooooo close to solving the puzzle.

Red Door Escapes in The Collection gets highest marks for clever, well run fun. We’ve already signed up for another round on Friday…

7. 234

Seven hours and 234 miles.

Worth it when a favorite quilt store holds their annual ‘skinny bolt*’ sale.  Plus, this year they added their entire selection of batiks to the sale, making it absolutely irresistible.

These batiks are destined for this ⬇️ (not sure about the teal . . . may end up swapping that out, even tho I love it.) Dark brown is for the border, off-white is the background.

And these ⬇️ are destined for stash; the top two are for quilt backings - the blue is 3 yards at 108” wide and the flowered is 4 yards at 42” ($26 for 4 yards!!). 

Can’t wait to start cutting and sewing! 

 Auditioning fabrics in-store

* A “skinny bolt” = only a few yards left on the bolt = 35% off. All batiks were 35% off also. Sale fabrics, like the flowered cotton ⬆️, are 65% off. Whoo! One of my favorite sales of the year - you never know what you’re going to find!

 

So I can remember what I bought:

Blue 108, 3 yds (18.45). Dark brown batik, 2.33 yds (8.74/yd). Oyster batik, 3 yds (8.97). Black grunge, 1 yd (8.74). Batiks, .5 yd each (4.40). Blue dots, .75 yd (4.41). Dark blue sparkles, 1.75 yds (7.93).

Day 1 Quilt Run

1 car, 3 quilters, 6 7* shops, 11 hours, 386 miles, $$ well spent. 

Whoo! Day 1 of the first quilt run since 2019 was a success. 

We started at 7:30 am, going north to Buellton, 

Orcutt, Atascadero, Paso Robles and Morro Bay before heading home again.

Tomorrow we’ll hit the remaining 3 shops - SuperBuzzy, Roxanne’s and Grant House - on our own to complete the circuit and have a chance to win the big prizes.

 This was too cute to pass up for Jackie

Most of the shops were busy but not to the level of prior Runs.

 Fat quarter bonanza 

Sure hope we just happened to miss the crowds and the shops all had a successful day - 

 Apron kit for me

we’re down to only 9 quilt shops remaining from a high of 15 

 My haul from Orange Dot Quilts

and I’d really hate to lose any more. 

 $7 sale fabric - so pretty!

Best find of the day? That dark blue batik, which perfectly matches a project I’m working on from 2012. I bought allllllll they had!

* Although technically not on the Run, my favorite shop was the year-old Orange Dot Quilts in Paso Robles. I was staying well within my budget until we got there - so much beautiful fabric!

Quilts and Cars

Spent the day with friends at a (mostly) outdoor quilt 

and vintage car show

put on by a local quilt guild at homes in Ventura, Camarillo and Oxnard.

There were lots of people coming and going

but everyone kept moving 

so there were only a few people at a time at any one venue. 

It all felt so … normal. 

Maybe there’s hope for a return to normal-ish times?

Kudus to the Camarillo Quilt Association for a great show.

Newbie

My buddy, Wenona, put the binding on her first quilt today

and started her second.

It’s off to the longarmer next, and probably won’t be returned until after Christmas,

but she’s decided to start a new tradition and plans to give them to her grandkids as New Year’s  presents. 

I like it! And I may have tried to talk her into buying a new sewing machine . . . not that I’m enabling her or anything. 😂

Each One, Teach One

Helped a friend make her first ever quilt today

as a surprise Christmas present for her grandson.

Panels are a great way to start -

fast (we finished in an afternoon), easy-ish (they are NEVER printed straight) and colorful.

I think she’s hooked - she’s already talking about what she could make for the young Mister’s sister. 😀😀

Another One Done

Another National Parks quilt finished and gifted. 

Debbie and I collaborated again, using the same front panel and quilting (cute little travel trailers),

but a different binding and the recipients favorite blue on the back. 

Jack (the recipient’s newest grandson) is the perfect model

Hoping she gets lots of use from it when she’s up to traveling again.