Thursday, Friday and Saturday

Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This week these days were filled! Thursday my local Quilt Guild, REQG held it's February meeting. The program was our Basket Auction. I don't know how many baskets there were, but there were lots! All proceeds were to bring National Teachers to Eureka. Here's Maggie with three of the baskets.

This next picture is of not only a fantastic basket, but a lively quilt waiting for Show and Tell! The basket was from the Wednesday Group....a quilting group of ladies that have been meeting for at least 25 years. The theme of their basket is obvious: LEMONS! Lemon Curd, lemon lotion, lemon fabrics, lemon pot holders, lemon tea, lemon soda, even lemon scented dish soap! So much more. I was impressed that everyone contributed a lemon recipe too! Leta's Lemon Meringue Pie was included. Whatever the last bid on this basket was, I'm sure Leta's recipe was worth it!
Here's our contribution: An Amy Butler box. It included some Amy Butler patterns, Amy Butler stationery notes, Amy Butler software, Amy Butler Fat Quarters, Amy Butler scented Soak and more....a Redwood Sewing Center gift certificate too!Liz and I couldn't stay until the end of guild, so we didn't' see who won the baskets, but they were wonderful and for a worthy cause.

Friday morning I went to the pool for my Aqua Aerobics class and boy, did we have a workout! I was bushed. At 3 pm I picked up Sydney and back to the pool for Sydney's first swim lesson from Grandma. Quite tentative at first, she was finally having fun and off to the deeper end as we ended our 1 1/2 hour time. We'll go back on Monday and see how far we get.

As usual, Friday night is date night around our house and Mr. Scottie Dog took me to dinner. Afterwards we came home and I was asleep within half an hour....all that swimming had me tuckered out!

Today (Saturday) I was at the store bright and early. Katie taught a Heather Bailey Pattern called Smartie Girl Book Bag.It was fun to see all the gals as their bags progressed. Here they are at the end of the day (minus Judy...she went home a few minutes early!)
Back Row: Katie, Donna, Cathie, Connie, Susan. Front Row: Margie & Geri. Aren't their bags wonderful!

Picked up Sydney after work. She's spending the night. Ahhh.....

Quilt Challenge

The first Thursday night of every month the Redwood Empire Quilters Guild meets in my home town, Eureka, CA. Eureka is a coastal town in 'way Northern California nearly to the Oregon border. There are only three roads into the city....Highway 101 to the north and the south and Highway 299 through the mountains over to Interstate 5. It's a 3 hour winding mountainous drive through the mountains East to Redding, CA. To the North or South it's roughly 5-6 hours to any standard sized city. So you might say we are isolated. Often we are referred to as being behind the Redwood Curtain. We have magnificent Redwood Forests and a rough and chilly Pacific Ocean to our West.

This isolation makes for creative and talented people. Many artists live here, and among them are the quilters. Tonight at Quilt Guild our members displayed their "Challenge Quilts." A challenge was laid down last year to make a quilt (wall hanging size) that included an animal, the color orange and polka dots. Interesting set of rules, wasn't it. I spent most of the Fall visiting my daughter in MN so I didn't participate, but here are just a small sampling of the quilts.

Miss Hippo 2011. Her bathing suit (love the frilly skirt) was 3-D and her nails were all shiny and pink.This possum mama had made little quilts for her babies....there are no names on the quilts for voting but I think this one was made by a dear woman who rescues possums.
This Corgi quilt was so life-like and I thought the way she incorporated the leash was clever.
I have a fondness for elephants and liked this quilt quite a lot. We couldn't vote on it as it was made by the Challenge Co-chair.
So much going on in this circus quilt...very creative...again we couldn't vote on this one as it was made by the other Co-chair.
This quilt used many three dimensional embellishments...the koala was fuzzy and the lambs were woolie too. It was sort of "one world" in that there were elements from Egypt, Australia, Switzerland and the tropics. I liked it.

One thing I should note is that these quilts all hung straight in "real life," but pinned to sheets they appeared to have wobbly borders. Not so in real life. Wish I could give credit to the creators and/or tell you who won, but alas, I had to leave before the winners were announced. A great job by all who entered!

Don't forget to comment. You've got until Sunday at 9 pm (pacific time) and I'll randomly pick a winner for a jar of my homemade Jalapeno Jelly. It is fantastic over cream cheese with wheat thins!

Quilt Vendor

I've been remiss in posting about the Redwood Empire Quilt Show a couple of weeks past. Since opening Scottie Dog Quilts eight years ago we now look at the show from the eyes of a Quilt Show Vendor. As a vendor you are allowed entry to the building at noon the day before the show begins. You are greeted by and empty space marked out on the floor by tape with a table and two chairs. First picture shows our ladder and lattice.

Here's Mr. Scottie Dog carrying in the cash register. You can see the nearly empty hall. There is so much work to setting up a booth...scurrying here and there, toting bin after bin of goods, samples and fabrics.

Here's a couple of shots of the finished booth. It takes a lot of time to get the samples hung, the baskets filled and the signs attached.

This is our newly finished BOM (Block of the Month), Humboldt County: Where the Redwoods Meet the Sea.

We'll be offering this BOM as a kit with all the fabrics for only $12.99/mo. plus shipping for 12 months.

Or if you want to choose your own fabrics, the pattern is also available. Just email or call us for details. We'll get it up on the website by mid August.

Below is my personal favorite quilt from the REQG show. Called Family Memories, it was made by my daughters....Liz did the sewing & quilting and Beka did the photos. They gave it to us last year for our anniversary. Thanks to Jen Duncan since I stole this picture off her blog!

Then one week after the Guild Show we had a booth at the Arcata Snip & Stitch Craft Extravaganza. Liz was camping with her bestest buddies so Mr. Scottie Dog and I set up by ourselves.

Everyone was required to use a tent canopy and our friend Sue loaned us hers. Wow, I never knew they were so easy to put up. I probably could have done it by myself, but I'm so glad Mr. Scottie Dog was there tho help. He's such a great supporter of Scottie Dog Quilts!

He hung the samples, got the cash register set up and more. The day went well and take down was quick

So that's the life of a Quilt Show Vendor.

The Guild Flea Market

I've talked before about my quilt guild (Redwood Empire Quilters Guild). March's program was to be a Flea Market. There were lots of tables and goods to buy: home made pickles (samples even!), apple butter, hot pepper jelly; old quilt & knitting patterns, grab bags of fabrics, yarns trims; baskets, nick knacks, hand made quilts, knitted booties, dyed silk scarves and more! Scottie Dog Quilts had a couple of tables and we sold a lot of our own cut 2 1/2" fabric strips we call "Honey Buns," patterns, die-cut tumblers & diamonds and lots more. Here's what our table looked like:
Bridgette brought several tables of lovely china, figurines (probably 50 chickens!), vintage pieces. She also had samples of the jars of jellies & preserves she'd made.



My good friend, Jen Duncan had wonderful things to sell....I just love her creative edge....and her new technique for making these rustic scallop edges on quilts!





I knew from her blog she was going to bring in die-cut (with WonderUnder already applied) Alphabet Letters so I'd actually reserved a set, but I hightailed it over to her table so I could get first pick. Don't you love her darling yo-yo kits? And those fabric & button flowers!




Jen has an Etsy store so no matter where you live you, too, can buy some of her wares. I only wish my camera caught her lovely smile. Jen smiles with her whole face, her eyes twinkle....she is such a calm person. I'm so glad to have met her through our store. Liz and I often say one of the best things about owning Scottie Dog Quilts is meeting the people we do.



Here are some really darling bags someone had for sale. There were fabric ones, felted wool totes, rag square bags and more.
There were so many things to see, I spent some of my $$ too.