6 Shops - 2 Days 40 Quilters and a "Bus Mom"

This is my 3rd attempt to get something posted about my weekend adventure on July 16 and 17th. I've some how deleted  or copied over my story or for some reason never saved to draft. So hopefully the Third time is the charm. Like many of my quilter friends I've joined quilt shop mailing lists via on-line or while visiting the shop. Last year my friend Carol took me to the big town of Giddings and introduced me to a quilt shop called All Around the Block .

Of course I got on their email list. In April  I received an email about the Quilter’s Quest Bus Tour on July 16-17^th. The price was right and sounded like fun so I called Carol to see if she could go and be my roommate….   She said “yes”

Like most quilters or admirers of quilting we love to admire, drool and  touch the fabric. And the Quilter's Quest gave me ample opportunity to do it all. Oh okay so maybe I purchased a few items.

So after work Friday the 15th  I picked up Carol and we headed to Giddings. Being that neither of us are morning people we went up the night before and stayed in a local hotel  so we could catch our bus at the shop before it left at 8am. The luxury bus tour included 6 shops plus All Around the Block where our journey began.  A bus was to leave from each shop at 8am. Only the poor quilter's in Victoria had to wait for 2 1/2 hours for a new bus since the first bus broke down before it got to the shop. 

 Our bus driver "Mona" greeted us and took our bags as we boarded .

Mona was awesome. She got us safely to each shop  and was able to maneuver that bus on a dime. There were a couple of parking lots I thought there was no way a bus could get in or out. Mona knew how to drive that bus.

Prior to boarding the bus all 40 participates received a goody bag filled with a pattern, crackers, fruit snack and other little items. The bus pulled out promptly at 8 am and we're headed for Victoria our first stop of the day. Over the bus speaker comes the voice a man who announces that he is our "Bus Mom" . He's the husband of one of the shop owners. He begins to tell us about tour, the games we'll be playing and the rules. He also passes around a notebook for us to put our name and phone number in.

Meet Harvey Fisher our "Bus Mom". LOL  

His job was to keep us in line, on time and having fun. He did a great job! Harvey also taught us how to play "receipt" poker and black jack. Fun! Carol nor I ever won. Darn it. Now how many men do you know that could ride a bus with 39 women (the 40 participate was the husband of one of the quilters. he claimed to be the wallet and bag carrier) and with permission from the wife collect names and phones numbers in a little black book.

We arrive at our first stop Quilter's Patch in Victoria around 10 am. There was a large crowd of women standing around and the shop doesn't look all that big. Well these poor gals had been at the shop since 7:30am waiting for their bus that had broke down. Shortly after our arrival the cheers roared as their bus arrived and their Quest began. The shop was small but it  packed in the fabric of all colors and brands. There was something for everyone and more.

Thank Goodness Carol is a good sport. I had warned her to be prepared that I would have my camera along and she would be in the pictures most likely.  The shop asked that I not take pictures in the shop so I behaved myself  ;o( 

They had a demonstration in the back on a 10 minute table runner. So that means about an hour for me to complete. I think this fabric will make the perfect table runner for Christmas for my new home. I even won a door prize before heading out the door. A bag with little quilty goodies. Upon that good ending we loaded up the bus and headed for stop 2.

Our 2nd stop was The Quilt Haus in New Braunfels. The Victoria gals were still there shopping so it was crowded but the shop was spacious enough to accommodate all of us and the cash register was humming. 

There was plenty of pretty fabric and quilty stuff to touch and view.

 We arrive at our 3rd and final stop for the day.. The Cotton Cupboard in Lakeway near Lake Travis. This was where we found out just how good our bus driver was. Mona pulled into an area of the parking lot that wasn't much bigger than the bus. When I looked out the window all I could see was a deep ravine to the front and the side. Mona backed that bus up and turned it around on a dime. The cheers went up, Everyone was so impressed. I believe this shop was a little green. As you enter you saw frog quilts, frogs in 3D, frog fabric and a frog on a Lily pad. Too cute. But they had lots of other fun and pretty fabric. Now I couldn't pass this little guy up. Just too cute. All I need is time and someone to make a baby quilt for. 

Back on the bus one of the gals showed off her purchases and leave it to me to snap the picture at the wrong time. Honest it's not what it looks like. There was lots of ooooo's and ahhhh's over her fabric choices.

The first day of  the tour came to an end and we headed to our hotel.
Sunday we were up and at'em at 7am for a complementary breakfast. We sat around discussing the shops and our finds so far while waiting for the bus and  folks to finish eating .  Everyone was having fun.

 Carol must of had a profound thought or a vision.  

By 8:30 am we're on the bus and off to our first stop of the day. .. Poppy Quilt N' Sew in Georgetown. They had lots of pretty Christmas fabric and western motif fabric and Fat Quarters galore. How about some Dr Seuss fabric? They had it and more. Some of the group still had some change after their purchases so they slid in next door to the donut shop for a soda and a sugary donut. And before you knew it, it was time to head to our 2nd stop.  

It was around lunch time when we rolled into Tomorrow's Quilts in Waco. At first all I saw was a brick building but nothing that said quilts or fabric then I walked around the corner of the building and there it was. The staff was ready and waiting on us. They even played a couple of games for a door prizes. As I entered the shop I saw a whole corner of batiks, novelty, western and Christmas fabrics for everyone. The shop had several 3D quilts hanging up. Such as Frogs, butterflies, planes and  babies. And there was a corner of solids of every color. So many choices, how does one choose?

Linda the shop's owner made homemade potato salad, cole slaw, chicken salad and everyone's favorite ... a brownie to die for.......Divine .    She packed all this in a lime green lunch kit along with a bottle of water and a Crystal Light flavor packet. Everyone finished up their lunch and made their purchases and we were off to our last shop.

 

We rolled into Lonestar Quiltworks in Bryan/College Station. I try to visit this shop every time I visit my daughter an Aggie Grad and now Blinn Nursing School student but hadn't been in a while. To my surprise they moved the shop next door to a MUCH larger space. It was bright and roomy. Fabric everywhere and classrooms in the back. Very nice. Terri the shop owner and staff had snacks and iced tea waiting for us weary but happy travelers. I found some fat quarters to use with my cute zebra fabric I bought earlier. 

Before leaving Terri gave each participate a different fabric panel to incorporate into a quilt. My picture here doesn't do my panel justice. It has cute sayings on it like "Kiss your Dad ".

It's back on the bus to head back Giddings.

It's Sunday evening but the owners and staff  at All Around the Block are there to Welcome us back and here all about our quest. They even allowed us to come in shop before crawling into our cars and driving home... be it Houston or Halletsville.

At first glance the shop is very deceiving in size..

You walk in and think dang look at all the fabric choices and thread in the small space. But wait I see more fabric pass the cutting table and "oh wow" you can turn left and go into yet another larger area where there's even more fabric. Can't judge a shop by it's cover.

You may walk in for a yard of fabric but I bet you'll walk out with more. There are just so many choices it's hard to choose just one. In the hallway shown in the picture is where I found the novelty prints.   I had been keeping my eye open at each of the shops for a fabric to make a laundry room curtain. Just when I thought I would give up... I saw it.   

This print caught my eye so off to the cutting table I went. I think it will be just perfect. With our bags in the car and our last minute purchases in hand..... it was time to head back to Cypress.

I'll be ready to do this again next year!

Thanks to all the shops who made this happen. 

I had sew much fun zig zagging thru each of the shops.

So until next blog.................... Happy Quilting

.•*´¨ ) ¸.•*¨) -:¦:-
(¸.•´(¸ ;.•Carla.♥ 

Final tour

It's taken me 4 rewrites so I hope this one sounds okay.
My life and house are in chaos I do believe. I haven’t sewn or even mended anything in 2+  months unless you count when I went to postcard bee back in June. My reading time has been limited too but I did squeeze in the book club meeting for the book I have yet to finish. But I said I  would finish my Home Tour so here goes.............with a before and after of my sewing room and  a look at my downstairs.
This was my sewing room before renovation.
 It had a desk under each dormer window with no color or curtains . I tried using my computer on one desk  and my sewing machine on the other desk to sew. I found myself feeling very claustrophobic . The whole room lacked appeal.

\Here’s what my sewing/craft/office area looks like today. Geez I wish it looked like this all the time. Trust me when I say it normally looks like a tornado came thru. Across from the cabinets are 3 closets where you'll find mending, My Fabric Resource Center  (my fabric stash), scrapbooking, rubber stamping and crafting supplies plus a few so okay several pairs of jeans to cut up for quilts and other projects. I knocked out the dormer desks and had custom cabinets made. Storage for more fabric and the second cabinet holds office supplies and some crafting supplies. The handles on the cabinet doors under the dormer windows look like tape measures. I found these fun handles on line at Sewing Hardware  along with knobs that look like spools of thread for other cabinets.  I kept the color light so it wouldn't distract from the quilting that goes on might go on in here again. Natural lighting is at a minimal. I need to learn how to take pictures for better detail.

Our kitchen today. David refinished all the woodwork, cut out a big ugly speaker control  panel on the wall that never worked, patched the hole and we textured the walls with dry wall mud over existing wall paper . It’s so easy even I could texture the walls. The only part I wasn’t ready to tackle was the faux painting on such a large surface area so I called a neighbor friend who does that kind of thing The kitchen used to have a southwestern stripe wall paper and white formica countertops that were so old they absorbed color from any plastic bag you laid on it. It now has "Ladies Dream" granite counter top and backsplash along with a manly faucet. LOL.

for a living. Deann and her business partner applied 3 different colors of glaze and were done in just a little over an hour. It would have taken me 3 times that long. 

How about a game of pool? We never used the formal living room and so we tried using it as a formal dining room and used the smaller formal dining area as a sitting room for a while. David had always wanted a pool table so the formal living room became our gameroom and  the sitting room went back to being the formal dining room. Did you follow all that re-arranging? There used to be old ugly  carpet on the floor that we replaced with hardwood and painted the walls.

Our  formal dining area is not real formal but it works for us. One of my favorite pieces is the black and white chalk picture on the wall shelf. My daughter drew those jars in middle school so it’s special to me obviously. You can’t really see the texture on the walls but we used the Valspar texture where you roll it on (very messy) and just before it finishes drying you go in with your trowel and knock it down.

Our den is big but warm and cozy with all block paneling and I wouldn’t  dream of painting it. The next owner might paint them but I won't. Downstairs you’ll notice the trend of a more rustic style like our guest room. About 3 years ago we re-did the floors with 24” porcelain tiles to get rid of the bubble gum pink grouting and smaller tiles. We had hardwoods in our formals and bedroom. No carpet on the first floor.  

This 1/2 bath is mine and Pam's pride and joy. I textured  and painted a base coat of mint julip paint and then we did the faux finish all by ourselves. It was a small area so it wasn't so intimidating. She painted the glaze on and I came in behind her to rag off the excess glaze with the remenants of old t-shirts.

The last major room I’ll share is the masterbed room. I love color but have always been afraid of painting the walls. With a push from my daughter I put color in our room. It turned out really nice. Well at least I think so. We still need to have the picture over the bed reframed but it will do for now.

Final picture... Our back yard. David loves his potted plants. He has become quite the landscaper.
And he's good at it.

So ends the home tour as it is.   



So have you figured out. …what's happening. Generally you don't find my house so clutter free and void of personal pictures and especially the sewing room............. After many long hours of  deliberation and tears we decided to take a chance and put the house on the market and we found a 1 1/2 story house on a piece of land while some say its in the suburbs it's country to me. Okay so there's no chickens or pigs but there's ducks, horses, cows, turtles and other wild life around. Good thing we found another house already since our home went under contract on in less than 10 days. I had told our realtor she only had 10 days to sell but I never dreamed it would really happen. 

The few friends and family we have told so far had one comment.... "David must have run out of projects". David complains about projects but at the same time he feels guilty when he relaxes so they may be right.

Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed my home and I'll post pictures of the new house in future posts. I'm off this weekend for  a 2 day bus trip to see 6 quilt shops all over Texas. More on that next post. I should be packing for the move but I had booked the trip prior to house buying and selling.

So until my next blog.......I have six locks on my door all in a row.  When I go out, I lock every other one.  I figure no matter how long somebody stands there picking the locks, they are always locking three.  ~Elayne Boosler

.•*´¨ ) ¸.•*¨) -:¦:-
(¸.•´(¸ ;.•Carla.♥ 

Let me Share

As I’ve said before reading blogs have replaced my wasting time on playing Farmville on Facebook. Some Blogs are actually down right inspiring and are full of fun ideas and helpful tips.  I have a couple I want to share with you.

The first one is from The Inspired Room by Melissa and today she shared a home tour featured by House of Turquoise . The house is truly awesome. It’s light and airy and you can just feel the ocean/lake breeze. Whoa! Wait a minute, this lovely house is in Utah you say? Totally took me by surprise. If you get a chance go check it out. It’s very eye catching and relaxing. I especially liked the turquoise chandelier and door of the house. There is turquoise all over the house with just a pop of red in places. I keep going back to look at the tour just to see what else I might have missed the first time like the floors. Some unique designs.  I want to live in that house or at least visit.

It may not be my style but it doesn’t mean I can’t admire. Who knows I might decide to change things up and not just be a cowgirl at heart. David is 100% Texan so it might be a little harder for him but for now we’ll be a little bit Texas and little bit country.

In my upstairs tour you saw that mix of Texas and Country but then there was my poor daughter’s room from the past. She’ll be getting an updated look in the next couple of months more to her liking and age. I’m trying to finish picking up my sewing room in between the craziness and the longer summer hours at work and take photos of the downstairs to post but between the damaged ankle and the chaos of some things happening in our household I just haven’t been able to get far along. Maybe this weekend. But soon I’ll finish my home tour for what it is and I’ll be able to hopefully by my next post share news about the craziness and stress that has gone on around here.

Now for a blog lesson I found while reading Sweet Nothings and saw the button about backing up your blog. I never knew we could do this but it’s something that would have come in handy back in May when the Blogger had a glitch in their maintenance and lost some of our most blog posts.

I'd DIE if I LOST my BLOG ...Wouldn't you?

CLICK to learn how to BACKUP your BLOG.

Oh and something else I just learned how to do. I learned how to type and highlight a word and link it. I was so excited. Yeah I know small things make me happy. So like where the blog above called Sweet Nothings is highlighted, well if you click on it, it will take you to that blog. Too cool, right? I always wondered how that worked so thanks to my talented friend from Texas Tales . This girl has talent and is so creative. If you’re looking for a recipe you ought to check out her blog. She’s always cooking up something, decorating her new home and she’s a freelance writer too. What’s that saying “She cook up the bacon and bring it home too” And don’t let me forget she creates turquoise jewelry that she sells on her Esty account called Texas Take.  Here's an example of her work.Coral and silver necklace with turquoise pendant

All this talent and so young. Talent seems to run in her family trust me. I love this family and keeping up with all their projects. I want at least 1/10^th of their talent.

Now we'll see I really learned how to link when I post this. Maybe you can teach and Old Dog new tricks.

So until my next blog…….~ Experience is the best teacher of all. And for that, there are no guarantees that one will become an artist. Only the journey matters. ~  Harry Callahan

.•*´¨ ) ¸.•*¨) -:¦:-
(¸.•´(¸ ;.•Carla.♥  

 

 

Upstairs House Tour

Okay I've had a couple of requests to post pictures of my house now that most updates are done. The last time some folks were here my walls looked like a clown threw upon them. You know how you can go to the paint store and buy those small cans of paint so you can test  patches on the walls to decide the right color. Well we tried many colors. I had swishes of paint on every wall starting at the base of the stairs on up and on all the walls upstairs. We ended up having a party during this time. Oops. The night of the party I was apologizing to one of our guests about the state of my walls but one guest told me not to worry it looked very artsy. Oh yeah I'm sure. It looked more like a 3 year got hold a paint brush. I think she was just being nice because the party was for her son and daughter-in-law but I appreciated her kindness. Then again she's just a really nice person. Now you ask why would we have a party when we were in the middle of rennovation. Well we had these dear friends who got a chance to go to Scotland for a work exchange program for a year and we couldn't just let them leave without a proper send off, could we? When we offered to have the Send off party for them the painters said give us a weeks notice when you're ready and we'll be there.
Uh huh yeah right.

We called 2 weeks prior but like all good plans there was a snag and the painters came the Monday after the party. Go Figure.

So here we go............................. 

Upstairs we have 3 bedrooms, a full bath and a so called gameroom at least that's what they listed on the house flyer when we bought it. To me it's just an oversize hall with benefits. Not big enough for a couch or pool table but works wonderful as a sewing/craft room. Every bedroom has a true walk in closet. Very unusual for secondary bedrooms.

Here's bedroom 3 prior to renovations. 

1995 TV Room & Craft Area

1995 TV Room & Craft Area

 We sit it up as a TV room for Pam and her friends. Also used the drafting table as craft table. Can you say bland and boring? It changed briefly one more time before final change below.

Now here it is today. There's color. Of course quilts and a little bit of a country look took over this room as time has progressed. This room has held as many as 15-20 girls sleeping and being girls. I kinda miss all those days. Finally decided on some artwork. My dress form holds teddy bears, boa's and at it's base a basket of solid fat quaters. 

The cabinet with the lamp on it was David's grandmother's peddle sewing machine. It still works too. I think this room is complete and I'm happy with the way it has turned out.

 

Here's bedroom 2 prior to renovations. This is Pam's room that is in bad need of a re-do. I hate to say it's looked like this since she was 10 or 11 with the exception of a couple different comforters for a change.

 The trundle bed went away and the desk is now in my sewing room and has been stained and the hutch has been modified. Pam wants her desk back now. Too bad. The desk is too big for her room with a full bed in there.

Not much change today other than furniture really so I told her we would work on her room this summer to bring it up to date and more to her taste and age. It's not like she's been home much in the last 6 years with college and now nursing school.  She needs bigger a bookcase and one that is finished. At one time all her furniture worked together but now it's a mis-match of various pieces but she's making due until she can buy herself a complete matching set.

She still has art signs from high school.

               She's so over this 1995 motif. The room is ready to grow up like she has.

And here's bedroom 1 prior to renovations. This was the guest room then it was

Nanny's room while she lived with us. Laura Ashley duvet cover was a garage sale find. The head board was my parents and is over 50 years. I was in to dancing and loved art with dancers at the time. Didn't really go in this room did it?

The guest room after remodel. Can you guess the style? Yee Haw Cowboys and Cowgirls, Welcome to Texas!

The TV was added recently when Pam brought herself a flat screen TV for up at school. Doesn't really fit the decor but I guess I'll let my guest watch TV.
I've hung our old hats up and my mom provided me with a lasso to hang with the hats.

I had bought red bandana fabric for the dust ruffle and had plenty left over to make the valance and to  use when I made my Texas Flag bench cover.

I added some denim fabric and concho nail's with some leather for more of that Texas look. Or least that's how I think of Texas.

I put my old boots in the corner. I should have taken a better picture of the quilt rack under the window because it has a big ole star on the end of it. Yep more quilts partner. David figures the whole upstairs would be covered with quilts if he'd let me.                                                                                                  The little bench at the foot of the bed used to have wool patchwork squares and I decided it needed a Texas Flag theme. Didn't turn out too bad.  I guilted it by echoing the star sorta of. I did the best I could.

Even the bed frame has stars on the head and foot board. The bed frame was a Craigs List find. Love this bed frame. When David saw it he knew I'd want it for guest room with the Texas theme.

I trimmed the blue pillow cases with the red bandana fabric to complete the look.  I'm still in need of some artwork on the walls but I'm working on it.  David found the boot lamp for me at Home Depot.  

 I didn't get a picture of the bathroom when we first looked at the house but the walllpaper looked like old newspaper and it had swag lights. Can you say ugly and dated? Yuk. 
Righ after we looked at the house the owners changed the wall paper to big  flowers that Pam said she'd live with until we could change it up.                                                                                      The owners may have changed the wallpaper but left the swag light fixtures.

Put on your sun glasses for the remodeled version. Well maybe not quite that bad. Here's what the shower area looks like now. I have one idea for art and Pam has another so we've never put much up. I found fabric that tied the colors together and made a simple valance. . Pam picked out the colors when she was like 11 and they're bright.  We're thinking we might tone the paint down and paint some other colors but we haven't decided yet. Working on it though.

The dressing area is all yellow. New lights and mirrors and blue crystal drawer knobs look much nicer.

Well that's the upstairs except the sewing area. I'll post it at a later date. I need to take pictures plus maybe tidy things up a bit. ;o)  

Upstairs renovations are done except for Pam's room and maybe adding some little things like art and decor stuff and then maybe not.

I hope you enjoyed the tour.

Until next time.•*¨`*•. ☆ .•*¨`*•. .•*¨`*•. ☆ .•*¨`*•. Be HappyCarla✿  
……………… ....♥ •.¸.•´♥…………............…