A Day Off

Yesterday, I was up before 5am, so that I could catch the guild bus to Ontario, CA, for the Road to CA Quilter's Conference.  For the past 6 years, I've been down there early in the week to help out behind the scenes, and I haven't always made it back to see the show.  This time, I've been deep in the stitching of The Wedding Quilt.  I knew I couldn't spare a week, or 3 days, or 2 days.  But 1 day?  I could spare that.

Let me tell you, at 5am yesterday morning, I was NOT motivated to get myself out the door onto the bus.  But boy, howdy, I'm glad I did.  There's nothing that inspires me to quilt more than going to a quilt show.  (Then again, here I sit on the computer, instead of at the sewing machine.)

I didn't take many pictures, though this quilt caught my eye.  My daughter worked at The Cantor for two years.

Other than snapping some other photos for friends, I only did two things:  I looked at the quilts, and I shopped.  And I shopped.  And I shopped.

Okay, so I know that I shop at quilt shows, but I usually come home with a bag of perle cottons and other embellishment items.  This time?  I bought more than that.  First, there is the usual assortment of perle cotton, thread, cowry buttons, cheese cloth, etc.  Notice I had to buy a seam ripper.  I've broken TWO in the past few weeks.  Wonder what's up with that?

 And I bought fabric.  Oh, my goodness, did I buy fabric.  And a wool batt.  Only the reds are 1/2 yard cuts.  The rest are 1, 2, 3, and 5 yard cuts.  oh.  my.

 This is my favorite.  I bought the rest of the bolt, and still I need more.  I think it is PERFECT for the back of my son and daughter-in-law's wedding quilt.

Every time I thought I was done shopping, I turned around and found something else.  And something else.  And something else.  I quickly ran out of cash, and moved on to plastic.  I was really done, really I was, when I found Artistic Artifacts.  (I was on my way back to the bus.)  I knew I should just walk past them, because I'm a sucker for whatever catches my eye on a given day.

I was out of cash, but I saw some square sequins that I REALLY wanted.  I asked, "What is the minimum, for a charge purchase?"  She assured me that they didn't have one.  But then she asked if I realized that the display I was looking at had more items on the other side.  ummm, no.  I hadn't.

By the time I handed over my bounty to the vendor, she laughed and said, "Looks like that minimum charge question wasn't really a problem, was it?"

There are leaves and shells and squares and circles and little medallions that say, "love."

I couldn't carry anything else, so I trudged back to wait for the bus.  It was a good day, a very good day.  And I didn't regret giving up a day of piecing to go to the quilt show.  Turns out I bought the batting and the backing and the thread for the quilt I am working on.  yay!  And now, I need to go back to piecing half-stars and quarter-stars, so that I can piece the center together and start working on the borders.

Goals are good!