Goodbye 33, Hello 34!

Here are the glorious spoils from the "Great Birthday Fabric Expedition"! Not a bad bunch of loot, eh?

I can't begin to express to you how exciting this all was to find! And I'm sure I don't have to, because I know all of you would feel the same way. It was seriously more than I could've hoped for. 

On Thursday morning, Mark and I dropped Lucy and Norman off with their Grandma and drove off down the Interstate to Portland to celebrate my birthday. Thanks to the tips of three lovely ladies (thanks Sarah, Raven and Tiffany!!), we made stops at three small-town quilt shops along the way, and I must say it was a ridiculously great success!!

The first shop we hit had some of the elusive aqua colorway of Mendocino - underwater sisters and fish! I had to get the rest of the bolt of the aqua sisters! They even had some old Lightning Bug prints like dogs on blue and yellow and blue ponies, along with Tula Pink butterflies which I snagged and lots more I had to leave behind. I'm talking Cake Rock, Jackie Shapiro Pop Botanical and Tula Pink Nest. I was already on a high after the first stop!

The next shop had more bolts of yumminess than I have ever seen in one place. Entire collections of Heather Bailey Freshcut and Pop Garden, Amy Butler galore and lots of the hard to find Moda Uptown and Summer in the City collections, just to name a few.

I got a few prints I've been missing from my AB Belle and Love collections,

and even a fat quarter stack of some very rare old AB Ginger Bliss.

The third stop was way out of the way and turned out to be a funny old tin barn full of awesome finds. I sort of blew my fabric budget at the previous shop so I behaved myself, but wow! It was cool to see every single Midwest Modern and Lotus print side by side. There was even lots of Katie Jump Rope, Good Folks and Alexander Henry. This sweet woman had so much fabric in this place that her new Momo Freebird and Hope Valley was still in the plastic wrap!

I started my Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow collection and I'm hooked....must get more of that!

I have my wonderful husband to thank for it all. I am a lucky woman to have found such a patient guy to drive me on all these wild goose chases and just gets a kick out of seeing me happy.

We had an awesome weekend in Portland, one of my favorite cities. I won't bore you with too many of the details of the rest of the trip because I know most of you don't read this to hear about that stuff. But in case you get a chance to visit this great city, here is my short list:

 - The Heathman Hotel for lodging

-Ken's Artisan Bakery for Stumptown coffee and pastries mmmm Marionberry croissant

-Pok Pok Thai for lunch (the wings and a Salted Plum Collins are a must)

-Oregon Wines on Broadway for a glass of good Pinot Noir

-So many places to go for dinner, but a few of my favorites are Olympic Provisions, Castagna, Pizza Ascholls and Le Pigeon

-and if you have time, a drive down to the beautiful Willamette Valley wine country, only 45 minutes south

I've been reflecting a bit today on the last year of my life, and I really do think 33 was my best year yet.  I have the best husband ever, my sweet little girl is almost one year old and the absolute best thing that's ever happened to me and I'm surrounded by such loving friends and family. Yep, I'm a lucky girl. And looking forward to 34:)

A New Quilt and a New Bee

My first block for my first quilting bee ever is completed. I am so thrilled to be a part of this awesome group of ladies of the Bee-autiful Bee, started by Amanda. January's month is for Suzanne (foofanagle), who requested a simple vs. complex block and sent some absolutely gorgeous fabrics in a yellow and grey color theme to sew the blocks up.

I know, I know, I am a little hexagon crazy lately but I love the portability of them. I can hand sew while watching a movie with my husband or tote the whole project over to my mom's house who loves to occupy Lucy while I sneak in a little sewing time.

I am already jealous of Suzanne's quilt after seeing all the other blocks the rest of the bee-ers are coming up with. I'm so happy to be a part of it!

Now that the FMF quilt is completed, it is time to start a new project (or three!) I have literally hundreds rolling around in my brain!

My big ol' stack of Amy Butler Lotus fabrics have been calling to me lately. I do love this line, and they were some of the first I started my stash with. Originally I had planned on the simple Brick Path quilt pattern (Amy's own). I cut out the bricks and decided maybe something a bit different would be fun. This is what I'm coming up with:

So far I think I like it, but hmmmmmm what do you think about adding some sashing?

Oh and here is another pic of my Lu rollin' the new phil&ted's stroller. My kid has a sweeter ride than I do :)

I heart the mailman...

Sorry, I know this is really boring, but do you ever get one of those awesome maildays where everything arrives at once? It feels like a holiday! I was never too excited before when the mailman came - mostly only bills! - until I started swapping and buying fabric online. Now I can't wait to see if something fun has arrived.

So here are some new additions to the family! I have been spending so much of my fabric budget on Munki and Japanese prints lately that I knew I would have to wait before getting the entire line of Amy Butler's new Love line. But I couldn't resist getting the sunspots print in every colorway - I think it is definitely going to be the most popular of the line, because like the full moon dots from her Lotus collection, they will make great coordinates. The elusive Pool Floaties and Inchworms were from a swap - thank you Meagan! Lots of Munki Munki Christmas flannel and brides, goldfish and chairs, along with some Paula Prass Cobblestone half yards from Kerri's Etsy shop sewdeerlyloved. I love them so much! The Christmas flannel has plans for some fun holiday projects I have been dreaming of, and the other Munki will surely make it's way into this project I started a few nights ago.

It has been so much fun cutting into all this gorgeousness! Although I still haven't been able to bring myself to axe the Field Trip! I hope Lucy cooperates and lets me get in some sewing today. The "crying it out" experiment is going reasonably well if not a bit heartbreaking. Thank you all for your words of encouragement. We have a very busy weekend at the winery we need all the sleep we can get around here.

In other news, I was very flattered to receive a message from Sew Hip magazine out of the UK asking me if they could use the photo of me in my Socialite Dress for a pattern review in their magazine! I am not sure when it is due to be published but they are sending me a copy so I will share it with you then.

I will be getting around to my giveaway within the next week and a half! I think you will really like it! Here's a hint - anyone who has signed up to follow me BEFORE the giveaway is announced will get an extra chance to win!