Happy Zombie

This is an avalanche of postal goodness from my tea towel swappy pal Miss Dori Dew. Oh my goodness… she went way, way, way out for me!

As I said before (and will continue to say)… the swap for me was not about the tea towels and the rest of the goodies I received… the big prize was meeting my kindred spirit Miss Dori Dew! Thank you Dori… I just love and cherrish everything you sent me, even the fairy snot!

One of the neatest things Dori added was a leaf from her beautiful Yosemite. This by far was my favorite thing she put in my goodie box. I’m so blessed to have been matched with Dori. Thank you Jackie!!!

Yesterday was the big day… I got to meet my new IRL friend Paula from On A Rainy Night… blog. I guess I should go back to the beginning of how we met, it’s quite amazing!

Long story short… I participated in Jackie’s Wren’s Nest Tea Towel Swap (where I also made friends with Jackie who is from my home town, and as well as my dear friend Miss Dew who was my swap pal). Anyhoo… I’m at the swap’s photo pool and I click on the gal’s photo that’s next to mine (even our pooled photos were neighbors, but I guess I’m jumping ahead with my story) which then led me to her blog On A Rainy Night…. I’m reading, looking at her photos… and suddenly the photos look REALLY familiar! Before I know it… I realize this blogger and fellow tea towel swapper is my neighbor! If I weren’t such a Californian (aka a driveaholic)… I could even walk to her house it’s that close! The emails start flying back and forth, finding out we have a lot of the same interests, etc. Jump to yesterday… Paula invites me to her house for tea and pumpkin bread!

I have to admit, I was really nervous at first and it felt like a blind date! What if she thought I was a weirdo? What if we didn’t have anything to talk about? If you read Paula’s post about it, you’ll see we both felt the same way. Of course all my nervousness was for nothing, as I knew it would be. Thinking back to 1996-ish… I met my dear friend Cindy The Chicken Lady online and then finally got to meet her IRL and we became best buddies when I moved to the Pacific Northwest in ‘99 (Cindy in Vancouver, and I in Astoria, and this last summer she up and moved to WisCONNNNsin on me, sniff, sniff). Anyhoo… I knew everything was going to be great and it WAS greater then great!

Paula was so warm and welcoming and I felt so content in her presence and her lovely-darling-charming-beautful-filled with love & goodness home. I got to meet her DH and DS, who were both so nice (and had a great sense of humor). I think being an IRL friend with Paula is going to add a few pounds on me, as she is THE BEST baker! Paula made the BEST pumpkin bread (with local fresh cranberries I might add!) I ever had and gosh I hope she shares the recipe with me! It was a great afternoon with Paula and I came home and talked non-stop to my DH and DS about my wonderful afternoon with my new IRL friend Paula!

So many things have come from Jackie’s tea towel swap, it’s amazing! More on that in a bit.

This weekend I “staffed” at an Anna Lena quilt retreat and I got a bunch of project tops finished, as well as a new project too. This first top I call Wash Tub Fun because I used the beautiful Wash Tub Prints fabric line from Andover by Karen Snyder (another shameless plug for my friend Karen). It looks like a large quilt in the photo… but it’s no bigger then two placemats side by side. No pattern… it just just evolved.

I did plan the blocks which are “Double X #3″ from Judy Hopkins’ Around the Block book. Side note… I have all three of the “Around the Block” series… Around the Block Again and Once More Around the Block as well. They are my BLOCK BIBLES!

This little lap quilt I call Charming Cherries. I love, love, love the charms by Moda, and this is my third quilt using charms. This pack of Sandy Klop’s “Cherries Jubilee” charms is my all time favorite charm pack! I got this charm pack at Anna Lena’s, but a great online source for a charms addiction is at the Fat Quarter Shop, where I’ll be getting my next charm pack… the April Cornell Sonnet Collection. I’m addicted to charms!

Anyhoo… no pattern (yet… wink, wink), just something I doodled onto graph paper (and of course seeing something my friend JJ made something similar and that inspired me to see it through!). I wanted to make something where I didn’t cut up the charms (I wanted to leave them as whole as possible). The outer border is by Moda as well, Apple Pie by Sandy Klop’s American Jane line. I love this fabric so much… I’ve purchased this fabric three times!

This little table top quilt I call “AutumnWeen”. Yup… another charm pack! This charm pack is Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet by Sandy Gervais for Moda. I got this darling charm pack at Back Porch Fabrics in Pacific Grove, CA.

I modified a pattern from Darlene Zimmerman’s Aunt Maggie’s Quilt (for my use - and she knows I modified it). Technorati Profile

I saw this small travel iron in wonderful little antique shop in St. Reges, Montana. The kicker was that it was only $3 because the cord was missing. I didn’t dare tell the show owner I didn’t care about the cord… that this was purely for eye candy only! Even the box is beautiful to me!

Get down.
Off.
No sofa.
Off.
Sofa bad.
Oh all right, stay.

Sometimes I even have to let Liberty and Madison break the rules.

Sigh… I loved my first ever trip to Montana and am heart sick I had to leave. I’m soooooo happy to be home with DH and DS, but I’m ready to pack up and head east. Have you ever had that feeling in your tummy and heart that you just BELONG somewhere? Maybe it’s a reincarnation thing… I danno. Anyhoo… I had THAT feeling in Montana.

I was in the Bitterroot Valley this weekend with my good friend Karen at a quilt retreat hosted by Bell Tower Quiltworks. I had the TIME OF MY LIFE and made some lifelong friends. Everyone in Montana was SO nice and the scenery wasn’t too bad either!

Before Montana, of course comes Idaho… another new experience for me! We stopped in the little town of Wallace, Idaho where Autumn was in full bloom! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Autumn!!! I have more photos to come, more thoughts, and much more Montana Goodness to share. For now… I must unpack and get my life back to normal (as if it was normal before I left for Montana).

Thank you Montana for your enchantment & kindness and thank you Missoula for putting the big “M” on your hill to welcome me!

I love you Montana,
Monica

My Montana/Idaho Flickr photos.

Autumn is my favorite time of year! I was telling Jackie over at Wren’s Nest about all that I love about Autumn and thought I’d add my thoughts here. This is MY TIME OF YEAR! Pumpkins, fall leaves, soups & stews, trick-or-treaters, the crisp air, the colors, it feels cozy but not cold… I love it all! I even love raking the leaves! I even love the word “autumn”!

One of my favorite quilts is one I made about 3 years ago. It’s a Bare Roots pattern, but I added some of my own drawings (quilts, the Coast Guard, and something else… I forget) for the stitching.

This Bare Roots pattern is called “For These I Give Thanks”. I think I tweaked the setting as well (as I do 99% of the time with patterns). Anyhoo… The fabric came from The Buggy Barn and I think they are by Moda or P&B. I danno, all I can remember is that I just adore the fabrics! And Autumn! Edited in… I do keep this quilt up year round, except at Christmas time when I hang a Christmas quilt in it’s place.

Yes… I know my photos on the wall are askew. It’s how I live.

1. The amazing bravery of DS2’s actions!
2. Sunshine on a cool day.
3. A new season of the Amazing Race.
4. Sitting at my computer with cold feet and one of my dogs curling up to nap on top of them.
5. Being completely finished with unpacking and everything is in it’s place.

My very first “Artist Date”. Actually… I can’t really even call it an Artist Date because I did not go alone. My friend Karen went with me so that makes it a Double Date! Anyhoo… It’s no surprise that I’m really into the color aqua these days (especially aqua and red together) and I was so tickled to see so much aqua in and around Pacific Grove. I wanted to snap some photos of aqua objects and then use those images for color references in my next quilt. Actually… just for the simple joy of it!

A funny side note. I’m sure the people in the neighborhood where the aqua-potty is located thought “who is this goofball taking a photo of the porta-potty”! It was not until I got home and uploaded all my photos that I noticed the porta-potty was what appears to be turbo charged with electricity. So now, even though I don’t know what I’m going to cook up for my next quilt, I do know what the quilt’s name will be… Atomic Aqua-Potty!

So here I am, typing with my thumbs, trying to sleep after such a big day. We are at the beautiful Asilomar in Pacifc Grove. Started the day with lunch at In-n-Out Burger (mmmm), tea at the Tuck Box (not as good as it used to be) in Carmel. We get checked in and settled in at Asilomar and off to start our Artist’s Way for quilters. There are over 50 of us! So much to tell… later on a full finger keyboard!