Happy Shopping

I had such fun yesterday! I didn't buy everything I saw that I liked, which is a big improvement for me! But I did buy a lot, all with intentions of sewing them up when the "dun" part of the giterdun has been accomplished!

My camera died. I took this one picture, and then the battery light came on. So I put fresh batteries in it. When I press the button to take the picture, the camera goes dead. I really need to take this camera back to Office Depot and see if they can't tell me what's wrong with it or send it off to be fixed. I don't quite remember when I bought it but it hasn't been that long ago. Must pull out the purchase info, etc. When Matt was out to clean up the nasties on my computer, he tried to reload the disk that came with the camera and couldn't get it to work. So he worked around that and gave me another way to download my pix. This is a Fuji camera. I haven't liked it very much at all, so this might be the time to just bite the bullet and get another one. I really liked the older Olympus I had, so I guess I'll take another look at those.

The reason for this tower purchase is I am almost out of patriotic fabrics. I've had a quilt swirling around in the back of my mind (thanks, Jeanne!) and decided to look for those yesterday. So this tower along with other blues/red/tans from my stash will do the trick. This tower is the Coming Home line by Minick & Simpson for Moda. I like it because the light fabrics are tan instead of white.

I also picked up a lovely stitchery pillow pattern, "Spring Fling" by Flutterby Moments. Sorry, but I couldn't find a link on the web. It's adorable, and will give me a chance on a small project to refresh my embroidery skills before I tackle the Leanne's House quilt, http://leanneshouse.typepad.com. There's Leanne's House link on her blog site. I just purchased the patterns, but I'm scared of them already! LOL.

I also picked up a really cute pattern for a Christmas table runner from http://piecesfrommyheart.net. It's called Table Attire. I'm really not doing well on these links. I wish I could remember how to do them to get you right to the pattern. Again, sorry! Anyway, the table runner uses one charm pack and is adorable.

I splurged and got the new Crazy Snow Days book from http://www.buggybarnquilts.com, the fabrics for the Let it Snow quilt, and at another shop picked up a backing piece for it. I'm totally in love with Christmas stuff, as you can tell, especially with a small bit of folk art flavor thrown in for good measure.

And like the good Catholic, I'm going to confess the rest of my purchases here! LOL. I also picked up the Jelly Roll Diamonds pattern by Fig Tree Quilts, two jelly rolls - Holly Jolly by Sandy Gervais and Yule Tide Blessing by Fig Tree - and the book "More Joy to the World" by Nancy Smith and Lynda Milligan. Jane told me she has the original "Joy to the World" book. Can't wait to see that one! Oh, and two dish towels so I can try out a couple of the Art to Heart patterns on those.

As you can see from the above, I'm real ready to learn new techniques for my quilts. I think I'm getting a bit bored after only almost six years of quilting with just doing pieced and appliqued quilts. I have a wool bed rug project that I want to start when I get a little better at blanket stitches, and all the stuff to do a punchneedle project and a wool felt project. I need to constantly stimulate my brain - so all of these projects will do quite nicely!!

Gratitudes:

~ Getting out of bed at 5:45 and deciding that I didn't want to get up. Finally got up at 8:45!!

~ A nice dinner last night with friends!

~ Charm packs, jelly rolls and Jolly packs - a perfect way to try something without a huge investment!

~ Enjoying the awakening of my little community this morning - dogs on their walks, children's laughter, birds chirping, and the flowery aromas of sunny Southern California.