Happy Mail and Happy Travels

There is just nothing better than getting emails from my online friends, showing me their work.

Pamela shared her "Fall Flag" that I designed for Thermoweb, using their

"Liquid Vinyl".  I absolutely love it Pamela, you did an awesome job and your yard is a very tranquil and serene place to display it!

What's not to love about this? You know every turkey, this time of they year is praying for a LOT of vegans! LOL!!

Mary sent me this photo with a note saying...

Until I saw your beautiful quilts I always thought I had to either blanket stitch or zigzag with very tight stitches when I appliquéd. You just zip around the various parts and they always look great so now I can make fun things without committing hours and hours.  You have been an inspiration and teacher for years.

 Well, she may have exaggerated the part of me being an inspiration and teacher for many year, but I will take the compliment, that's for sure. It warms my heart to know that I inspired someone.

I learned while making McKenna Ryan quilts that dropping those feed dogs and free motion straight stitching around appliques is a quick and fun way to make a project. It's best used when you are not planning on washing your project, but that being said, I have done it and used "Fray Check" or "Fray Block" on the edges of my appliques, after they are stitched and they have held up just fine after washings. I wrote a blog post way back in 2010 about my experiment using both products and showed the results after washing them. You can read more on that HERE.

Thanks to both of you girls, for brightening my day!

Speaking of brightening my day...

This sweet lady, sweetened 3 of my days for me last week.

Yep, poor Carol Swift had to deal with me for that long. LOL!!

We had a lot of laughs starting from when I showed up a day before she was expecting me, and I couldn't find her in the airport pickup area!  I guess it helps if I actually would have given her the correct date that I was arriving. DUH!! 

She shared some of our adventures on her blog post today and said she pleaded the 5th on our adventurers...

Uh huh!

Maybe that was when she tried to get me eaten my pigeons!

It was truly an Alfred Hitchcock moment. 

We went to visit her grandson's work and when we pulled into the parking lot, there were at least 100 or more of these things, over in a corner. Naturally we decided a pigeon safari was in line, so we drove over to check it out. She had me roll down the window to take pictures and they started flying up at me. I'm rolling up the window so they don't get in the car as she's telling me keep it down and take photos.

Not relishing the though of being eaten by pigeons...well the window went up!

Oh my goodness the laughs we had over that one. 

She also took me over to "Sew Yeah" a gorgeous quilt shop in Vegas!

She will never tell you, but she's a local quilt celebrity over there.

Her patterns, kits and samples fill the store. 

They even have a beautiful Christmas display just for her!

We had an absolute blast, there. They had a carnival going on, with lots of games. There was golf, which I completely sucked at. If they hadn't put up a portable wall, I would have been paying to replace a window in the store. LOL!!  Ring toss, corn hole, marbles, a pinball type of coin drop, just to name a few...

We both did well enough, to come home with a nice little stack of fat quarters we had won, along with discount coupons that of course we had to use on kits, thread, and fat quarter stacks! I cleaned up on their sale Halloween fabrics. tee hee! Thank goodness hubby had room in his suitcase for my quilt shop adventures!

My advice if your ever in Vegas, make sure you plan a trip to "Sew Yeah Quilting", you won't be sorry!

Check them out on YouTube for their Tuesday and Saturday "destash" deals.

and on Facebook too. These boys sure know how to shake up the quilt shop world!

Sadly our fun time had to end, but not before we had a change to have dinner at the wild and wacky "Dicks Last Resort" with the boys...

It was incredibly loud...I'm not sure I have all my hearing back yet, but it was a hilarious time.

Before we said our last goodbyes...someone had to play "Wheel of Fortune" on the slots...

You all can just refer to her as MS MONEYBAGS from now on!

Woo hoo, I'm so excited for you Carol.

I'll see you all tomorrow, for my day to share on Carla's "Music Blog Hop".

til next time...

Keep on Stitchin'