Today was a driving day! I'm always happy to drive because I can not only pack as many suitcases as I want, but I can throw anything I may not be able to live without (like six pairs of shoes!) regardless of how much it weighs. I remember almost mugging Bethany Reynolds in Nashville a couple of years ago because she had a full size tube of toothpaste and I only had enough room for the travel size! I also like driving because then I can even take my bigger, heavier quilts that nobody gets to see unless they happen to catch me at a guild or shop within driving distance, which is pretty much California from about Sacramento or San Francisco on down and parts of Nevada and Arizona.
I draw the limit at about a 6 or 7 hour drive and Quiltique is around 4 hours if I'm kind of lazy about it -- making a Starbucks stop, maybe a stop for lunch, or just to look around if the weather's agreeable. Today topped out at about 105 degrees, so no getting out of the car unless absolutely necessary.
If you haven't heard of Quiltique, you most likely will soon. They are one of the featured shops in the upcoming issue of "Quilt Sampler" magazine which will hit newsstands next month.
As soon as I walked in the door, I could see why -- thousands of bolts of fabric and quilts hanging everywhere! I took pictures of some of the quilts and I'll share those with you next post.
When I got here this afternoon, there were six or seven staff members here, which I thought was pretty impressive for a hot summer Friday afternoon. Here are Cynthia and Lynne, who along with Kay McCain, tried to familiarize me with this very large store so that I know where to direct students if they need something (of course if I'm really smart, I'll direct the students to one of the people who already know where everything is!). Take a look at that notions wall behind them -- there's even more that didn't make it into the picture -- one of the most complete displays that I've seen anywhere.
Each fat quarter bundle has a pretty Quiltique ribbon around it as well as one of their brights-on-black cards -- perfect gift for my secret pal......
Animal prints and African fabrics -- two of my way faves -- I am sure that some of those are coming home with me. I've started buying yard cuts of animal prints to use for binding. Even if there isn't any animal print in the rest of the quilt, it's a fun thing to do.
There's the Bernina 820 all set up on the frame, just waiting for someone to come along and play!
The classroom is HUGE -- I know that it's big enough to hold the 22 people I have in Saturday's class! This is only the front part of one side of the room; every wall is covered with quilts -- can't wait until tomorrow morning!
For more information on Quiltique, you can go to www.quiltique.com/home/
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