Pamella's Place -- Genesee Depot WI

Pam Gray and I met at Bernina University 2009 in San Francisco and I was delighted when she asked me to come to Wisconsin to teach the weekend retreat at Pine Forest Lodge. The whole deal got even better when I realized I was going to have the time on Monday morning to visit her quilt store before I had to go to the airport.


This bright star quilt drew me in because of the colors......


...but reading it was as much fun as looking! Bet somebody got really familiar with machine alphabet embroidery!

This quilt in the Bernina area is intriguing -- it reminds me of some of the Mediterranean tile designs that I've seen in Morocco and Spain.


This is the upcoming Block of the Month project....

...and a closeup of the floral embroidery.





Small table runner quilts hang as banners over some very cute teddies....

And the thread room! Very cool! This is just one wall of it; there is just about every kind of thread imaginable in many dazzling colors!

For people who like to sew clothing, Pam has the kits, patterns and fabrics available from the Sewing Workshop as well as notions and bolts of fabric suitable for garment construction -- Pamella's Place is truly a full service sewing center!

For more information, click here.

Last Day in Mercer WI

Our project Sunday was Positive/Negative: Adding Color to Trapunto by Machine. Pam Gray of Pamella's Place in Genesee Depot WI had made up kits in the fall colors above. The underlying color is a pretty bright orange and it shadows through as a more muted, fall leaf orange.....

The quilt top above belongs to Linda and is all ready to layer for quilting....all of those feathers will look spectacular after the quilting's done!

Cutting and piecing the squares and sashings....

Putting the poly batt on the back of two of the squares, ready for trimming....The other two squares will have orange fabric between the quilt top and the poly batt and both the orange fabric and the poly batt will be trimmed away from the areas that are not to be stuffed.

Had to laugh at the sign -- and then go down to the lake to take a picture of the dock that is totally underwater!

Monday was a travel day, but I did get to go to Pamella's Place -- thanks to Bonnie, who served as a tour guide and chauffer extraordinaire! Three guesses what the next post will be about....

Fall Color Extravaganza Quilt Retreat -- Mercer WI

The trees and fall colors are so gorgeous here! After a week of 90-100 degree temps in my SoCal desert home, I was SO ready to travel to some "traditional" fall weather. Pine Forest Lodge is just a perfect place to be right now!

I taught a Halloween applique class today, so got to wear my new T-shirt featuring ghosts, a haunted house and "Halloween" spelled out in orange sparkly crystals! I know it's a little early, but just had to do it!


The views out of the classroom windows and from the front porch.....

Bonnie working on her ghost block....


Pam Gray of Pamella's Place in Genesee Depot WI brought lots of fabrics, embellishments, threads, needles -- you know, the stuff we need!

She also brought Bernina 440 machines for everyone to use!

A pumpkin that already has the reverse applique eyes and mouth is ready to be appliqued onto the orange print background fabric.

Joan and her finished pumpkin block.....

Bonnie's three blocks ready for the side borders....I'm posting this at about 8:30pm; tomorrow when I have light again, I'll take a picture of all the retreaters with their quilt tops!

The Cloth Shop -- Vancouver BC

What would a vacation be if there wasn't at least one quilt shop on the route? Our friend Kern gave us the address and directions to The Cloth Shop in the West End area of Vancouver, so Friday afternoon Dan and I hopped in the rental car and went off on an adventure to find it. Kern had given us pretty good directions, though, because we recognized all the landmarks and got there in less time than planned.

Dan pointed out this quilt to me almost immediately after walking into the store. He really notices and likes any quilt that has a lot of points and intricacy to it; maybe it appeals to the mechanical side of his nature? This quilt is called "Desert Sky" and is a class offered by the shop this month.


The Cloth Shop is also a Bernina dealer; I thought I had remembered meeting shop owners from Vancouver when I was at Bernina University last year, but I didn't recognize anyone working in the store on the day we were there.

Lots of fabrics to explore with many samples displayed on the walls and draped over furniture -- it's a cozy inviting atmosphere to poke around and find something new for your next project!

Not to mention a generous amount of pink sprinkled throughout!

I liked this butterfly applique quilt so much that I bought the pattern, Madame Butterfly, from Bella Moon. Bella Moon quilts are designed, published and sold by the owner of this shop.

If you are headed up to the western coast of our northern neighbor, The Cloth Shop is well worth a visit. It is located at 4415 West 10th Avenue in Vancouver BC (ph: 604-224-1325). To go to their website, click here. The website features fabric kits and clubs as well as patterns for aprons and other non-quilty things.


On our drive back toward downtown, we caught this glimpse of fall color growing up the side of a building.....


...and Vancouver City Hall.....

...and a breathtaking view of downtown from the beginning of the Cambie Bridge.

Saturday and Sunday -- wine tasting!

BC Vacation -- Day 2

Dan and I were on our own today, so we decided to take a walking tour of the city in the morning. We stopped at Rosie's Cafe for breakfast and then started leisurely walking on Robson Street in the direction of Stanley Park.


That took us by the Vancouver Art Gallery....

...and a bunch of shops. (P,S. I bought the cutest pair of little short boots!) Dan likes all things that go fast, so he was intrigued by the older model Harley-Davidson in one of the shop windows.


This is one of the entrances to Coal Harbour, which is a marina and seaplane terminal. Because there is lots of rain and humidity here, the plants are just spectacular....

Some of the sculptures in the Coal Harbour park....

In our opinion, this is the perfect Christmas tree! We wondered if it was decorated in December....



More sculptures; the one below is titled "Shipwreck" and, under the direction of the artist, was carved by several thousand residents and tourists in 2001.

Some people carved for moments; some stayed and worked on the project for months!

Above is a picture of North Vancouver, taken near the water at Coal Harbour....

...taken from the same spot in the other direction is Stanley Park. I've walked the park before; it's about a 6-1/2 mile loop.

It's fun watching the seaplanes land and take off; they don't seem to get much speed up in the water, but somehow they get into the air!

After we walked back to our hotel, we hopped into the car and drove across Cambie Bridge to find a quilt shop called "The Cloth Shop" -- we discovered a whole new (to us!) shopping area called Point Grey.

Next up -- The Cloth Shop!

British Columbia Vacation -- Day 1

We flew into Seattle yesterday on Southwest Airlines -- my WAY fave airline when I have a choice. It was raining lightly, but increased steadily as we drove from the airport toward the Canadian border. Took a few pictures, but I am not a master at figuring out the camera's light settings.....the above picture, as you might have guessed, is the Seattle skyline....

Here are a couple of the big event ampitheatres....

Heading for the border.....



Traffic at the border was fairly light; it was about 5:30 in the afternoon on a Thursday, so I really expected more of a wait, but it was less than 5 minutes before we got to hand over our passports, answer many personal questions and proceed into Canada.


It was raining fairly heavily at this point in our drive, but then tapered off so when we arrived at our friend's house about 45 minutes later, it was hardly raining at all. Being Southern California people, we consider rain a treat!

Having been glued to the television during the Olympics, I could see that Vancouver had changed quite a lot since I had last been here about 11 years ago, so I am very excited about seeing the city again.


We had brought gifts for the girls -- Madeleine loves all things hippo, so we picked up some fun things for her.....

Emily is a die-hard Harry Potter fan -- she told me she read the final book 16 times! We brought her a Time Turner necklace that she had on her Wish List.

Here's Maddy and Emily's dad, Kern -- he's the master camera man! He has sent us beautiful pictures of the girls over the years....

Caught a picture of Dan where we usually find him -- with a malfunctioning computer in his lap ready to do the Dr. Dan Diagnostics.....

Dan and I with the girls......Maddy is such a Pink Girl!

Today we are going to do a little sightseeing in the city; Kern has given us directions to a quilt shop if we want to hop in the car, but we're undecided at this point whether we'll do that today or tomorrow.