Crisp and Cold

Our weather has gone from wet and dark to dry, bright, and cold. Today the wind is blowing too. These are the times when we can get snow as we transition from cold to wet again. When I checked the forecast last week, I noticed there was ice in the forecast for this weekend. For now, it looks as if it will warm back into the 40's without any of the slippery or white stuff. It's a little early for us. Our coldest months are January and February.

So I ran my errands yesterday, including a quick trip to the grocery store. No fellow shoppers were harmed on this outing, and now I'm set until next week. When I got home, I put away the groceries, ate some lunch, did my housekeeping chore for the day, and then...I could have headed into the sewing room. Instead, I sat in the living room and had a moment with my cat.

It was a good start to the afternoon. We were both so cozy, we tipped back in the reclining chair and had short naps together. It was nearly 3:00 when I made my way into the sewing room. And there, I had a lot of company. Sadie wanted to know what we were going to sew today.

We were working on blocks for the Shop Hop quilt. Smitty checked for any spelling errors in my embroidery.

Finding none, we got to work. Sadie made sure those swatches of fabric stayed firmly flat on the table.

Smitty decided to continue on with his nap. He's found a soft perch there on the quilts-to-be-quilted pile. There's only one quilt left there. I'm going to have to sandwich some more so that his perch stays plump and soft. And, um, speaking of plump...well, let's just not, okay?

So the first block for the 7th row is this one from Sew Bernina in Minot, North Dakota. We were in Minot because it was a stop along the way. We'd found a "free" spot on our RVOvernightParking app. If you're into RVing, I can highly recommend this app for finding free places to stop for the night. Some are better than others. For this particular night, we were parked at the North Dakota State Fairgrounds. We actually paid $20 for our stay, but we had water and electricity hook-ups. It was a very good deal, and a nice spot.

We wanted to head out and see Minot (pronounced MY-not) a little bit. All we knew was what we'd heard in the news about their urgent need for laborers in the oil fields. There was such a huge influx of people during the last big economic downturn, and North Dakota was ill prepared for so many new folks. There was a major housing shortage, and in fact, shortages of all kinds in terms of schools, healthcare, and basic infrastructure to support a large population.

In our wanderings, we came across this quilt shop on the downtown streets of Minot. Checking in with my friend Google, I see the store is still open. You can see its web presence right here. The blog post I wrote about the store is right here. Okay...well that's interesting. I took the name for my embroidery off the sales receipt pinned to the fabric swatch. It appears the name of the store is actually "Bernina Plus." Oh well. I'm not changing it. This was one of the first fabrics I chose to honor the changing of the leaves from greens to autumn golds, oranges, yellows, and reds. It was a fun little shop, and I picked up quite a few little treasures here.

The next block is from a really great store we visited in Petaluma, California. This was a different trip we took right after Mike retired in May of 2017. We were passing through Petaluma on our way home. I'll forever remember Petaluma as the home of Polly Klass. You can read her tragic story right here. We were just passing through, but we stayed a few days to visit the Point Reyes National Seashore and the associated lighthouse. It was lovely there when we visited. The quilt shop was a wonderful diversion, and you should visit if you ever pass through Petaluma in your own travels. The whale migration was happening at the time, and we'd seen a few whales far off the coast. Checking in with Google, I see the quilt shop is still open. You can find its web presence right here. My blog post about this shop is right here.

Finally, I was just getting started on this block for Temecula Quilt Co. when I needed to stop for the day. There are many reasons to visit Temecula, but this quilt shop is a destination unto itself. It carries mostly traditional and reproduction fabrics, and the quilts on display are nothing short of amazing. I chose this fabric because of the incredible hexie minis I saw there, made by the shop's owner. Some of them were made up of hexies no bigger than a nickel.

You can read the blog post I wrote about our visit right here. Actually, we visited the shop twice. Y'all told me about those little ruler boxes, and so we had to go back. You can see more pictures right here. The web presence for Temecula Quilt Co. is right here, if, like me, you need one of those ruler boxes for your very own.

So today, I'll just continue on with these. There are five more blocks to make before I can call this row finished. And one more row before the quilt top is done. I'd hoped to have this finished before year's end, but I expect it will be January instead.