IQ BOM

So... Mary and I are working on a block of the month for Intown Quilters and here is a preview of some possible blocks I've been playing with. They are giving me fits because I can't decide what fabrics to use in these blocks.

 

My new bike!

Richard and I like to go bike riding on the weekends. I have been riding a 

  and-me-down that is a hair small for me for years and decided it was time for one that fits me a little better. Soooo....my lovely new orange Public 7 speed! This is also my first blog post from an app on my phone!

Well, the second post in 1 week. So rare. We will see what happens. Maybe there will be some pics on the next one.
I spent much of today purging bags of fabric, scraps, things I've picked up at quilt market (you know, those dreaded bags some of us collect) that I had been collecting in my sewing room/son's bedroom, since he will come home for Thanksgiving. I now have two donation bags and three bags of stuff to go to the shop, one of which is a big one full of maybe three to five quilts that I have decided need to get sold in our sample sale. It feels so good to get rid of stuff!

I have not blogged in well over a year and maybe I will try to get back to it.
My kids are now seniors, one in high school and one in college. They are both focused on their last year in school and preparing for what comes next.
I am trying hard to keep focused on my shop while also thinking that it is the last year I have my girl at home and I really don't think I can fully focus on the shop this year at all.
Today, we did a pretty big overhaul at the shop though, swapping two sections to get ready for our Hol"ideas" day this Saturday. We have some fun ideas planned.
I hope all of you are doing well!

I have not been on here in forever. First we had the holidays to deal with, then inventory, then I made a crazy trip out to California, when my mom fell and broke her knee cap, then it was past time to get ready for shop hop and the mad dash to catch up, then shop hop, getting the shop back together after shop hop, spring break for Hana and a few days at the beach, then Richard going off to Zimbabwe for two weeks, then getting taxes done, which are just done now and it seems OK to try to get on here again.
My mother is doing very well with her recovery which was bought going for a bit, but she is a trooper and is doing well now.
Both my kids are in the middle of their final exam weeks and soooo slammed with work. I can't believe Zachary is out of school (done with his sophomore year) in a little over a week. Wow!
So happy for a little down time for myself tonight!

New York City

 Last weekend Richard and I went to NYC to get away for a bit and see our baby boy. The first night we walked from 54th down 10th to 23rd. We hit the High Line at about 33rd and walked the rest of the way there. I took the picture on the left from the High Line. It was a nice night for a walk.

 

 On Friday, we went to the Lower East side to walk around. We visited the gift shop of the Tenement Museum and just wandered the streets where we saw this Restaurant to the right with our baby girl's name. We then walked to Soho to meet Zachary and his room mate Gio for some lunch and shopping.

 We checked out the Fluevog Store, the shoes my friend Mary loves sooooooo much. They are her signature shoes. The store was great.

 This clothing store had a great window display of antique sewing machines. It was not the best lighting for a picture but I took one anyway.

 We hit a really cool store called Pearl River where they had this great fabric. We also got Zachary fun hanging lights for his apartment and a great bag for Hana. I loved it!

 Later that evening after Zachary and Gio left us to head back to Brooklyn, Richard and I found the Purl Soho store. It was a fun little shop of fabric and yarn, but the yarn was so high I didn't feel I could buy any and the fabric, well........I do sell fabric so I can't bring myself to buy any elsewhere unless its fabulous. I guess I didn't see any that was fabulous.

On Saturday morning, we went to Brooklyn to see Zachary's apartment. We got doughnuts from Dough that were killer! then we went to the Ft. Greene  Brooklyn Flea just blocks from Z's apartment where we ate great street food and bought fun stuff. Next we went to the Dekalb Market. It was such a fun day. Here you can see my boy at the subway station waiting for his train going the opposite direction from ours. I actually teared up watching him ride away.

Sunday we got up and went out walking to Central Park. We stopped for breakfast at the Moonrock diner on 57th on our way to the park. Then into the park for a walk and a sit in the sun. I had to snap a shot of Richard looking so happy in the park.









Look at this Hawk sitting on the fence in the park. Incredible, just sitting there looking around. I got much closer and took a little video of the hawk looking back and forth. It was sooooo cool.


That's the end of NYC November 2011! 

An update

Hi folks,
It has been awhile since I have posted here. Life has been flying by in a flurry of colors.
Most recently I just got back from International Quilt Market in Houston where I go every October to see what is going on in my fabric world. I say lots of my fabric buddies, found new fabric to buy and found lots of new book and patterns.
Now I am back home trying to recover from a week of being sick and going right into the market trip, with poor sleeping nights and poor eating meals. We have already gotten in some new patterns and a box of Kaff Fassett's quilts to display in the shop. Next I have to organize getting those quilts hung in the shop. I don't think that will happen until Monday.
That's all for today. I will try to post sooner, rather than later, next time.