Farm Country

Living in farm country has its benefits. I remind myself of this when I’m driving 15 miles per hour behind a tractor on a two lane road.  The little inconveniences are worth it! 

I drive past beautiful farms on the way into town. Fruit stands are open throughout the summer, and our area is known for wonderful produce.  People drive from all over just to experience the pleasure of picking their own fruit.

Early this morning Brigette and I were off to the Farmer’s market in town.

Every Saturday, throughout the growing season, the locals bring their fresh baked good, produce and flowers to sell. 

Fresh Breads…

Fresh Pastas…

California Strawberries…

Cherries…

Carrots…

Fresh apricots…

Fresh beets…

Pails of fresh flowers…

Beautiful Gerbers….

  These pink came home with me…

Fresh honey…

and the bees who made it! Brigette’s husband built the display case so we could all enjoy watching the bees work.    It was fun to watch!

It’s amazing this little area I live in.  Summer is the best time of year!

Have a great weekend everyone!  I’ll be eating my veggies!  Even Bitsy likes carrots but Chelsea hates them.  Figures doesn’t it? 

Hugs,

Anne

Goodbye Clover Iron

The bad news is…

The rumors have been flying since market that the Clover Craft Iron is being discontinued.  It’s my favorite iron for spray starch appliqué and this would be upsetting news.  Yesterday I was on a mission to find out for sure.  It’s true.  For now the iron is no longer being made. 

The good news is…

By fall market they should have another Clover Craft Iron to take it’s place.  Clover says the production plant has closed.  They are moving production to another plant in Japan.  Hopefully in time for fall market.  I’ll keep my fingers crossed.  Sure would miss this little girl.  Maybe when they make the new one they could offer it in pink!  A small pink iron with the Clover sharp little point.  That would be heaven. 

So my little iron has to last another four months.  She is on the endangered species list and believe me no one gets near her but me. 

Oh, and Kathy in Massachusetts, pour yourself a cup of coffee and have it with me!  Good Morning!

Hugs,

Anne

Three Day Weekend

This is the weekend to start new projects and put away the old ones. Organization is a word I no longer dream about. It’s real! I’ve been working on it all week. Going through drawers, rearranging shelves and cleaning out the old fabric. New fabric is now on the shelves waiting for me.

And, my “Rainbow O’Bella” is neatly aranged. “Rainbow O’Bella” is Brigette’s name for a bolt of every color of Bella fabric that Moda makes! I haven’t reached the rainbow but I’m close! I can pull from these solids over and over. I have two more shelves of yellows and neutrals.

I have an empty drawer for every new pattern I have planned in the next 4 months. As I pull the fabric and start designing, all the papers go into one drawer so I can always find them. It’s a system that works really well for me.

And my flowers are still blooming! Can you believe it? It’s been a week!

I still have a few market pictures to show you!

The Bunny Hill Booth…

one of the few photos I have of my booth…

and Sue Daley and me…Sue is an Australian designer who specializes in English paper piecing.

She brought me a treat to try…a Tim Tam from Australia! It’s a chocolate, wafer-like cookie and apparently they are very popular in Australia.

And Camille and Bonnie…from Thimble Blossoms and Cotton Way. Isn’t this a great photo of them? I’m using their new fabric line and I’m so excited. I’ll post little peeks as I go along.

And the gorgeous and so talented Sandy Gervais…

Have a great weekend everyone! Tuesday is the start of a new week and new projects! I have lots of things planned and can’t wait to get started!

Hugs,

Anne

Feeling much better, thank you

I don’t know how the Europeans do it.  The time change just did me in.  My brain felt “fuzzy” and my words were actually coming out wardsback.  LOL! But today I am SO much better!  I couldn’t wait to get up to my studio this morning!

I opened up my bundle of fabric from The French General and into my beautiful silverware box it went.  “Rouenneries” is my first Moda love from this market.  In shades of beige, taupe, gray, old red, and red, it’s so French and so elegant!  She even has LINEN in the line!  LINEN!!! Be still my heart!

And what do you get when you put two green boxes together? 

The unveiling…finally! 

These are the precious little bunnies that Carrie brought to me at market!  Have you ever seen anything like them?  I adore these bunnies Carrie almost as much as I adore you!  Thank you so much!

And how about this bundle of “Sweet Abundance” by Camille and Bonnie.  I am LOVING this fabric too!  So many assorted colors to work with!  This is going to be a fun one and I can’t wait!

Here’s a picture of me and Bonnie in Camille’s and Bonnie’s booth.  Had I known my collar was so bad I would have immediately fixed it.  You know that of course. 

And then it happened. I was in my booth and the PERFECT hair cut walked in.  A customer came in and really, I could hardly concentrate on selling her patterns because I loved her hair so much.  She’s from Italy and I want my hair just like hers but I can’t fly to Italy once a month. 

She let me take pictures so I can show my hair stylist.  The next time you see me it will be from a side view.  Think I need to buy new expensive earrings.

More to come!

Hugs,

Anne

Home Sweet Home

Home never felt so good…sleeping in my own bed, with my own pillows.  Oh the comforts of home after a very long trip!   I arrived home to a bouquet of beautiful flowers from my assistant Brigette, a nest with two new baby birds outside my back door, and kisses from Ross and all the pets. 

I have jet lag on top of jet lag.  Staying up for 24 hours after leaving the Eastern Time zone hit me really hard yesterday.  This morning I woke up at 4:30 Pacific Time.  Just couldn’t sleep so I got up.  I’ll be glad when my time clock is adjusted. How long does that take? 

Market was so much fun!  I had lots of laughs with Pam who declared a war when she found out I had been at market for two days before her and blogged photos.  Lots of laughs over silly things.  I met so wonderful customers, saw lots of old friends and made new friends too! 

So many people came into my booth to thank me for the free basket blocks.  I head story after story and they were wonderful to hear!  Barbara brought along her basket blocks to show me! 

 

 

 

 

 

And Jane in Virginia, this photo is for you! 

Here I am just after signing the Breast Cancer quilt that Homespun Hearth is going to auction off.  You can read about it on their blog The Quilter’s Vine.  It was such an honor to be asked to sign!

 

And here’s the beautiful Tammy Tadd and Jennifer just after the announcement that Tammy’s shop will be in the next Quilt Sampler magazine!  Congratulations Tammy!

Vicki Bellino and I announced that we’ll  have a joint quilt design featured in an upcoming issue of American Patchwork and Quilting…we are SO excited!

 

In my next post I’ll show you what was in the package from Carrie and Miss Rosie, plus LOTS of other designer photos.

Hugs all! 

Anne

Stuck in Atlanta

I swear Pam Kitty has jinxed us. I have proof…

She’s here in the Atlanta airport! Pink sweater in the back of the zoo store. See her? Can you believe she would follow me here? She’s the queen for sure…PAM YOU WON! GET OUT OF THAT ZOO STORE and come and get your kitty crown. She must have been on the same plane as we were! And wait until you hear what we had to go through to get here!

We left the hotel at 3AM Eastern time, got to the Pittsburgh airport, even got on the airplane. Then the pilot announced the plane had a bad battery and it would take 3 hours to get it replaced. We all got off the plane, rebooked our connecting flights and finally left Pittsburgh at 9:40AM. I never saw her on the plane, but just look at that photo. She’s IN the store!

I’m in Atlanta until 7:45PM Eastern time and Pam is here too! By the time we arrive in Sacramento we will have been up for 22 hours That’s if you can trust my addition. Give or take a few hours. Pam wll be wearing that darn crown, probably on the airplane!.

So what do you do in an airport for 7 hours? You can blog! It’s time for some pictures! This one is for Anne Bryson over at cottons n’ wool. I saw this wool quilt in the special exhibits and just knew she would love it!

Have you ever seen anything like it? And how about this appliqué? It is so pretty! Unfortunately I only brought my 50MM camera lens so I can’t take any wide angle shots. Note to self…bring another lens next market.

See this sweet innocent Brenda in the photo below? Well turns out the squirrel is perfect for her because wait until you hear what she did to me.

Just before market started she came running over to the booth with what she said was an early birthday gift. I gave her a big hug and a thank you, wondering why on earth she was giving me such an early gift…and then the squirrely things started happening…

Next day EVERYONE was coming by my booth saying Happy Birthday Anne! Some even brought presents. Then Pam blogged about it and the emails started coming.

But when we went to dinner that night and the cake arrived I just couldn’t believe it! Seems my sweet, sweet friend got the markets mixed up! My birthday comes during Fall market!

We still had a great time and the cake was “red Velvet! Brenda just made this market SO much fun and gave us so many laughs! Thank you my friend!

A really special quilt we got to see as we were leaving the convention center was “The Pittsburgh Quilt”. It’s thousands and thousands of little squares, all signed by the people of Pittsburgh, and then stitched together into quilts. The display was amazing.

The Pittsburgh Quilt must be 16 ft. long, and it’s put together in gradations of color. It’s truly an amazing thing to see! The quilts are behind acrylics I’m getting a bit of reflection off the glass but you can at least get an idea!

I just can’t wait to get back and see my pets and my hubby. I had hoped to have the day to spend with them, but it will be off to bed as soon as the wiggles and barks are over. No, not from my hubby, but barks from Bitsy, and wiggles from Chelsea. I can’t wait! Oh, and Bitsy is doing just fine. Her biopsy came back negative. She may be old but she’s a feisty one!

Hugs everyone!

Next time I write I’ll have more photos and it will be from my own studio! (I hope).

Anne