Finally...My Purchases

I finally managed to take some photos of the things I bought along the way to, in and on the way home from NYC.  Grab a cuppa and let's take a look see shall we?

First up on the way to NYC.  I managed to snag some of the orange Sebastian (of Ghastly fame) and a JR of Sweet!!  WOO HOO

Next up was the visit to The City Quilter and some more Ghastlies.

I also found some Wee Wonderfuls patterns packed up with some dish towels. I also got a little of this odd plant print. Can't remember who makes it but I loved it!

I put all my Liberty purchases together here and I found some Jansdotter fabric too.

At B & J Fabrics I found some FFA and another beautiful Liberty print, don't you think?

Next trip was down to the Garment District to look for silk and other stuff. I found leather scraps to make thimbles with.

Then I did find some silk. See that one on the right, that was the one we ended up going back for b/c I couldn't live without it!! The fabric on the left is the linen I spoke of.

I know you are dying to see my pearls right? Well here they are and doesn't that turquoise silk show them off well?

Well, time for the ride home and the spoils from that ride. I loved this roof fabric and DH thought the calendar was GREAT!

It's a little difficult to see the fabric on the left well but it is striped with aqua and green.

I was so excited to find some Swell at one of the shops too!!

The shop in Montourville had a lot of Civil War and reproduction fabrics but this one reminded me of Christmas peppermints.

I needed to find some fall fabric for a project with one of the groups I belong to, but at the same time I was intriqued with the nave and orange combo fabrics I found too! What do you think of these?

So there you have it, my haul from the trip!! Now I have to find somewhere to put it all, lol. I am anxious to do some sewing but am still digging out from the trip. I did go back to Zumba today and that felt good. I did a lot of cleaning and laundry and I still need to get to the grocery store. I hope you are having a good weekend too. Did any of you have a chance to make the block I designed? I would love your feed back. Have a great weekend! ~XOP~

A Momentous Date 11/11/11

Can you believe it is 11/11/11?  I have a friend that is having her baby today!  Makes me think back to 8/8/88 when I was in labor with my DD2.  (although she chose to come the next day, darn it all). I hope you all get to do something special today!

I tried to get some photos of my purchases but only managed to get the things I bought at the antique shop, which was the last stop.  I have to tell you about my "creepy angels" (as my kids call them).  When I was a little girl we had a "creepy" angel on the top of our tree.  When I got married and had a tree of my own I really wanted the angel but my mom told me it was hers.  I believe these angels, with their porcelain heads are from Japan originally, but I digress.  Several years later, one Christmas morning, I opened a gift from my mom and it was the angel.  She has been on my tree ever since.  In more recent days I have seen some more of this type of angel so I have been buying them when I see them.  This last trip I found 3 of them!  My favorite is the BIG magenta feather covered one.  Let me  show you. The first 2 are small. The red one is about 3" tall and the gold one is about 4-5" tall.

Could you just die looking at their adorable faces?? I love them. The magenta one is about 8" tall.

The other thing I have taken a shine to are glass jar type things. I know most of you have seen these. Usually you see a chicken on a nest and you can lift the chicken off. A good friend bought me a rabbit, and my dad has one that's a cat. I have seen some different ones and I buy them sometimes if they are cheap ( a lot of the time they are not cheap!) I have never seen a duck, but here she is.

I should be home in time to take some photos of the rest of my spoils tonight before going to the gym.

Also, I have to thank you for saying you would watch the Back Road Quilt Shops show if I had one!! Believe it or not, I left a comment in the comment section on the Travel Channel website here. If you think it's a good idea too maybe you could go and leave a comment telling them so. I helped bring Mono Pezzy Prints back maybe you can help me do this!! How fun would that be??

MSU is playing basketball on an air craft carrier tonight for the first time. They are playing the number 1 ranked team, North Carolina. Should be a lot of fun. I hope we don't loose too badly! LOL I hope they can hold their own at least for awhile! Talk to you tomorrow!! ~XOP~

The Rest of The Trip

We got on the road around noon and so headed out from NY to MI.  We went a little way before stopping at our first quilt shop, The Quilted Crow, in Lehighton, PA.  This was a very nice shop with some very nice ladies!

I bought a little something there and as I was checking out my DH put a calendar up on the counter (he gets me one every Christmas, so I guess he figured this would work!)

Back on the road we went. Next stop was Rose of Sharin in Danville, PA. I thought this was a nice little shop too.

Then we decided we needed to do some driving and get to our hotel. We drove to Watsontown PA to the Watson Inn.  We just looked the Inn up online and thought it looked nice.  We arrived at night time so please excuse the dark photos.

It is right along the Susquehanna river, so we walked from main street down to the river I took some night time photos but it was even more beautiful during the day.

We walked along the park and stopped to swing on porch type swing that faced the river. All we needed was a quilt to snuggle under and it would have been even more perfect!

We got up in the morning at ate at the local diner (the D &D Diner) and the food was fantastic! Of course I forgot to take a photo of the food, so sorry! We got on the road and headed out to our next quilt shop. Problem was we would arrive there before they were open. Luckily there was a model train shop nearby that was open! So we went there first and then to Our Gathering Place next. It is located in Montoursville,PA. What a nice shop! Loads of Civil War and reproduction fabrics.

Next stop Jersey Shore PA at Inspirations quilt shop. I didn't end up buying anything in the shop but it was a nice little shop with very friendly people in it! Loved this blue and yellow quilt!

OK so the very last stop before flat out driving for home was Bellefonte, PA. This was a beautiful historic old town with a road so steep I have never seen the like of it! I didn't get a photo but we were going almost straight up!! It was crazy. I have no idea how anyone would do that in the winter! There was a great little antique mall there and we managed to pick up a few things there too. I still need to get pictures for you though, darned daylight savings time and those short days here in MI!!

So the rest of the trip was uneventful but we got home and it is always good to be home! I hope you have all enjoyed my little trip. Thanks for coming along. I hope we can do it again next year and visit some new and different shops along the way.

I told DH I should be on my own show for the Travel Channel, Quilt Shops along the back roads! Sadly, he told me no one would watch it! Oh well a girl can dream eh?

Have a wonderful day and we will talk soon! ~XOP~

Block 4 of the FQ Star QAL

I have the last leg of the journey home to tell you about but I am so short on time at the moment (work is killing me!!) so I'm just going to direct you over to Moose on the Porch for my star block!!!  Yes it is finally up and I'm interested to know what you think and what you think of the directions too.  Here is what the block looks like too.

And here is the link to the tutorial or under the tutorial section of my blog too.

I promise to be back tomorrow with the tail end of our trip (lots of driving) and a few quilt shops too

= )

I plan to take some photos (if I can ever leave work) of the things I bought so I hope you will come back!!

I have that annual check up that all us girls look forward to after work so fingers crossed the light holds up for those photos!! ~XOP~

NYC With My Sweetie!

Yep today was the big day.  I waited, and I waited and I waited some more for him to finish his training so we could go into the city together!  FINALLY he got back to the hotel and we could go.  We took the bus from our hotel in NJ into the city.  I did that every morning, so I knew how to do that!  It takes about 30 minutes to get there.  The first thing we did was go to Times Square.  I had kind of avoided going there knowing he would want to go there.  Actually we just breezed through on our way up to Central Park but I managed to shoot this video from the (I call them) viewing stairs.  It's a 360 video of Times Square so if you have never been here you go!

Now we were off again. Past Fox News, sigh I miss Glenn!

Past Christies where there was this GIANT spider statue hey look, it's me about to be eaten by that spider!!

Run Mama Spark, run!! OK I'm outta there and on my way again this time passing Rockefeller Plaza. It was fun to watch the ice skaters for a few minutes.

On toward St. Patrick's cathedral, so breathtaking! I would have loved to have gone in but there was a wedding just coming out!

Last time we were here there was another wedding at a different church! There are some beautiful old churches in NYC. And we're walking past Trump Tower and this fountain.

There was this beautiful statue as we were entering Central Park

Ah into the park. Should be a few less folks in here I think. Oh lookie, a Zoo! There is a zoo inside the park

We didn't go into the zoo but walked past a few things we could view like the sea lion area and the Children's zoo.

Then I saw one of the strangest things I have ever seen. A man walking his cat! You heard me right WALKING HIS CAT!!! And the cat seemed to like being walked!!

Central Park is beautiful. We got a nice photo of the two of us on my iPhone but I didn't bring my cord to download it to the computer! Here are some of the park though.

We were getting a little peckish and wandered by the Soupman. Sound familiar? Watch Seinfeld? YESSS this is where the Soup Nazi is from! "No soup for you!" But there was soup for us! You even get a little peek at DH in his Spartan hat!

DH told me that we could go back to the garment district and get some more thread for Liz (and that he would even carry it for me!) so that was our next stop. (hmmm do you think I could convince him to go back to the shop with the other silk in it that I didn't buy the first time but regretted?)

This is how you know you have arrived in the garment/fashion district

We found the shop with the thread and I bought 15 more spools!! (6000yards each!!) and guess what? You got it, that second bit of silk made it's way into the bag from the other shop too!! My DH is the BEST!!

One more trip into Times Square and a few cool shots to share with all of you and we are off, back to our hotel. I saw these and didn't have my camera ready so we waiied for them to scroll back so I could get the shots for you guys to see.

You can see the ball that drops on NY eve on top of the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State building!! Cool huh? There were 2 more scenes and they are on my flickr as well as many photos of the entire trip not posted here on my blog if you are interested.

Sunday we are not going into the city just hanging out around the hotel and we leave on Monday to head for home. We are driving part way and spending the night with a couple of quilt shop stops in between! I promise I will take some pictures of my loot so you can see everything I have talked about on this trip! Thanks for coming along, just a little while longer and we will be home! ~XOP