shop hoppin'

I don't know just where the day has gone but it is almost time for supper! How did that happen? I don't have to cook since we have leftovers available and will be going out for lunch tomorrow--cook's night off, I guess. I suppose I'll just keep goofing off--maybe do a few rows on my sweater or the November snowman block.

I had been on a tear with quilting some of the tops for Mexico--4 quilts done in 4 days time-- and intended to continue on that pace this weekend as well. Well, not completely done--the binding volunteers will finish up. My part is done though. BUT my pal Judy unexpectedly stopped by Friday afternoon to drop off a book for me and issued an invitation to go the Atlanta (GA) area shop hop with her on Saturday. I took me about 2 seconds to say "YES" and work out the logistics. DJ and I had tickets to the Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast Saturday morning so could we leave after that? Sure! Turns out Judy had just told her husband to go to the same breakfast without her but she would go after all and meet me there. We would send the boys on home without us after we ate. Playtime!

It is about 90 miles or so to the outskirts of Georgia on I-20 so off we went. Got hung up for a good bit trying to hit I-285 North to Marietta since we were heading to Tiny Stitches. Judy had gone to the Hop in '05 with a couple of the Belles but for reasons I don't remember, I did not. She has visited the shop a few times in between and knew how to get there. I have been to Tiny Stitches once with Cher when she was visiting her sister who lives in the ATL area but no way would I have remembered how to get there. We picked up a map for the participating shops and took it from there.

Next up was Little Quilts since it is also in Marietta but we decided not to worry about getting all the passport stamps--no way since we had to get home to AL somewhere before supper and the shops would be closing at 5 Eastern time. Cher had said that Intown Quilters was her fav shop in the area--brights, batiks etc That appealed more to the both of us.

But first, we went to a Cheesecake Factory near a mall off 285--I didn't know where the heck I was all day, LOL. Yummmmy but no cheesecake for either of us. They could have had to clean drool off the pastry case had we not gotten to our seats soon. (I had Thai Chicken Pasta and Judy, grilled salmon and brought the leftovers home with us)

So the picture above shows what followed me home. From top left, a free pattern from Tiny Stitches and Intown Quilters rendition of the tropical themed shop hop quilt. Next to it, Little Quilt fats of shirtings and Civil War type fabric to add to my collection of same. I am not going to cave into the wave of Civil War Diary blocks I have seen on some blogs but I will make something with it in the future when I find a project I want to do with it. The striped fabric was included with their shop pattern along with the candy.

Moving to the right, a yard of bright green fabric. That I need for the next row quilt----a yard of fabric that "represents" us in some manner. We are to tell why we picked it out and what it means. Well, I guess I am a little "dotty", like brights and make kids quilts but what she wants us to do with it from there is unknown at this point. The red tone on tone and the red and green batiks are for the Christmas row that will be headed my way soon in May. The fat eighths in the lower right in front were from Tiny Stitches as our freebie while the batik squares were from Intown Quilters.

Lastly, the 8 fat quarters to the lower left are some I picked out for the Convergence wallhanging that we FABS are doing--check out the ones that Norma has selected! Now to narrow down which weekend we are going to actually sew this!

I got home from GA at 5 our time, just in time to fix our supper. Playtime over! DJ was enjoying the good weather yesterday and getting the lawnmower ready for spring/summer. Here's my fella relaxing in his recliner this afternoon and Pippi, above, thinking about sunbathing in the doorway. It was gorgeous outside today--almost 70 by our thermometer though as I write this the sun is setting and it is cooling a bit. We opened up the windows for some fresh air this afternoon. He got in 9 holes of golf this morning having played only 3 times in February--a little rusty would be an understatement, he said. I walked in my shirt sleeves in the mid 50's. Storms may be on the way in come Tuesday--nothing lasts forever but we can enjoy it while we have it, right?

So, none of plans worked out this weekend but I did something better that I had no idea I would be doing. Nice break away from the home routine and a good day with a friend. I'll take it! Hope you had a good weekend in whatever you chose to do.