Big Nutty Quilter: Shop Hopping, Darlene Zimmerman and the sewing machine

Wow, has this been a great long weekend!! I took Thursday and Friday off due to a need for some fun for me. I was checking out Tula Pink's fb page and she said she had been in Onalaska, WI visiting a shop called The Olive Juice Quilt Shop, well I got curious. looked it up online, got directions on mapquest and made plans for my day off !! It took about 1 1/2 hours to get there. I drove down the Minnesota side to get there and boy did it rain cats and dogs! I later found out Winona, MN had 1 1/2 inches that day.

The Olive Juice had all kinds of fabrics, many of my favorites, many designers, Tula, Amy, Kaffe, Valorie just to name a few. It was truely a feast for the eyes!! I probably lingered there about 1 1/2 hours trying to take everything in, and let me tell you, when I go back I am sure I will see lots more things I didn't realize were there before. I loved it and the ladies there were so nice. I definately came home with some goodies and some great ideas!!! I found out at this time I am very fond of the designers of Basic Grey by Moda, I seemed to draw to many of their lines, love it!! I loved alot of things there!!

Friday day I did some real spring cleaning pulling things out from everywhere most of the day, but the grand Finale was going to The Burlington Hotel Quilt Shop in Alma, WI as they were having a lecture and trunk show by Darlene Zimmerman!!!! She was talking about how ho-hum quilt tops and become Oh Wow!! She talked about colors, borders, sashing, layouts. All variables that we can choose to make a quilt really wonderful. She also had 3 huge stacks of quilts she showed different techniques and ideas with and it was so nice!! It lasted about 1 1/2 hours and then the shop stayed open for us to of course shop. I just needed some solid grey so I bought that and a few patterns from Darlene - Hankypanky and Teatime. I also got some of her newest line of fabric too to use in the future. She was truley a delightful woman, funny, delicate in her ways, and so willing to visit and help us clarify our thoughts.

While I was visiting waiting for fabric to be cut out, I realized Darlene's 30's repo fabrics were what initially drew me into quilting in a gang busters way. I loved the colors and remember stopping at the biggest fabric store I had ever been to when Matthias was 5 years old in Charlotte North Carolina. It was as big as a department store and when we were in Greenville, South Carolina everyone kept telling me I had to go to Charlotte, NC to this huge fabric store, which of course I did!! I bought several 1 yard pieces of her fabrics and that was the real beginning to my fabric stash!! Wow, what memories popped out thinking about her fabrics.

I also have had the pleasure of sewing on projects this weekend. I am making a fabric basket for a swap I joined in. I finally figured out the fabrics I wanted to use and finished getting my last 2 supplies needed today at the fabric store in Eau Claire. Now I am ready to finish what I started!! I also have some other blocks I have finished, they are below.