Road Trip - Day 3

First I need to tell you the name of our road trip.  We had been talking about taking this trip for months and started calling it The Great Road Trip, or TGRT for short.  Then one day while reading a blog I saw someone referred to a shopping trip as a fabric acquisition road trip - FART.  And so our trip quickly became...The Great Fart!

Ok, so back on track...day three - we kidnapped Lisa and headed to Green Bay to Quilters Connection, where Pam was expecting us.  She has a very nice shop, lots and lots of great samples, which you will see below (yes, I remembered to use my camera!).  She also bought lots of jewelry to take to a show the following weekend. 

The pattern with the crows in the red/tan/black came home with me

If you are ever in the area, make sure you stop and visit Quilters Connection - it is worth it - so much to look at!

Next we went to Kroll's for lunch - it's an old-timey diner that serves butter burgers and milk shakes.  Talk about a good burger! 

Then we were off to Kindred Spirits in Denmark, WI (where I forgot to use my camera!).  Sue also purchased some jewelry while we were there, and I found a magazine called A Simple Life - I have never seen this before - but it has antiques, early homes, history, etc.  I still haven't looked all the way through it, but so far it's quite interesting.  And, there's a cute little outhouse shown in there being used as a potting shed (for all of you who still think I'm crazy to have an outhouse in my yard!).

It was time to head back to Menasha - Lisa had an appointment at the shop.  We decided to hang out there and wait for her to finish.  I thought it was important to use my time wisely so, with much help from Cindy - I now have a kit of cotton and wool, and Valdani threads to go with the pattern that I purchased from Quilters Connection that morning!  You know, I really need more projects, right?

Earlier in the day, I had mentioned (whined) that the layer cake of Seasonal Little Gatherings fabrics (designed by none other than Lisa Bongean) that I bought did not have the little pumpkins or reindeer in it.  I guess I always assumed the precuts had all of the prints - WRONG!  I couldn't wait to use those tiny pumpkins in some centers of my jewelry.  Lisa assured me that she would give me some little pumpkins - then...we could see that she had a light-bulb-moment, when she said..."oooohhhh - this might be your lucky day!".  Well, if you know me...you know I like surprises, presents, or as she referred to them...prizes!  So all day she teased me about winning a prize.  I couldn't wait to see the prize!!! 

When we left the shop, we ran to Lisa's house and she let us play with the strike-offs of Seasonal Little Gatherings, and her newest line, that will be shown at Market in May - Old Glory Gatherings!!!  EXCITING!!  (If you haven't seen these - make sure to check out her blog - she shared pics of them last week).  She even let me choose the ones I thought I could make cool jewelry out of and gave me half of the pieces that she had!  Wow!!!  GENEROUS!  Ok, so I thought I was going to pass out from the excitement of all of this!  So, now I could no longer whine...I had pumpkins.  And reindeer.  And SHEEP!  SO CUTE!!!  We got to play with her puppies, Presley and Jeeter too - they are beautiful.  Love their shiny gray coats.  And it's always nice to get our "pet fix" while we are away from our own pets.  Kim is a huge pet lover too - so I think we were all happy!

Next we were on to the warehouse.  I thought the last stop was exciting - wait til' you see what happened during this stop!  This is all new to me, but evidently Moda sends the fabric designers "scraps" of their fabric lines.  These are pieces that are left over when they cut the pre-cuts.  Take a look at all of these...

HOLY MOTHER LODE OF FABRIC!!!  Yes, this was my prize!!!  All 3 boxes!   Luke had to load them in the car, as we could barely lift them.  They fit perfectly in the trunk, but we couldn't fit anything else in there!  Hmmmm...wonder how our luggage is going to get home? (I think Kim and I both had visions of our luggage being strapped to the top and the car bottoming out all the way home!) Oh well...we will worry about that later!  Needless to say...I don't think I will be running out of pumpkins and reindeer any time soon!  And...most of this is much more than scraps.  For my jewelry, I use pieces that are 3/4" to 1".  There are lots of those sizes, plus pieces that are a few inches wide - but there are also some that are much bigger!  I still haven't gotten through all of it - but I found one piece that is almost a half yard!  My husband said that I won't need to buy fabric ever again!

Wow...what a day!  See why my trip was so awesome?  Amazing quilt shops, fantastic food, wonderful and EXTREMELY GENEROUS people!  This is the Greatest Fart EVER!  Lol...

Have a great Sunday!!