On the road again!

I had to title this "On the road again" because my mom always sings that when we are on a trip!  

Last week I took a little trip to Oklahoma to present to the Pioneer Area Quilter's Guild.  I also did a quick demo on paper piecing, which was fun.  It seems to me that people either love or hate paper piecing - there's not a lot of in-between.  Hopefully a few more people will give it a try after my demo.  It really isn't hard!  After my presentation and trunk show, we had plenty of time, so we (my mom was with me) headed to Pawhuska to visit the Pioneer Woman's Mercantile.  If you aren't familiar with her, follow the link and take a look at her blog.  She also has a book that is a fun read, and has published several cookbooks, and most recently, a child's book.  You can read all about The Mercantile there.  She also has a cooking show, which is kind of fun to watch.  Her recipes are all hearty, and not too difficult.  

These tiny little hexagon tiles made me think of quilting...

 Love the door - the whole building is so neat.  They did a beautiful job restoring it.

This picture was taken from the coffee/restaurant side, looking in to the shopping area.  When we got there, we sat down and had a latte.  It was perfect, and nice to just sit and look at the beautiful building.  We were really lucky - it was a Monday afternoon and it wasn't crazy busy, like I had heard it usually is!  All of the employees there were really friendly and nice - one of them told us that people sometimes wait in line 5 to 6 hours just to have supper there!  I can't imagine!  But, again - we were lucky and it was a slow day.

This was discovered when they renovated the building - National Biscuit Co (Nabisco) - I love that they preserved it.  I'm not sure what the story is on the flowers carved into the wall, but it was really neat.

I took this picture and sent it to my husband - he loves pineapple upside down cake!

This is upstairs in the bakery.  They had lots of yummy things to choose from and I love this big open room and those windows!

If you ever have the chance to go, I would recommend it - we really had a fun visit!  I did buy a few things, but guess I didn't take any pictures.  I found a huge stainless steel bowl  - we have several sizes, but I thought this big one will be perfect for gathering things from the garden.  Will have to take pictures of the other things to share with you later. 

When we left The Mercantile we drove around Pawhuska a little bit, but there is really nothing else there, at least not that we found.  I did hear that a quilt shop will be opening soon - so that's good news!  

The next day we were off to Emporia, KS.  We poked around a little in town before we went to our Bed & Breakfast, then back to town to set up and give my presentation that night to the quilt guild there - another fun group!  It's always fun to be able to see Show & Tell when I visit these groups.  So much talent!

I woke up several times in the night and heard it raining and it rained on us the whole way home.  It was super windy and not a very fun drive!

We had a good trip, but as always, I'm happy to be home and back to work!  I recently stitched these little 3/4" earrings - this is the first time I've ever made the kitty earrings. The hand stitching was a little challenging at first - kind of tiny!

 These bees have been so popular - I seem to sell them faster than I can make them.  This is the latest batch.  A few of them have sold - I know there is one on my website, but if you are interested in one that you see here, just send me an e-mail.

 We've sold a lot of these little binding boxes too.  They are 4" x 5" and include the hand made pin cushion (made by Aunt Nancy!) and Clover binding clips.  We initially made these for my Surprise program last year, and they went over so well, we kept making them.  They are now available on my website - with the goodies, and also just the empty box.

Speaking of Surprise - I'm working on shipping out the newest box.  It is a lot of work!  And they are getting very spoiled this time - I went overboard, but I couldn't help myself.  I will tell you more about that next time, after they have received their goodies (don't want to spoil the surprise here!).  If you aren't familiar with Surprise - it is a 6 month program, and you get a Surprise box every other month.  I choose things that I love and use, and things that we make.  I try to make something special that you won't already have. It's been really fun!  When I was at the show in Dallas, I had several people tell me that they were in the program and loved everything that they received.  That made me feel good - because I truly do put a lot of thought into it and want you to love the things that I send.

Isn't this stack of fabric pretty?  I have some designs running around in my head that will include most of these fabrics.  I probably won't have time to work on it until this summer, but until then I will just enjoy looking at them!

 Here is Ozzie - he usually comes to get me when he thinks it's bedtime!  Doesn't he look sleepy?

 Ahhhh...that's better - a little catnap on my quilt!  I need to finish the binding on this one, then I'll show you a picture of the whole thing.  It's definitely Ozzie approved!

 I have way too much going on here - it's about 4 different projects, and you can see that Callie likes to be right in the middle of it all!

 And this is what happens to good kitties gone bad.  Jail time!

Now I better get back to the shipping department (haha - oh how I wish I had a designated room for shipping - and someone to do it all!) and get more of those Surprise boxes out the door!

Hope you have a great day!