Tea, For Me!!

I am a tea drinker. And I have my favorites! I am always on the look out for new things though--

Just recently I came across Yogi Egyptian Licorice tea. I love the flavor of black licorice, and I know as an herb, it is touted to do a number of things:

“Licorice is useful for many ailments including asthma, athlete's foot, baldness, body odor, bursitis, canker sores, chronic fatigue, depression, colds and flu, coughs, dandruff, emphysema, gingivitis and tooth decay, gout, heartburn, HIV, viral infections, fungal infections, ulcers, liver problems, Lyme disease, menopause, psoriasis, shingles, sore throat, tendinitis, tuberculosis, ulcers, yeast infections, prostate enlargement and arthritis.”

Sounds like a total cure-all doesn’t it? Well I don’t know about old wives' tales, but you see that word MENOPAUSE in there?? I figure it’s worth a try! I just know I like the flavor of this tea….

So while we are on the subject of tea, I want to show you what Kathy made me! She first showed me this Tea Wallet during our Star Struck workshop in Wallingford, and I fell in NEED for one!

Isn’t this cute? It has all these pockets that will hold your tea bags, your splendas, etc….Love it!

The sides fold in like this…….into thirds…..and then:

And into thirds again, and look, it fastens with this adorable button!! Can’t you see all kinds of possibilities for these? They can hold other things besides tea too…..

So Saturday, at the workshop…..Kathy walked in with a whole boat load of these goodies, and told me to PICK A COLOR!!

I chose the red one with the big recycled brass button on it! Don’t you love this print?!

I also love the fabric she used as the lining….and it came with a couple of tea bags to get me started! I need to put some of my new Egyptian Licorice tea in the pockets and slip this into my purse so I am ready for tea on the go…

Don’t you just love the nifty cute things that Quilters come up with?

Today I am off to meet with the CT Piecemakers for a lecture/trunkshow this morning…it’s a whole new group to meet, and I can’t wait to get started!

Playing With Jacks Day!

Yesterday was the Playing With Jacks workshop with the Heritage Quilters in Wallingford, CT!

What a fun way to explore color, value, layout, variations, everything! Where there are lots of designs that make it hard to know if a Jelly Roll or Bali Pop will work due to the unknown nature of what strips are contained depending on fabric line, amount of lights/darks, variety, etc…This class is a GREAT one for them. We use the easy angle ruler so the 2.5” strips work for 1/2 square triangles…and the chains up through the center of each block only require 3 2.5” squares…so even short strips can be put to good use. We just had a great time!

I love catching pictures of the blocks in progress---first some units, then one block, then a few blocks, and by the end of the afternoon whole layouts are starting to happen and come together.

I love walking amongst the students and catching little snippets of conversation, and laughter and friendships being formed, strengthened, support, love, caring---Quilters are just amazingly resilient people who are THERE for each other. I could tell that this is a very close knit and welcoming group, just by observing all that was going on around me through the past few days.

		Playing With Jacks, Wallingford CT, 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I also did a bit of damage at the guild sale table……they were selling bundles of 20 FQ’s for $18!!

How could I not HELP the local guild fund raising efforts?

There are some real goodies in here, including some old calicoes I absolutely loved from the 80s & 90s. How old does a fabric have to be to be considered VINTAGE?!

And yes, even in this bundle….there was a sneaky piece of Millennium Y2K fabric that has now found its way back into my stash, after I swore I had used all that my fabric hoard posessed! LOL! I think there is a conspiracy to have me never be OFFICIALLY “out” of Millenium fabric….it goes right up there in line with the “lucky cows” !!

After the workshop, I was chauffeured down to Yankee Cloth in Wallingford—If you ever have a chance to go, DO! It’s a wonderful shop in a terrific old house in the historic area of Wallingford, and I’ve never been in a more welcoming shop where I felt like I was “home!”

My pics aren’t as good as the ones on the shop website, this was late afternoon and the light outside was all wrong for detail shots, but wouldn’t you like to come spend some time on this front porch? Here in the door way is my chaperone Sue, making sure I don’t get into too much trouble, and the shop owner, Nancy, who was as sweet as she could be!

The whole house/shop is full of all kinds of different fabrics, and I found myself up at the sale area unable to break away! I found some deals too good to pass up for quilt backs, and some pieces where I just had to take “what’s left on the bolt” because I couldn’t bear to leave it!

I absolutely LOVED the blue piece on the far left…and that checkerboard thing toward the right….that is going to be an awesome back as well. And the paisley? Who can resist a good neutral paisley! But I tell you what..I’m going to have to reign in my self control, or my car won’t be able to contain it all!

OH---got a funny call this morning from DH who says “How do I run this floor steamer?” Ummm, you put water in it and you turn it on and you wait for steam I honestly wish I was there to witness this! Even better is that I didn’t have to be there to do it! Thank you, DH for being there to hold down the fort while I follow my dreams. It means more than you will ever know.

Check out time is in 50 minutes, I’m packing my bags, loading up the car, and making my way toward Trumbull CT where I’ll be spending the next couple of days with the CT Piecemakers!

Whadda Day!!

I got back to the room so late last night that I couldn’t even bother to turn the computer on! I’ve got 1/2 hour before being picked up for today’s Playing With Jacks workshop, so I need to get this down quickly!

Just let it be said that Quilters know how to fill a day to overflowing with fun, fabric, and fantastic company!

Yesterday’s Star Struck workshop was full, and we had a great time!

And in case you hear rumors that I was found to be dumpster diving….It’s TRUE! And I admit it…straight up! And yes, if you heard that I even told Mia to “BACK AWAY FROM THE TRASH BIN!!” as I was salvaging---that would be TRUE TOO!! I’m not ashamed to admit it…there was some GOOD STUFF being tossed away, and because I DO use scraps in all their shapes and forms and sizes, and get great enjoyment from the variety, and can’t twist my arm to sew from “just plain ole planned yardage” I’m happy to take the trash can approach to quilting!

Let’s just say that a very large grocery bag is stuffed fuill of the pieces, and has been added to by other quilters who just had strips they wanted to get rid of. I only wish I had brought my machine to sew with on this trip so I could dig in, but I brought those two Japanese quilts with me to finish the binding on……and….alas…I haven’t been able to sit at them yet anyway! Maybe tonight?

Here are the pics from the workshop!

		Wallingford CT, April 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Not only did we have blocks being sewn together left and right, but I've got a whole nuther bunch of gals using "triangle buddies" to save all their bonus triangles in readily useable sizes! Woot! As an addict, it's nice to find other addicts that share my obsession!

There was just a short time between the ending of the workshop, and the time we needed to arrive at our destination for the lecture. I was planning on…..oh about 65 people, about average, right? Well…they had sold tickets for something like 220 people!!! All of a sudden you could color me VERY NERVOUS!

But it was a wonderful face paced evening, and all had a good time!

Today we are back at it….and I need to dry my hair, put a face on and get this day going while this pics are uploading so I’m going to turn it over here, and wish you all a terrific weekend!