Saturday, April 5, 2014

Happy Birthday to Me!



My birthday was actually April 3, but I have been a little remiss in writing my blog.  This year I treated myself to a few prezzies, as they say in England.  Ha!  Great opener!  I love it when my brain is ahead of myself.  Look!



Yep, it's Downton Abbey fabric, and it arrived ON my birthday!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!  I was ecstatic when I saw that Fat Quarter Shop had it.  I pinned it on my Pinterest page, and that pin has been the most repinned of all my pins. I by no means have a huge Pinterest page, but percentage-wise, that one is crazy popular! I have looked and looked at it, and mulled over a possible pattern, or three! This will be the backing, a great deal on 4.5 yards of fabric from Fat Quarter Shop.

I've finally decided on making a quilt designed by Angela Walters with my Downton Abbey fabric, but which pattern I'm keeping a secret!

I bought a Mary fat quarter bundle, and then I supplemented it with pieces from Edith, Sybil and the Dowager herself!  I am a nerd and I do not care.  Isn't the bottom green one just delicious?  It's Sybil's tapestry.  The more solid green matches the ivory at the top, called The Downton Flourish.  The lighter blue and the blue/purple are both Edith's, with the dark blue in between Mary's.  Then the lacy purple is the Dowager, and the darker purple just below the ivory is The Downton Tuft.  Honestly, I could buy all the choices, as it's so attractive.  You can see all the fabrics here.

So that was my main present to myself.  Joe says to just buy what I want for my birthday, so I did.

I also bought myself two books:

Both were used off Amazon, but you would never guess, as they are in such great condition.  I can't wait to read The Bat, the first Harry Hole novel.  I've seen two dolls made by a very talented friend of my friend Jude's, and they are unbelievably cool.  I plan to knit the yoga one for myself  ;-)  since I don't have a granddaughter yet.

And I got a nice surprise from my neighbour, Lorna:

Kalanchoe from the St. Patrick's Day party here in our 'hood, given to Lorna by some people who had won it, but were heading back up north. She already had won one, so gave this to me, knowing it was my birthday.  Very thoughtful of her!

But that's not all!

Inside the package with the Downton Abbey fabric, was this:


I'd bought the charm square pack a few weeks ago off Amazon, as a reward for making 2 of the 3 charm square quilts I'd brought down here, and having the 3rd well underway.  I also want to use it to write the pattern for "Hidden in Plain Sight".  Yes, that is a goal I didn't know I had:  to publish my very own design.  I've had a few people comment on how much they like that quilt, and where can they get the pattern, eeek!  So, I'm going to do it.  Either send it off to Moda, since I adore their fabric, and that's what I've used for both, or to Craftsy, and see what happens.

I love the Sphere line by Zen Chic.  I love the words fabric!!  It has all kinds of words for circles: infinity, space, globe, free, round, boundless. . . I love that.  I have always loved circles and all they symbolize.  The white fabric with light blue circles on it is NOT from this line, but I am starting to think it might be the backing for this quilt. I bought all they had left as a possible partial backing for "Over and Under", but I think it is too blue, not turquoise enough.  They only had 3 3/4 yards left, so I bought it all (on sale, yay), knowing I'd have to find some more, as I need 7 yards for the backing for that quilt! Ah well, if it doesn't go on "Over and Under", it just might be the back of this not-yet-invented-but-designed-by-moi quilt.

Here is "Over and Under" with that fabric, and a few others. . .

Well, wouldn't you know it, but a few pieces I'd ordered from ChristaQuilts! (just had to help her get rid of some more of her yardage that she's trying to clean out, lol) arrived on my birthday too!
In the picture above, there are two Kona cotton solid aquas, neither of which is an exact match to that in the quilt.  I do think the Pearl Bracelets fabric by Lizzy House is a definite possibility too as a backing.  I need to decide ASAP as Christa ships free within the US and we're only down here until mid-April.  All of this fabric is on sale, just the way I like it for backing.


Here are all the pieces I picked up from Christa's shop.  She is now selling precuts through Amazon.com, so check out her old shop as everything is on sale, at very very good prices.  I do think a Pearl Bracelets quilt is in my future, as I seem to have bought a few 1/2 yard cuts.  Hmm.  There are those circles again!

I had a great birthday.  Yoga, the dog beach where the dogs had a great swim, then one of the best, if not THE best massage I've ever had by a sweetheart, who spent over 20 years living in... yes, Detroit!  He came to my yoga class this morning, as he's never been to one, and has always wanted to, and he loved it.  He is a kindred spirit, for sure.
After my massage, we went for supper to Cafe Amalfi, an Italian restaurant I've wanted to try for years.  I finally got to, and it was just excellent.  We ate outside, on the patio.

 Yes, there was water in the lion fountain, such a pleasing sound.


I loved the décor.  Joe was rolling his eyes that I took some pics, but too bad, I did it very quickly.


I had Spinach lasagne, and it was perfection on a plate.

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty wonderful day.  :-)

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