life at its best!

Doesn't that make you want to go hug someone!!?

Already 1/2 a year old, and so happy that it makes him wiggly all over!  

When's the last time you felt that happy?!

And what could you do to make yourself feel that happy right now?

I know!  A trip to the quilt shop!  Last week our group of 6 friends visited the Perham, MN store, Bay Window Quilts.  This is a great destination quilt shop.  Perham is smallish city in west central MN.  It's right on the railroad and a main highway, so it's a hub for people in the area.  5 of us drove from Blaine to Nancy's house on Big Swan Lake in Todd County, northwest of St. Cloud if you are looking at a map.  We are a group who have become friends through quilting.  So it was only natural that the next day we set out for about 1.5 hours drive to Perham with the goal of romping through the fabric!  They have a good selection of types and styles of fabric, including quite a bit of flannel and "fluffy stuff" - i.e., Minkee/Cuddle/fleecy fabrics.

I don't get to shop in other stores very often, since I'm in my very favorite store to work a few times a week.  On our trip to Oregon, we actually were in 10 different quilt shops which is a treat for me.  I approach that kind of shopping excursion differently than a lot of quilters, because I end up looking at displays, brands, patterns, etc., that I can take pictures of to bring ideas home with me.

But before going to Bay Window, I decided that my mission would be to add to my stock of orange-ish fabric because when I did my last culling through the stash, it was low on orange.

I came away with a bit more than orange!  Here's a pattern for a dress that they displayed, and it looked like it would be comfortable and not so hard to make.  The 4 little fabrics in front were in a bundle that was my reward for spending enough money!

I did find some good oranges in small amounts to be used in some paper piecing--

I also bought a spool of thread that I want to try for paper piecing.  It's 60 wt. cotton from Presencia.  Under the spool is a piece of nice woven brushed cotton flannel that I can use for a winter scarf or 2 or 4.  The gray cloud fabric was purchased to go with the moon panel below --

the gray will make a nice border for a wall hanging for one of my walls.

We ate lunch right across the street at a very good little cafe called Whisk.  We all recommend it!

When I returned home, I found that the caterpillar that I found on a milkweed by my driveway and metamorphosed into a chrysalis!  According to what I have read, it should take about 10 days to turn into a monarch butterfly.

If this video works right, it will show a time lapse of this very interesting transformation!