Block Swap!!!!!!!!!

Scottie Dog Quilts is hosting a 1930's block swap!

What is a block swap, you ask? Swap participants make a set of 8 identical blocks using the pattern provided. Blocks are turned in by the deadline and a few days later, you will receive 8 blocks back. They will all be the same pattern, but made with different fabrics. If you want more than 8 blocks, you can make additional sets, up to 10 sets. To make the quilt pictured, you will need to make 6 sets, that way you will receive 48 different blocks back.

The deadline to turn in blocks will be October 22. If you are mailing your blocks please mail them early enough to allow sufficient time to reach us by the 22. Make sure you provide a SASE with proper return postage. If you are a local participant, you can just drop your blocks off at the store.

Once you sign up, we need you to follow through. If you commit and then do not turn in blocks, there will not be enough blocks to swap. If for any reason you do sign up and something comes up, let me know ASAP.

If you have more questions, ask away. If you think you would like to sign up or want more info, you can email me at radromy@aol.com. I will email you the pattern and instructions. Or if you are local, just stop by the store and ask for the swap packet.

I am so excited and can't wait to see all of the beautiful blocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A super great day at the Humboldt County Fair

Today we went to the fair to demo our AccuCut die cutting machine. Steve and Sydney rode rides while we did our demo. Sydney announced she was going to ride 600 rides. I'm not sure she met her goal, but she did a little bit of everything at the fair.

First on her list was a hot dog for lunch. She ate all but one bite! Then it was off to ride some of the rides with her Daddy!

Sydney LOVED the "horsies." I didn't realize my big four year old wanted to ride by herself. She did not want her mama standing next to that horse while she rode. I was relegated to outside the fence. What happened to my dependent little baby?

So after many, many rides, we headed over to the livestock barns to look at the animals. I loved visiting the animals when my parents used to take me to the fair. Sydney wanted to take home a rabbit. We said NO.

So while we are in the barns, two little girls come up to us and tell us they are giving miniature pony rides in the arena. It's only $2, she says. That sounded like fun, so we followed the girls through a maze of pens into a back area and just as we were starting to wonder where we were going, another girl shows up with two cute little ponies. One girl asks us for the $2, so I paid her and they put a helmet on Sydney and helped her on the horse. I took out the camera to take a picture and a third little girl who couldn't be more than six says, "usually pictures are an extra $2, but I'll throw it in for free." Suddenly as I look around I realize that there are no adults around and all of these girls are barefoot. The little girl started telling me how her rides were the best deal at the fair because they were really long and they weren't ponies tied to a chain. Then I noticed the sign that said "No riding in arena without written permission from office." She kept telling me how she would even let the pony trot with Sydney because Sydney was four. I could tell this little girl had been on the fair circuit for awhile and was a little sales person in training. Hopefully the horses did belong to these girls, but either way, I had to admire their entrepreneurial spirit. Sydney had a great pony ride and I have to admit, it did beat the little ponies chained to the wheel. But I did kind of wonder where those ponies came from.....

It was a hot day for Humboldt County, so we decided to get ice cream. Sydney chose chocolate. After she got her cone, we saw a little dog show and stopped to watch. They asked for volunteers from the audience and Sydney desperately wanted to be picked. She is the girl on the far end in the light pink shirt. A little terrier did tricks and jumped back and forth over the girls.

I really never thought I'd see these again!

So I went to the fair today. And here's one thing about the fair; for the junior high kids, it's an early preview for back to school wear. I'm not a big fashionista, but I do realize that the tapered leg jean has been coming back into style. It's not my fave, I don't think it looks that great on me, but fine, whatever. I was dealing with that until I saw something today that weirded me out just a bit.

From the time I was about 12½ to about 14½, all of the best jeans had zippers on the bottoms of the legs. This was so that instead of pegging our pants to make them as tight as possible around the ankle, we could zip them on tight. That's right, my L.A. Gear Jeans were zipped as tight around my ankles as they could be without cutting off the blood supply. My mom always told me that fashion just keeps repeating itself. I guess she's right. I really never thought I would see these again. But there it was in line for the ferris wheel. Zippered legs. There's only two differences to my junior high days and this girl's. Her zippered jeans have the zippers on the inside of the leg, vs. my day when they were on the outside or the back (sometimes with a heart cutout at the top to show a little bare leg) and we wore slouch socks over the top of the jean, while she clearly wears hers underneath the leg.

So on what has been a fantastic day at the fair, a little walk down memory lane was fun!

So I know I have been totally slacking on the blog.....

It's been a busy summer. That's putting it mildly. That's my excuse. Quilt Camp, The REQG quilt show, Kids Quilt Camp, The Stitch & Snip Craft Extravaganza, Fortuna Guilds Market Night, a couple of camping trips and a Quilting cruise to Alaska have been keeping me a little busy. Not to mention all of the planning for the Fall schedule at Scottie Dog Quilts. It has been one busy Summer.

We kicked off Summer with a family and friends camping trip to Watts Lake where my husband tore his hamstring right as we started packing up for home. He made a lot of loud noises and didn't look so hot. So after we made the three hour trip home we spent four more in the urgent care.

Quilt Camp was the next weekend, and it was a blast. In between trips home to deliver meals to my husband who was under strict orders to stay off his feet, BrendaLou and I taught a great pattern from Moda called "Sweet."

Then came Fourth of July where Sydney rode in her first parade and became a pro at flag waving.

Then off to vend at the Redwood Empire Quilt Guilds 2009 quilt show at Redwood Acres. On Saturday of the show, Sydney was asked to ride in the parade at the Fortuna Rodeo and to bring her flag to wave.

The next week was The Snip & Stitch Craft Extravaganza presented by the Crafty Mavericks and Arcata Main Street. This was a great Craft show on the Arcata Plaza where we sold lots of kits and had a chance to talk to a lot of crafters and let them know about our store. The same week, we packed up and went to the Fortuna Guilds Market night.

On to Kids Quilt Camp. This year we used our AccuCut die cutting machine and cut out rag quilts. The die has the raggy edges pre-cut, so the girls sewed their quilts together and then threw them in the washing machine. They made cell phone totes as well.

With Kids Camp over, we flew into Cruise mode to get everything packed for the cruise. It takes a large amount of luggage to pull off a quilting cruise. There were all the supplies for the classes and boxes and boxes of fun giveaways for all the participants. Many of the wonderful companies that we do business with sent great gifts. I tried to explain to the hotel that would be delivering us to the pier how much luggage we had. (19 pieces of checked luggage, some were large trunks.) She said, "It's a cruise. Everyone has a lot of luggage." Needless to say, when they saw how much luggage we had, they had to schedule a new van. The cruise was absolutely wonderful and exceeded my expectations. I will blog much more about that in the week to come.