Tri-County Quilt Tour 2012

It's that time of year again. The Tri-County Quilt Tour was this past week (Wednesday to Saturday). This is for Whatcom, Skagit, and Snohomish counties in Washington State. There were 13 participating quit shops in all three counties. How it works is you go to each quilt shop and they give you a pattern exclusively for thier shop. You collect all 13 patterns and make a quilt in your color preference, fabrics, etc. You get to view each shops version of all the quilt tops put together in thier own color choice, fabrics, layouts, etc. They sure are creative. The theme for this year was Sew Northwest. I liked them all but a few were standouts for sure. One had each of the blocks reduced and added to the side of a house block. Very cute. One was done up in great browns and light green batiks. Beautiful. One was done with each row a scrappy row of three different colors (red, purple, and blue) However, the most amazing quilt top was one done with a seascape and reduced blocks in the sky the sea and the sand. VERY clever and innovative. I will post pictures once I get them downloaded.

I was finally able to go on the Quilt Tour with my 82 year old Mother-in-Law Gladys. We had the best time. She has never been to most of the shops we visited. I even took the time to take her to a couple of shops that were on the tour a couple of years ago but don't do it anymore. We went down to the farthest one away on Wednesday and finished up the 6 we couldn't get to on Friday. We had a spectacular time. We lunched at Applebees and just laughed and ooh and awed all day long for 2 days. Fun times had by both of us.

This year they gave away charms with a $10 purchase. We didn't realize it at the first shop so we ended up with 12 charms. They were really cute. Scissors, spools of thread, sewing machines - one new, one vintage, quilt blocks, etc. Very Very fun.

Sent several packages today

I am so excited. I sent several packages today out to wonderful ladies in my FLICKR grougps swaps and bees. I am in Gone Quilting which is a virtual bee. I sent the block to Debbie and 2 blocks to Alisha. Both were great blocks. Here is a picture of them. Unfortunately, Alisha's wonky star blocks sat in the envelope to be mailed for a few days before I realized I hadn't gotten a picture of them so they are a little wrinkled. She used Riley Black Promenade fabrics for the stars. Very cute.

I also sent out 11 wonky star blocks to the Scrap Happy group. I will get 11 blocks back that have been constructed by other quilters. Too cool. I hope we do this again so I can complete the quilt made with these. I will have to post pictures tomorrow.