Humidity and quilt markings

yep, you guessed it...I hauled my hand quilting project (first one in over a year!) to SC last weekend to work on. I never got to it...so I brought it with me to San Antonio. I pulled it out of the bag and guess what? Most of my markings are gone!! ACCKKK!! I knew it was hot and humid, in fact, the TV said it was 100% humidity. Doesn't that usually mean it's raining? I guess not--but it was wet enough to make my markings made with a WATER erasable pen disappear. Now I've had AIR erasable pen markings go away after less than 24 hours, but never the water ones. And of course I had marked all my cables at home (stencil not with me). I did have a small ruler with me, so I could mark the straight lines. And on a side note to self: don't take so long inbetween hand quilting sessions--the lack of quilting is showing up in my stitches! AND the callouses will come back.

I did get a chance to go visit a few quilt shops in San Antonio. All I can say is Thank Goodness for TomTom's! Set with addresses loaded in, I took off from the downtown area. First stop, Creative Sewing Center. Nice big store that sells Berninas, Brothers and HQ16's, they had a nice selection of fabric. I'm not an Oriental lover, but they had more than I have seen in one location. Of course, lots of variety everywhere. I limited myself to a yard and a half of fabric for an apron (I got the pattern free if I bought the fabric--good deal, huh?) and then started the argument with myself after drooling over some yummy black and whites. And a gorgeous white on white that would be awesome for backgrounds. I bet I spent 1/2 hour debating whether I should get some fabrics--just because. I've been so good all year...using up so much stash.... but I have a whole closet full of pretty fabrics..and on and on in my head. I finally ended up buying 1/2 yard pieces of 8 different blacks/whites and 3 yards of that yummy WOW (background, ya know?). So..I added 7 yards to my total. Do I feel bad? a little--but I'll get over it! :)

Second stop: Seventh Heaven..a little bit deceiving when you see it and walk in the store. It's a deep store that keeps on going. They did have the new line of Kaffe's fabric, but I demonstrated great will power and resisted. I did pick up a fall charm pack--not bad.

Third stop: Plain Jane's....I thought I blew it on this store--I was in an Industrial area with all kinds of warehouses, etc. Tom said I was there--and the address was correct, but all I saw out front was a wooden shutter. As I was turning around, thinking it must be out of business, I saw the sign sitting on the ground..Plain Jane's. What a quaint store! Lots of antiques, old suitcases, shutters, and the neatest old small wire carts (like little grocery carts), all chock full of FQ's, jelly rolls and Layer Cakes. Admittedly a "folk art" store with lots of homespuns, civil war reproductions, it was still a fun store to poke around. One of the owner's was there, cutting up FQ's--she said they have a booth at the Houston Festival and they have to get a good jump start. No wonder they look familiar, I'm sure I've seen them before. A bonus: they had a sale bin and she had a bundle of FQ's of bright's from a line of Citrus or something that was 1/2 price! I picked up a bundle to go with a charm pack that I've had for a while. Add 2 more yards to the total...oh well. :)

Fourth stop: Memories by the yard:(sorry--no link for them) another warehouse area and when I walked in, all I saw were home dec rolls. But quickly saw quilt fabrics in a nice bright area. There were quite a few samples and had great eye candy. They recently had a Shop Hop and they had a nice looking quilt featuring Texas style blocks. One of the few sampler type quilts that I actually liked. I was tired by then and was a little worried about getting back to the downtown area before rush hour began, so slipped out of there empty handed.

All in all, a good day and not too much damage to my stash busting efforts. And was able to enjoy another city's selections of quilt shops. I missed a few, but I figure that means I might have to return one day!