Saturday, December 16, 2006

A friend from across "the big pond"

Cathi, Cher and I had a great time today. I was afraid our weather might prevent us from getting together, but mother nature cooperated. While the northwest was starting to clean up from Thursday nights storm we got rain, hail sunshine and snow on Friday. It was one of those "just wait 5 minutes" kind of days. This morning we had heavy frost on top of the snow remnants making for very slippery roads in our area. I left at least 20 minutes earlier than necessary just in case, then made it over to Beaverton, Oregon almost 25 minutes before meeting time.

Cher and Cathi knocked on my CRV window about 8:55. Cathi looked remarkably awake and alert for someone who'd had just over 2 hours sleep after a 21 hour trip from Ireland with her husband and two preschool daughters. We walked down the mall to Starbucks where we had coffee, cocoa and pastries - the perfect way to start a quilty day! Cher brought a couple quilts to show, including one for her precious granddaughter Alice plus her wonky African Village with lettering ala Tonya. Cathi brought us each a cute Christmas tree ornament - one of the ones she posted recently on her blog. We took pictures of each other, then imposed on one of the patrolmen you can see in the background of the first picture to take one of all three of us.

After coffee Cher took us to a neat quilt shop in Beaverton that I'd never been to before. We all found things to spend money on - of course! I thought I was pretty good - I didn't buy any fabric. I bought three stencils, a couple patterns and a set of stitchery patterns for "snowmen of the month". They had lots and lots of nice fabric - including "my kind", which is so different from what Cher likes - but I was good and stayed away from it.

From there Cher and I decided to take Cathi to The Pine Needle in Lake Oswego. Lake Oswego is one of the "ritziest" parts of the greater Portland metropolitan area. Definitely a place "where the other half lives". The shop is marvelous and incredibly decorated, with marvelous samples all over. They were featured in one of the Better Homes and Gardens Quilt Sampler magazines a year or two ago. I taught a few quilt classes there in the very early 90's, and haven't been there for years. It's not a place one should go if one is on a "fabric diet". I steeled myself to be good before we walked in the door, knowing it would be tough. Well, I caved within the first 5 minutes - and it was just because Cher kept saying "you really need this Patti". In a display near the front door was a marvelous group of flannels with teddy bear prints and coordinates - perfect for Christmas cuddle quilts for a new grandson and granddaughter. How could I resist? I've got next to nothing in my stash suitable for babies. Between now and next Christmas I should be able to put together a couple simple quilts, don't you think? One of them features framed scenes with teddy bears building snowmen, sledding , etc. I immediately saw scrappy variable stars with a different teddy bear scene in the center of each one. So I walked out of there a short time later with two bags of flannels for grandbabies. There was no way this grandmother-to-be could resist!

We had a marvelous lunch in a restaurant overlooking Lake Oswego that Cher recommended. It was in the middle of a bunch of wonderful looking shops which we bravely walked past - except for one yarn shop where Cathi got yarn for socks. We parted just before 3:00 after a wonderful day together. Internet quilty friends are marvelous - and especially wonderful when you get to meet them in person!

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

hee hee, quilty friends are the worst for getting us to buy stuff LOL. Sounds like a very busy wonderful day!

Anonymous said...

Patti you look nothing like I expected! But no one ever does!

Congrats on being so 'strong' in the first shop and LOL at 'caving' in the second shop!! Sounds like divine flannel though. As you say, perfect for grandkids' quilts!

You inspired my purchase today - I bought some purples and green for a baby quilt I'm making after Christmas. Will post some pix after then. Thanks for the inspiration!

Anonymous said...

What a fun day you had! I would have been right there with you buying that fabric. There is something about this grandbaby that just takes over. I told my son he just can't have too many quilts. I've never experienced anything like this...he has my heart.

Anonymous said...

how nice to meet up with internet quilty friends. Sounds like you all had a great day. Nice to see the photo of the three of you.

Anonymous said...

How wonderful to meet up with quilty friends. I was able to do that a few times this past summer and truly enjoyed the day.

Anonymous said...

What a treat to spend the day with friends - whipped cream and a cherry on top to spend the day with friends at quilt shops. Sounds like all 3 of you must have had a wonderful time *s*

Anonymous said...

sounds like a great time was had by all -- what a great Christmas gift to each other :-)

Anonymous said...

Of course you can't pass up finding something that works so well together and you might never see again!!

Glad that you laodes had a great day! It shows in your pictures!

Anonymous said...

How wonderful that you guys were able to get together and it looks like you all had so much FUN! Yeah!
Cheers!

Evelyn

Anonymous said...

Oh, your day together sounds like so much fun. Not only do you have fabric to make quilts for grandchildren, but when you work on them you can remember your special shopping trip.

Anonymous said...

Oh how fun Patti! Sounds like it was a wonderful day. And so far your purple blocks look great!

Anonymous said...

Patti, don't forget to send those photos of us to me-as my camera was not working that day! It was certainly a wonderful day-I hope I get to see Cathi one more time before she heads back over the pond :-)-glad to see you have started a quilt for Sophie!

Anonymous said...

Oh Patti---Cher trying to lead you astray like that. Nice of her to find you things like that when she is well aware of your tastes in fabric. Her being the "brights" girl did you have to pull her off the fabrics for Alice? She already knows what fun it is being a Nonna.

And so cool that you three could get together while Cathi was in the PNW. I wondered if all that wind and rain made their flight trecherous---but I guess they arrived after that.

Anonymous said...

Oh fun to meet your quilty bloggy friends IRL! And sprinkle coffee, lunch and a quilt shop to that day and boy what a great day for you all! I love the pics... I like seeing what bloggy friends look like. Is that you in the Christmas sweeter in the Starbucks photo?

I'm glad you did well in the "Nellie" storm. It seems like Vancouver got hit hard (from what I saw on the news). We had about 5 minutes of snow too. Wild stuff!

Anonymous said...

That sounds like so much fun. I would love to meet an online quilty friend IRL. If you come to Maine look me up. I'll take you to Marden's and really lead you astray.