The town of Napa - The old and the new

The old Napa, the way I remember it...
The saddle shop on Main Street where I always dreamed of buying a silver belt buckle--the store is gone, along with several other stores.

The Napa Mill and Granary where my Dad and I bought a bale or two of hay for our horse, is now a beautiful hotel on the river front.  We always loaded the hay in the trunk of our Ford automobile.

The beautiful dress shop where I bought the lace blouse for my wedding is a deserted store.

The Rexall Drug store on the corner is gone but the building has been restored and painted.

Rexall Drug Store on the corner with the awning

Enjoying the Treasures of Family and Friends

View of Napa countryside

Why have I let the entire month of August pass by without any posts?  I was spending time with family and friends in northern California.  One Sunday afternoon, on a delightful sunny day, I had the pleasure of sharing my love of quilting with three of my nieces.  We all got together to make Table Toppers and Placemats.  Being the teacher meant I could enjoy the process of what everyone was making.  I had always read about other families getting together to work on quilting projects together and this month, it became a reality.

One evening, my sister and I watched the movie, Julie and Julia.  I had seen it before several years ago but I enjoyed seeing it again.

Planning ahead helped make things happen....
My sister and I were able to see our twin cousins, whom we had not seen in ten years.  Several of my friends from 7th grade were able to gather for lunch and/or dinner in the Napa Valley Wine Country.  You can always tell true friendship when the conversation just picks up from where you left off the last time you've seen each other.
  

Got It Done in July

1)  Finished Table Toppers
2)  Cleaned up part of my sewing room
3)  Finished a "surprise" for my friend

Darling little project for a sweet little girl

In June, I attended the TVQA Spring Seminar in Murfreesboro.  This is when I took the "Over the Rainbow" quilt class.  Anytime quilters arrive at a gathering, we can always look forward to Fabric Vendors.  "Fabric N Quilts" came all the way from Jamestown, TN.  There were a couple of fabric pieces that caught my eye.  Here is the piece that I plan to work with first.  Actually, I may not have purchased this fabric but she had the little fabric dolls made up and their clothing attached with velcro.  I couldn't resist!

Flat Dolls fabric

Light Bulb Moment

After taking a picture for Design Wall Monday, I discovered one Blah block, so I looked through the box for another fun fabric and I found light bulbs.  What cute fabric!  So another 9-patch block was made and switched for the blah block.  I am happy with the lay-out.

Light Bulb Fabric

Design Wall Monday Revised

Design Wall Monday

Dancing 9-patches...

Dancing 9 Patch

Oh, what to do with all these 9-patch blocks sewn together by several ladies from our sewing group.  Jill has an AccuCut machine and cut hundreds of (3 1/2 inch squares).  We considered just sewing them together but then I found this neat pattern on Bonnie Hunter's website called Dancing Nine Patch!
The pattern is listed under "Free Patterns".  Hopefully, the link I have added will work for you.  I still need to add a small blue border and her neat piano key border.  Can this be done before tomorrow's sewing day?

 Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville Blogspot free-patterns

Good thing, I put all the blocks up on the Design Wall because I see a "Blah" block in the lower right corner.
It has no contrast!  No problem.  There are many more blocks to choose from in the box. I had better get busy.

Go check out what others are doing today at:
Patchwork Times.com

Table Tops ready for quilting

Yesterday, I worked on completing 3 more Table Toppers that were on my Design Wall on Monday.  They just need to be sandwiched and quilted.  I changed the strips on two of the toppers and I'm much happier with the results.

Table Toppers  July 2013