Road 2 CA!

I went to Road 2 CA on Friday and WOW. WOW. This show was amazing! Far better than the International Quilt Show in Long Beach. For those of you not familiar with Road 2 CA, its a large quilt related show that has hundreds of vendors and anything you can dream of to buy...and usually each retailer has a show related deal that is amazing and you cannot get the deal anywhere else. There were a couple of really cool vendors that I want to tell you about.

First off, Little Windows. Ok, now I saw these guys at the Long Beach show and I was only mildly interested. Now, in the last 6 months since that show, I have imagined all these cool things I can do with it and I had a million questions for the vendor when I was there. And guess what? I got it...stay tuned to see what cool things I make with it. I'm not sure about what pictures I can use to show you what it does, since I have not yet made any, so I will just put this one pic I found on google images up and then click on their link above to see all the other cool stuff it does.  You can make anything you can imagine, such as rings, keychains, necklaces, ornaments, anything you can imagine really!
What I plan to do is to make some buttons for this jacket I want to make soon. I got this great black and orange argyle print fabric and I really wanted glittery, heart shaped buttons. Little Windows to the rescue! I plan to make some heart shaped domed pieces with orange glitter in them or an orange glittery piece of paper in it and then drill the holes to make buttons. They will be beautiful!  I can also put some skull pictures in the molds and have fun skully jewelry..all kinds of things. It looks like so much fun!

Also, I have been very into puzzles lately. It has been puzzle after puzzle at my house! So at the show I found all these cool fabric and quilt related puzzles to do. I'm so excited! I don't remember the name of the vendor but they only do shows and nothing online so I cannot refer you to them anyway.

Next I saw this absolutely gorgeous quilt jewelry made of clay. Sooo beautiful! The company is called Quilted in Clay. The colors and jewelry is so vibrant and the quilt blocks and designs are so sharp yet tiny. It's really amazing. I meant to go back and pick up some because I was rushing through on my first run and then I ran out of time!!  But I will be perusing the website and picking something up. Especially since she now makes my favorite quilt block--Snails Trail. The picture to the side is a beautiful brooch.

I also took a lecture on thread while I was there from the owner of Superior Threads. I received my very own Phd. in Threadology. I am now an expert! I had learned all the information before partly from researching many sites and watching the lecture they have posted on YouTube. Hearing it all again is so helpful. So many people do not realize how much of a part thread plays in making your machine and projects run smoothly. Here is one major tip. Use a topstitch needle!!! For everything except knits or extreme thicknesses and layers. For knits use a ballpoint/stretch (same thing) and extreme thicknesses use a jeans needle. Otherwise, for everything, use a topstitch needle!

At another vendor, there were these incredibly cool patterns at this vendor called The Vintage Spool. This spectacular pattern developed as a BOM (Block of the Month) called Happy Hauntings. It is a lot of applique but for someone like me who loves Halloween..this pattern is perfect!  The way it is made is softer, muted colors and made to go with many kinds of decor. Even more my style is their new pattern called Eeeek! If you go to the link, the quilt is the second picture down and so bright and colorful! And with a little vampire and my favorite part??  The poisons at the bottom...so cute!

Lastly, I bought this pattern I had been dying for since the Long Beach show when I for some reason passed it up. (What was I thinking??) I hunted it down at this show and purchased is pronto!  Its by Java House Quilts and it is called Pieceful Pet Beds. Now they are probably too small for my doggies so I will make them larger. But still the perfect way to combine my love of sewing/quilting with my love of my dogs!

And what a perfect segway!  I feel like this is the perfect moment to introduce you all to my doggies!  When I make these beds...it will be for them!

This is my little Buffy being all cute and behaving herself in one of the beds in my sewing room.

Here is Princess hiding under the covers being adorable

And here is Bronco just hanging out. Sorry this picture is so bad..it came off my phone..I just love the picture!

So in closing, the Road 2 CA show was great and I hope you guys check out these new vendors and items that I just learned about. The way I learn about new things is either from shows or other blogs and internet sites so I hope to be able to pass a little of that along to you all. 

P.S. Let me know in comments what you think about Sizzix. I checked it out at the show and now it looks like it is not very fabric friendly? Is it? Is Accuquilt better?  Does anyone have either of these? I'd love to hear from you. Thanks!