Shop Hopping While You Wait...

I am not good at waiting - never have been. When it is time to go somewhere, I tend to be ready to leave early, and get antsy while waiting to leave. I am better once I am there -even if I have to wait there - but I am happiest when there is little to no waiting involved.

Pre-Christmas I try to keep myself busy so I don't go crazy waiting.
Pre-birthday is easier now with "Birth Month"... but still is a long wait from February 1.

So why oh why did I think signing up for a Valentine's Day swap with my friends in TranQuiltIty would be any easier? I am haunting the Post Office as much as The Munchkin, who has suddenly gotten impatient for his February issue of Your Big Backyard.

Luckily for me - some friends stepped into the gap while I waited.

First it was Rhonda with my great "First Place" gifty from her recent giveaway:

And then it was Shellie with my Christmas present (ok - so it has been a while since we have gotten together.. I gave her a ChrisBirVal Gift today -so I guess we are even!)

Good thing she loves turtles as much as I do - and bumblebees - and orange! These are YUMMY fabrics!!! The picture just does not do them justice.

And then - to make waiting even more bearable - Shellie and I decided we were due for a shop hop. I needed to bring Zoe in for her annual checkup, and figured it would be a good time to introduce Shellie the shop next door. And then Shellie wanted to take me to three other quilt shops - one that I had been to about 8 years ago, and 2 others that I had never been to. Add in a wonderful chinese food lunch - and a run through Target - and we had an AWESOME day. We are just far enough north that the big east coast "blizzard" (SnOMG is my favorite tag for that storm) did not affect us - and we were moving into stores quickly enough that the cold temps were not that bad. We got to meet up with a fellow TranQuiltIty member, Maureen, and a 25Weeks member, Linda.

And I found some awesome things:

And one more FQ, which shall remain hidden until further notice because it's purpose is too obvious and I need it to be a surprise. I am not going to try to explain what all these are for - I will just refer back to this post once I have the finished project ready to go - either for me or for some special recipients i had in mind when I saw these fabrics.

One last little thing - I made these fun little pockets while "waiting" - and the tutorial for them is here. Quick, easy, could be no sewing involved depending on your approach - and great little gifties for Valentine's Day - or any special day depending on your fabric of choice.

Enjoy.