Teacher Training at Quilt in a Day with Eleanor Burns. We arrived on Saturday at Beth’s aunt and uncle’s in El Cajon where we stayed for the week. Aunt Judy kept us busy every free minute we had. Sunday afternoon included visits to local quilt shops that were open amazingly enough. Ruth had never been to Rosie’s Calico Cupboard in La Mesa and couldn’t believe the thousands of bolts of fabric. Actually Ruth had never been to San Diego! We also got a peek at Cozy Quilts just before closing. Beth ran into Sandy Thompson, a QIAD teacher that also does the QIAD retreats. Beth really enjoyed visiting with her! She truly misses everyone from her old stomping grounds. That evening Melissa, Beth’s cousin, and her boys came for dinner. We had fun eating, talking, laughing, and just catching up. What a crew they are!
Monday morning we 
met with Marilynn, Judy and Beth’s friend, from Ramona. We headed into Temecula for breakfast at a yummy restaurant called Penfold’s. There we met more friends of Beth’s – Sharon & Ruthie. What a wonderful and filling breakfast we had while catching up with news. Soon the six of us went shopping at The Quilter’s Coop and The Temecula Quilt Co. Ruth was drooling over the huge selection of Civil War fabrics, kits, and patterns. It’s her favorite and Civil War is hard to find in New Mexico! After saying goodbye to the girls we headed back towards San Diego, dropped Marilynn off and then wandered into The Container Store; another new adventure for Ruth. We must have spent 1 ½ hrs. in there looking and shopping! Last stop was in La Mesa at the Quilter’s Cottage. What a cute quilt shop with wools and homespuns!
Tuesday morning Judy took us to the community adult education center where she attends quilt class with about 40 other women (and a few men). They have a spectacular facility offering several different classes and everyone shared their finished and “in progress” projects. We should be so lucky! Soon we were off to Marilynn’s in Ramona where she had a grand brunch awaiting. We had quiche, fresh fruit, and pumpkin bread in a jar. It was great! We toured her sewing room, quilts, and the beautiful Moon Glow quilt she’d recently finished. It’s better in person than seeing it on Jinny Beyer’s site. Marilynn showed us her 600+ doxie collection-2 of which are living (dachshunds not the other kind!). 
We then tromped out to the barn to visit her hubby, Gordo, his horse and Marilynn’s donkey, Ciera. What a sweety Ciera is! Last quilt shop stop of the day was The Crazy 9 Patch in Ramona where Marilynn works a few days a week. Super cute shop where, Susan Baker, a friend from CA teaches, she also teaches at The Calico Horse (which sadly is closing this summer unless they find a buyer). The special treat for the afternoon was the quilt museum in San Diego down at the old Naval base that’s being restored & converted to shopping and art. Beth’s cousin Melissa joined us there. The quilts each have a theme and are displayed for about 4-6 weeks. This theme had to do with medical science and some pretty bizarre quilts were displayed. We were amazed at the techniques, and fabrics used. Some quilters have quite an imagination! Next was the dangerous stop at the See’s Candy outlet. YUM! Did we come out of there empty handed? Not on your life! Lots of free samples and everything is super fresh! We ended the evening by taking Ronnie and Judy out to dinner to thank them for their wonderful hospitality for the week.
Judy, Beth & Ruth
Wednesday morning we awoke at 5:30a and headed to San Marcos at 6:30a. (Yes, this is a.m.) We arrived there just in time for class at 8a. No, it didn’t take that long but had to get a Starbuck’s (I think this is the law in Calif). We spent the entire day in class and Eleanor worked us to death! Not really, but it WAS busy and intense. A filling lunch was provided and we were dismissed at 5p. There were 25 in the class and low and behold a gal from Tijeras where Ruth lives. Small world! We’d never met until this day! Women came as far away as Virginia! We sat with two women from Simi Valley that were characters. They kept us laughing! Thursday, more of the same schedule. After class Ruth wanted to see the beach so we’d kept leftovers from our lunch and planned to eat it for dinner on the beach. It was overcast, windy, and too chilly so we sat in the car and ate. We were parked right on the beach in Vista so could watch the surfers and body boarders. Beth immediately took her shoes off and had to walk in the sand! She said it brought back memories of many wonderful years spent on the beach and surfing in her teens. There is nothing like the smell of the ocean to bring those memories flooding back. Driving home took a bit longer some evenings due to the traffic. Ruth thinks Beth can drive in anything now. She took more pictures of the traffic on the freeway than quilts! Thankfully we don’t have that kind of traffic in NM!! Whew!
Sweet Cinder
The best thing is we each got our “dog” fix with Cinder, my aunt and uncle’s dog. He is the sweetest old boy. He’s old and sadly not much longer for this world. He loves attention and spends his time on the couch. Judy makes his food too which makes his coat soft like velvet. What a life!
BTW, Marilynn, Judy and Beth had the opportunity to go on a QIAD cruise this past September. Marilynn will be Beth’s “Roomy” for their upcoming family trip to China this summer. It’s a good thing she adores her!
Stay tuned, Beth and Ruth just finished up a Quilt Retreat in Las Vegas (New Mexico)!
Stay tuned to see what we’ve been up to! We have a lot of exciting things planned. We recently attended the Teachers Certification with Quilt & A Day and Eleanor Burns. It was WONDERFUL!
