Sewing Room and Exciting Update

Over the weekend I had two objectives, one was a requested visit to our daughter Erica and her boyfriend Ryan's residence to keep the cats company  for a little bit while they were out of town.  

Bruce kept his distance, but did come out of the bedroom to keep an eye on me. 

Zuzu was much more vocal and accepted petting--she's amazingly soft..  She was hard to get a pic of, as she was constantly moving and vocal.  I threw some toys for her, but she was really begging to get outside--she's very sneaky and I had been warned to watch for a jailbreak.  After a half hour or so visit, I threw some treats the other direction and hurried to get out the door before Zuzu dashed back.  

Erica had suggested I make a visit to the Cotton and Chocolate quilt store while in town, and I had no objection to that! At the quilt shop, I found a sale bolt that I thought would work well to complete the backing for the bookshelf quilt.  I picked up some on-sale fat quarters and bolt ends, and also a Scrap Bag.   The last time I had been in this shop was when Erica asked me to make a quilt for her boyfriend Ryan's best friend, Gavin,  and we had bought the main fabric there for the Double the Plus pattern.  I found it an amazing coincidence Saturday, when I went up to the cutting counter, that of all the bolts of fabric in the shop, the clerk was holding the bolt of Dublin fabric we chose for Gavin's quilt!  

I got to work on the backing, for which I chose a vintage fabric I picked up in a thrift store some months ago. 

This 42" wide Hoffman fabric has 18 colors in the print. 

I liked the complement with the scale and background of the repro blue and white fabric I found at Cotton and Chocolate on a good bolt-end sale.  Another purchase was a scrap bag for $6.00 that held all these pieces:

That is a lot of fabric for a very low price! It was a good thing I had something to distract me while waiting for a long-anticipated event: 

A proposal and engagement!  Ryan had secretly visited us, showed the gorgeous ring, and asked for her hand.  He planned the whole thing and completely surprised Erica at the winery they were visiting.  Lots of their friends were hiding and she never knew!  She said Yes and we couldn't be happier.  Lots of wedding planning to come!