California Dreamin'

Last week, Susie Wolfe invited Gerry K and I to spend the week with her at her home in Southern California.  We had been planning this for awhile, and we all agreed that it was better than Christmas!! To add to my excitement, SoCal is where I was born and raised, so it was doubly delightful to see some of my old “haunts”.

As Gerry K related in her post we had ABSOLUTELY the best time. Susie was the most gracious hostess, providing us yummy soups for dinner, all the breakfast fixins, chauffeur service (LOL), and her lovely, generous self. Oh, and she had the cutest dog named Smoky, who kindly put up with us, too.

Susie and Smoky

Susie kept her pink Christmas tree up so that we could see it. She is making a pink, cream and mint green tree skirt (with silver accents) for her CQJournal Project for 2012, so the hunt for those colors were her Shopping Mission.

Gerry’s Shopping Mission was Anything Gold, and she was also on the lookout for velvet ribbons and any special treasure, of course.  :-)

Our first full day, Saturday, was spent in the Los Angeles Fabric District. In six hours, we barely scratched the surface of the shops and their offerings, yet were able to find fantastic deals on beautiful things. We spent some serious coin.  :-)

Susie and Gerry loved Berger Beads (as do many other people I know), but not being a major bead person myself, I found their dusty boxes and lackluster displays boring.  Blasphemy!  I know, I know. But I am the lace person. And fabrics. And linens. But I digress...

Gerry generously shared her pushcart with us, and we managed to fill it up every day with our purchases. (Imagine that!)

At the Rose Bowl Flea Market on Sunday, Susie knew all THE places we would love, and guided us there. The first stop was the linens lady. The pile on the tarp in front of me was $1 per piece.  Other prices were more (and some less). It was a blast digging through it.

But by far my favorite place was the Lace Lady, where we were all so busy that we didn’t get a picture. It was delightful to meet Dawn, and I am thrilled to have a wonderful new contact and supplier. And I am sure she was thrilled to exchange her lace for all the green stuff ($$) I left behind, LOL.

It was 80 degrees that day, and we stopped for some liquid refreshment. Here is Susie with some lovely gardens in the background.

And here the red flowers in the background accent Gerry’s red outfit.  We were all smiles!

On Monday Susie took us to M&L Fabrics.  Gerry showed some pictures of the main room on her blog. There were rows and rows of “regular” fabrics. But I wanted to show you one of the nearly dozen walls (or aisles) of fancy fabrics. A Crazy Quilter’s dream!

And the trim shop nearby yielded both Susie and Gerry lots of gold. And silver, too.

Again, it was another bright, clear, warm and sunny day in Southern California. I had forgotten how much I love (and miss) palm trees.

Tuesday was our day for the San Fernando Flea Market.  Again, Susie knew all the right vendors. This fabulous fabric and trim booth was one of our very favorites.  Between this shop, M&L fabrics, and all my lace acquisitions, I had to mail two large boxes of goodies home (in addition to stuffing my suitcase and carry-on).  You will eventually be seeing some of these lovely fabrics in my Etsy shop.

This booth (below) was a highlight. We dug through tables full of appliques.  Gerry mentioned on her blog that they were $1 each, but that is incorrect.  They were 50c each (2/$1).  When I was done there, my arms were overflowing, and I paid $15.00.  Talk about gold in California . . .

Below, Susie is wearing a hat that she found at this fantastic booth at the Rose Bowl.  The owner of the booth made mostly girls dresses, with little hats, purses and headbands to coordinate. But she also had some delightful women’s hats, and while I was buying spring outfits for my granddaughters, Susie was being practical and bought this darling hat!

We spent Wednesday visiting Thrift shops and scoring some great deals on half-price silk garments, other fancy fabrics and trims.  Susie also found a cute cup and saucer to make a pincushion in.  Here we are, below, butting up and sharing our thrifting finds.

The most hilarious find was this belt buckle that Susie found and bestowed upon Gerry:

It was such a great week, and the three of us had a marvelous time.  It meant so much to spend such a perfect week with dear friends.  I love you, Susie and Gerry!!

Hugs,