Quilted Awesomeness in Seattle

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*** Warning – The mega load of photos in this post requires tea and cookies ***

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Remember how I sent my Halloween Quilt of Awesomeness top down to Krista in Seattle for quilting?

Well, she sent me a text that she was going to be finishing it up last Saturday, so Mom and I hopped across the border to go pick it up!!

Krista said she needed the day to do some final fillers, trimming, cleanup etc. so I asked her if there were any quilt/fabric shops in Seattle we could check out. Did she ever point us in the right direction!! First off, we headed straight to Bellevue to Quiltworks Northwest. Oh what a gorgeous store! They snagged me the second I walked in the door with their display of Echino, Melody Miller by Kokka, and absolutely delicious Japanese fabrics. Mom made a bee line to the gorgeous Bernina on display, and announced that it was going to be her next machine….until she learned the price that is!!  Yeah, maybe $10k for the occasional hobby sewist is a little unrealistic?

My treasures from Quiltworks:

All that eye candy made us hungry, so we snuck into the little sushi place just behind Quiltworks,

Then it was off to the north end of Seattle, to the newly relocated Quilting Loft who clearly caters to the new modern sewist! Oh sweet momma I LOVED that store! It’s a tragedy/blessing that I was on a budget or I would have had some serious issues with duty free at the border! They had all the latest releases from all the modern fabric lines, patterns everywhere, and a bunch of gorgeous laminates!

God help me, I actually put down Parson Grey’s FQ bundle for these happy fabrics:

which I think may be my border prints for my I Love Sushi quilt:

OOH! A TEXT FROM KRISTA!! (ok so this is a mashup of our texts but you get the idea!)

It just so happened that Pikes Place Market was on the way to Krista’s, and since we still had some time to kill, Mom and I headed over.

We snagged a parking spot on I daresay, the steepest hill I’ve seen yet (Lombard St.  and the top of Oak St. in Vancouver included!), where I quickly took this amazing shot on my iphone before we headed down to catch the last of the market vendors. (actually, that self portrait of Mom and I was also taken on that street)

Seattle is a gorgeous city.

Wanna see a video caught literally a millisecond after they threw the fish at the market?*cringe*

At about 6pm we jumped into our car, and met up with Krista and her charming family at a great restaurant, before heading back to her home to do the deed…

I died… and went to heaven.

I think Krista was just as excited about handing this thing over as I was to receive it! She worked like the dickens to get it done in time, and no detail was spared. I seriously have no idea how she did all of these teeny tiny details on her big machine. It’s just incredible!!! Thanks to Leah Day for inspiring some of the jaw dropping motifs.

It was such a treat exploring her cozy and inspiring studio!

So, during dinner I happened to sit across from Krista’s son Max. What a talented and interesting kid! He quilts, sews and embroiders and has been actively swapping some seriously good work in the Mini Quilt Swap on Flickr. Since we were all done in the studio, Max and his sister Lucy invited us to check out their mini quilt collection in their bedroom.

Here are some amazing drawings the kids did, which Krista then painted:

After more hugs and sincere thank-yous, Mom and I headed back to Vancouver. We made it home around midnight still buzzed from our fantastic day!

Thank-you so so much Krista!! *HUGS*