California Spring

It really is spring in California.

Buddy and I took our first camp trip this weekend, and if you follow beyondthereef on facebook as a fan, you'll realize it was his very first camp trip.

When you live "in the city", getting out into the hills is a real treat.  

For just a few hours of driving, you are rewarded with a whole new set of flowers, scrub, birds, and people.  It's really a treat.  I would suggest being a tourist in your own state, if you have a chance.

For Buddy, it meant a tent, eating in the tent, watching prairie dogs and birds and squirrels and all sorts of things he could never ever catch.

For me, it is a whole new file of flowers and blooms to applique.

And while they may not be tropical, or Hawaiian, the shapes and the structure will lend themselves beautifully to that Hawaiian fabric.

Finally.

I thot you'd like to see some of Buddy's camping pics.

And last but not least, I hope you can see it...

Buddy and a Prairie Dog

(I think.  Or maybe a really small gopher?  Look just 'lower of center' and above the clump of dirt to the right of Buddy's right elbow)

Good dog, Buddy.

BeginAgain.

2010

The Manly Man and the Quilt Show

Being a Manly-Man takes work.

It means you have a code of ethics, you (almost) never get mad, you do what is right, respect your grandmother, take her to Costco for hot dogs even tho you don't like the place, 

and you know what weekend

the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach is in town.

No, really.

(I know, you've heard this saying before, if you have asked us to email you personally)

I have a friend who is this rare breed of a Manly-Man.

He definitely has a code of ethics.  He works his butt off all week long and just wants to sit quietly (for a while) on a still body of water and fish on a good weekend away.

Or surf.

Or raft down some river rapids somewhere.

Or travel - camp mostly.

He has his own tools.  Knows about tires and how to get them on a truck. 

Don't get me wrong.  He also loves a party, appreciates beautiful women, and knows how to drink a beer.

Okay, you get the picture.

but maybe not....

He was with his mom the other day, and his mom said, 

"This week is the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach".

"No, it's not," he said.

"Yes, it starts this week - isn't Natalie attending that show," she asks?

"Mom, it's not this week," he continues.

He gets out his cellphone and goes to the calendar.

"Mom, it's next week, really, I know when the Quilt Festival is..."

"Oh, you know what, you're right.  It's the quilt run this weekend,"

she finally realizes.

Really.  I couldn't make this stuff up.

But wait...(in memory of Billy M.)

You might have seen him and one or the other of his friends 

(who also wear baseball caps and drive trucks) 

at a show, in our booth.

Carefully folding words tees or arranging tote bags or stacking bundles.

"Is this a fat quarter bundle?  Oh, no wait, these are one yard cuts, aren't they."

So you know what comes next, right?

We go to the warehouse, and he walks in, looks around, and says,

"Wow.  We really have a lot of fabric right now."

So.

I hope you'll come see us at the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach.

Because it takes "all kinds" to make this show a success.

It takes fork lift operators, promoters, teachers, quilters, designers, sample makers, electricians,

cousins that are printers, great girlfriends, and

manly-men

to make a great quilt show.

Hey, if it weren't for the truck driving, dog loving, beer drinking, get-it-done

manly-man friend of mine, 

his mother might have missed the show altogether!!!

I hope YOU won't miss the show.

Please come visit us Thursday 5-9pm, Fri/Sat 10-7 and Sun 10-3

at the Long Beach Convention Center

It only comes once a year...

sparkle+shine

2009

Thanks for thinking of

b e y o n d   t h e   r e e f

natalie.

Booth # 1227 between Aisles 1100 and 1200