Strange coincidence

Our anniversary overnight was wonderful. We spent an enjoyable evening at the Circa 21 dinner theatre http://www.circa21.com/ in Rock Island for "Smoke on the Mountain." The bluegrass musical was alot of fun and the food was great, especially the sugar free, fat free strawberry ripple "nice" cream.


Another fun part (other than having time away with Dan) of the weekend was finding two new "favorite" quilt shops. Country at Heart Quilts in Sterling is a cute little store with a gift shop combined. They aren't very big but had different patterns that I hadn't seen before.

On the way home, we stopped in Fulton at Susan's Calico Creations and Attic Woods. http://www.susancalicocreations.com/ Dan even enjoyed this one. The first thing the shop owner did when we walked in was to offer Dan a big mug of coffee and some chocolate. Nothing like bribing the husband with treats. Hey, I say whatever works! Along with tons of fabric, they have an antique shop on the second floor and unfinished furniture on the third. Plus, we were the first people in the door for the day so I got 25% off of my biggest cut of fabric! Coffee for him and a sale for me. It doesn't get much better than that. While I was browsing, Dan asked why I couldn't make him a Case-IH colored quilt (black, white, grey, red)? He even wanted to help pick the fabrics out, so I wasn't about to turn that down. I had no idea what kind of pattern I would use, but knew it would be something "scrappy" as it's my favorite kind.


Now for the coincidence...

The shop owner showed me a pattern book called "Black & White Quilts by Design". I didn't look at it real close but saw a number of patterns I really liked. My rule is -- I won't buy a pattern book for only one design, but since there were a number of them, of course, I purchased the book. :) After we got home, Dan picked up the book, looked at the authors name and asked me if I didn't go to school with someone by that name. I recognized the name but what would the odds be that it was the same person who was a year behind me in high school. In reading the book further, I ran across a picture of the author. This person looked alot like the mom of the person I knew. I thought what the heck and shot off an email to the author. She responded today and it is! Kay Capps Cross. Her business is called http://www.crosscutquilting.com/ . She designs patterns for black and white quilts. In not like we were close in high school but with Forreston being small, we definitely knew each other. It's just one of those odd twists in life. If the shop owner hadn't brought the book to my attention, I wouldn't have even looked at patterns since I already have plenty that I've not tried yet. It's just one of those weird, cool coincidences. Fun, huh?