Friday, July 8, 2011

Aurifil Grand Finale Day 4....almost done!


The streets were pitch black and wet from the massive summer monsoon that had, moments before, swept through Tucson.  The sound of our shoes hitting the wet pavement seemed to echo through the entire valley.  And the eerie glow of our two cell phones (thank goodness for the freebie flashlight app!) bobbed up and down the street ahead of us.  We were running.  And needed a place to hide.

Flashback to earlier the same evening.....we had been two sane quilters sitting in a car, with two 44-oz bubba kegs filled with Lizzie B juice (Diet Coke), calmly binding a couple of quilts to send to the photographer.  While on a stakeout.  So maybe sane is not the correct word to use in this instance?  But let's not go there.  We knew that someone was using Aurifil as a cover to import stolen goods, and we were NOT about to let them get away with it.  

Flashback to a few days before....A new quilt shop was opening in town, so naturally, we had wanted to check it out.  However, when I'm visiting Beth's town, it's rare we get out of the studio during the day.  So when it was time to refill our juice mugs, we decided to swing by the shop front and check it out.  It looked like a sweet location for a new shop, and the sign was already up over the door..."Desert Sand Quilts".  But as we turned the corner to head home, we noticed two burly men carrying a large shipment into the back of the shop.  Not that a large shipment for a quilt store would be unusual.  But near midnight?  And burly men?  

We had to get a better look.  So we parked the car a few blocks away and tiptoed back to the shop.  The back door was propped open, throwing a shadow of light into the back parking lot.  We heard voices inside, the men were arguing.  Naturally, we squeezed behind the dumpster near the door and strained our ears to listen.

"What is this?  This not diamonds.  This some kind of string." Said Burly man #1.
"No, no.  It's thread from Italy, which is easily passed through customs." Burly man #2.

We heard the sound of plastic being unwrapped and had to risk a peek inside the door...what was going on?  We saw GIGANTIC cones of thread flowing out of boxes.  And then we simultaneously gasped as we saw the sparkle of diamonds being pulled from inside the cone.  The hand with the diamonds froze.

"Did you hear that?" Said Burly man #2

We ducked back behind the dumpster and starting inching our way around the building, backs flat against the wall, away from the door.  We had just made the corner when we heard footsteps outside and the burly men looking around the dumpster.  We didn't wait, we booked it back to the car and drove off before the Burly twins even knew we'd been there.  

"We need a plan." Beth said, as soon as we were able to catch our breath.
"A plan? What are you talking about??? Shouldn't the plan be, call your son the cop and report the Burly's??"  I replied.
"No, no, no." Beth said, "He'll never believe us.  Not in a million years!  What we need is...."
Oh dear, my heart started to beat double time, I knew what she was going to say.
"....proof."

Hence the stakeout.  Where we calmly stitched and watched, through a downpour of rain, until the last shipment of the day was brought in.  We watched the Burly twins lock the doors and leave just as the heavy rain turned into a trickle.  Then each of us took a large sip of DC for reinforcement, grabbed our little "tool kit" and made our way to the back of the shop.  All we needed to do was get into the store, grab a cone of thread, and head straight to the police station.

When we got to the door we unrolled our tool kit....needles of all sizes, small sharp scissors, a slim ruler, and of course, stilettos used for applique.   We slipped the ruler between the door and door jam.  Then used a choice needle and the stiletto to wiggle the lock free.  Thank goodness there wasn't a deadbolt!  Seriously, wouldn't you take more care if you were hiding diamonds?  The door creaked open and we were inside.  The exit sign above the door threw a slight glow over the room.  The boxes had been rearranged since we'd peeked inside a few days before, so quickly, we tripped over fabric bolts as we tried to find the box of Aurifil thread.

"I found it!" I whispered-yelled to Beth across the room, holding up a cone of beautiful thread.

But we had been so intent on our search and find that by the time we heard the voices...
"Hey! The door is open!  Someone inside!"
And the door kicked open wide....it was an instant too late.  We looked at each other and without words, RAN like the wind for front of the store!  I tucked the cone of thread under my arm like a football.  Beth flipped the deadbolt on the front door.  (So there WAS a deadbolt!) We turned and continued running down the deserted street, pulling out our phones as not a single streetlight seemed to be on.   

"Call Max!" I yelled to Beth as we huffed and puffed our way down the street.  She speed-dialed her son and told him we were being chased by two burly men and to come quickly, rattling off our general area.

But the Burly's footsteps were gaining on us.

"Shoot, what are we gonna do?" asked Beth.  And then I had a plan.
"Turn off the phones. Grab this end of the thread." I pointed to one side of the street and she ran away from me wordlessly, crouching between two buildings.  I ran the opposite direction across the street from her, unravelling the thread as quickly as I could.  I hid myself from view and then we pulled the thread taught.

Seconds later we felt a tug as the Burly's ran straight into our trap!  We heard two "Oof's" as they tripped over the thread and fell on top of each other.  As sirens sounded nearby, we ran from our hiding spots and wrapped the Burly's in a web of Aurifil.  

"To thread a thief." I said.

We smiled.  And slapped a high five.


We just HAD to leave you with another Lizzie B/Aurifil adventure before we finished the bloghop!  Hope you had fun!  Don't forget to check Pat Sloan's  blog today to make the final decisions on the quilt.  AND tomorrow, the quilt will be revealed.  YAY!

Keep checking back on our crazy cre8ive blog...we'll be releasing our big SUMMER issue of Dream Laugh Create soon.



Thursday, July 7, 2011

Aurifil Grand Finale Day 3!



Now what would an Aurifil blog hop be without another video of our favorite Aurifil peeps?!  It just had to be done...and since it's summer, in my house that means baseball....




....everyone knows I'm a HUGE Phillies Phan....




Hey, I made the vid, I get to pick the home team, right?  We had to teach our Italian Aurifil Alex how to play ball, and he got right into the spirit of the game, don't you think?




Make sure you get up to bat today, hit a homer and slide over to 
Pat Sloan's blog to see what we're voting on.  
Looks like the fate of our little block was decided and NOW we're trying to figure out the placement of the blocks...kinda tricky.


And don't forget to visit THESE bloggers today as well:
Who's on first: Niki at Stitchen heaven http://blog.stitchinheaven.com/blog/
Who's on second: Michele at Quilting Gallery http://quiltinggallery.com/
Who's on third: Aurifil, of course!


Since the vote here on our blog is weighing heavily toward sharing 3 prizes to 3 lucky winners..... 
(aren't quilter's fabulous, wanting to share the wealth???) 


Today, tell us if you're a baseball fan and if so, what home team 
YOU route, route, route for! 




I promise not to throw you outta the game if 
you're NOT a Phillies Phan.  
:)















Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Aurifil Grand Finale Day 2

Oh dear!  Now we're REALLY in a quandary....
We had so many comments yesterday about which prize to give away, and many of them were suggestions to give
ALL THREE!

Hmmmm.  Now here's the question....
Do we give all THREE as one GRAND prize for the GRAND FINALE?
or...
Do we have THREE prize winners?

See the dilemma?


Tell us what you think!  
And don't forget to check out Pat Sloan's blog today....we're making a HUGE decision over there today, do we change the Lizzie B block background to white, or keep it black?  Tough choice.  
We Lizzie B's personally LOVE black in a quilt.  

Wonder what the fate of our little block will be.......


The 2 designers blogs to check out today are:
and
Thimbleanna Anna    http://thimbleanna.com/

Happy Hoppin'!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

It's the GRAND FINALE!


Happy "day after" the 4th of JULY!

And what a day it is.  We hope all you American peeps got to see some kind of fantastic firework show this weekend.  I love fireworks from start to finish, but I gotta say, it's all just a build up to the GRAND FINALE at the end, when it seems like a MILLION go off at once and light up the sky. 

Well TODAY, we're building up to our OWN Grand Finale of the AURIFIL BLOG HOP!



Remember the blog hop waaaay back in Feb?  You know, nine bloggers, building the word Aurifil, and 2 fabrics to create 9 unique blocks. Well, it's time to finish it up, put all those freebie blocks together and make us a quilt.  It's the GRAND FINALE of all blog hops!  Starting TODAY and ending FRIDAY.  7 of us bloggers will 'judge' the setting fabric options and build the quilt together.


Once again, the blog hop will be hosted by the very creative and fun
PAT SLOAN!


And YES, of COURSE there will be prizes....on Pat Sloan's blog, and the fabulous Aurifil will  be giving away a box of her designer 
Aurifil 40 wt.  AWESOME!

Click HERE to hop on over to the Aurifil blog to SEE all the blocks we made and refresh your memory!


Not to mention, there MAY be other giveaways on all the designers blogs as well, JUST to keep things interesting and make sure we have LOTS of winners.  But I'll get to that in a moment....

FIRST, let's make sure ya know what ya need to DO on this blog hop, because honestly, who do you think we are just givin' stuff away for free?! (LOL!) We need your HELP designing the final quilt.   So where to begin?


1. Hop on over to Pat Sloan's  blog EVERY day. She will be showing different design options for the blocks each day.
2. Leave a comment, or vote really, on which setting you like best,  on Pat's blog any time between  July 5th and July 10th.

I already know which one I LIKE...I wonder which you'll choose?

So back to OUR little giveaway....we need your help deciding.
Just WHAT shall we give???


A package of Aurifil thread?


A copy of our NEW book filled with 7 fast, fun, fresh NEW quilt patterns?
OR....


A little bundle of our NEW Hip Happy fabric line??

Hmmm.  So hard to choose.  Tell us what YOU think?  Leave us a comment on what you think WE should giveaway on Friday, and you just might be a winner too!

Happy Hoppin'!