WRCA and Sneaking Off For Some Fabric Therapy

This past weekend we ran away to Amarillo for the WRCA (Working Ranch Cowboy Association)  Ranch Rodeo Championships. This is an amazing organization and you can read more about them HERE if you are interested. They do so much, but in a nutshell, they support and promote the working ranch cowboy. They provide scholarships (thank you so very much for that!) and they have a crises fund for cowboys who have been hurt or are ill and when we unfortunately lose one of them, benefit ropings and bronc ridings are held.

This weekend is our vacation. We try and get away for it every year. It's like our family reunion because we have the opportunity to see people from all over the country that we only see once a year. We have friends from Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Ohio, and New Mexico that we look forward to catching up with during this time of year. It's like a family reunion for us!

Sorry, no pictures. My camera came back from an elk hunt and refused to take another shot and I was not about to lug my big camera around all weekend. Just picture lots of boot, hats, spurs, leather, and colorful wild rags mixed in with horses, cattle, trailers and lots of cowboys, ranch wives, and kids all converging upon the Civic Center in Amarillo. There is lots of visiting that takes place during those 4 days! We never stay for the whole thing because by the time Saturday rolls around, we have visited until we can visit no more and all of the browsing and shopping and ordering of new toys has taken place and we have had our fill of people. It gets crazy crowded in the trade show and only shuffling takes place due to the crowds. It makes me want to hyperventilate when there are that many people.

I always sneak away for a few hours when I make it to the big city and y'all know exactly where I am headed! :) My first stop was Joann's because I was in search of chenille for some baby projects. Why is this stuff so difficult to come by?! I picked up a 1/2 yd of the blue and pink because those are the only colors they had. No white. Or a soft green would have been nice. :(

My Oklahoma partner in crime was with me and she was such a good sport as I loaded up my cart, which was soon overflowing and then it was on to quilt shop #1 where I didn't do as much damage as I could have done, but I did enough. After all, I had another quilt shop to visit! :)

I have decided to really pare down my fabric purchases next year so perhaps I am stocking up, but I'll fess up to what I bought since most of you understand this sickness that we call quilting. However, this weekend I learned that many of my 'real life' friends also read my blog. I had no idea that they were all stalkers! :) So I am pretty sure they will NOT understand. Just about everything I bought was on sale so that makes me happy!

I bought some pieces that caught my eye for Bonnie Hunter's newest mystery quilt called Easy Street. Here is her post about it and I've seen lots  and lots of posts popping up and it looks like there will a ton of us joining in on the fun. I had no gray and am still unsure if I'll go with this one. It may be too dark, but I really like it. Here it is with the black on whites I need for it as well:

And here are the rest of the colors I picked up to go along with what I pulled from my stash. I'll post about that another time:

I'm planning a blue and brown zigzag quilt using flying geese so I pick up odds and ends for that when I run across them as well as a red for that Christmas quilt I didn't get made this year. :) Most of what I bought on Friday was 1/2 yard cuts:

I ran out of the snowflake fabric for my little pine trees and I found more so I picked up 5 yards of that as well as 4 yards of this Christmas fabric for borders and bags and a table runner backing:

I couldn't help picking up 1/2 yard cuts of some Christmas fabrics for more bags:

And I came home with these two fabrics for a gift bag for my Mom's birthday in May:

And THIS is my "couldn't resist, just had to have it because I knew I would regret not buying it when it was no longer available fabric" :

The end! It is cold and windy here and I need a  nap! This vacation stuff wears me out!