Road Trip!

It gives me a headache, sometimes, trying to figure out how much fabric I need for a quilt, or how many strips I need to cut, or how many squares I can cut out of those strips!  Perhaps this fabric I found on a recent road trip will help with my math skills.  It couldn't hurt....and isn't it cute!
But here's the real prize....................................

an old wire basket I found at an antique store in St. Joseph, Missouri.  It is filled with the fabric for a new project.  I decided to take a little drive to Stewartsville, just down the road a piece from St. Jo.  I'd heard and read about Country Expressions, the quilt shop owned by the mom of designer, Tula Pink.  What a treat that shop turned out to be. I'll be wanting to return again and again. No wonder it was one of Quilt Sampler magazine's top 10 shops in 2008! Displayed around the shop are many lovely quilts including, not a few, by Tula.  One, draped on a bed as I entered, caught my eye. Tula, herself, happened to be working that day, so I asked a few questions about the Cartwheel Quilt....(like, is it appliqued?). "No", she said. Okay then! I've been admiring several wheel quilts around the Internet, so decided to go for it! I was determined to get all the fabrics for the wheels from Tula's store before I left. After making my choices, I motioned her over for approval. Whew!  She said she liked them! After cutting the fabric for me and telling me to look for her new line coming out in October, Tula went back to her regularly scheduled program of making fabulous stuff!