I had a fun afternoon yesterday creating this bag and cosmetic case.  It's not the kind of thing that I usually do but I had seen a kit in the Connecting Threads catalog and it was really quite inexpensive.  And my other bags have seen better days!  It is a nice deep bag, 16 inches, so I think it will be quite useful when we travel. 

We have a lot of traveling coming up soon.  I really need to start packing my sewing stuff.  We move two sewing /embroidery machines, plus all of my supplies.  I have lots of summer projects planned.

But first, the traveling.  We leave here on June 4th, headed to New York.  We leave there on the 11th, heading to Tacoma.  That is about a 7 day trip, providing we don't hit bad weather.  Two years ago, we were skirting tornadoes thru most of the mid-west and were slowed down considerably by them.  So we hope to arrive on the west coast by the 18th.  Then on the 23rd, we head out of Seattle for a 7 day cruise to Alaska.  There are some wonderful quilt shops in Alaska!  Back to Tacoma on the 30th to spend July and August there.  Then a long road trip thru California, with lots of sight-seeing there, on our way back to Florida, somewhere around September 1st.

Have a great week!  I am off to my EQStitch to work on a quilt design. 

This kind of sums up my week....................a day late to link up with Esther's blog, so I will have to wait until next week.  I really meant to post yesterday but an early morning visit to the dentist messed up my plans. 

It has been a productive week around here despite a few setbacks.  I put the last stitch into the binding of my Forget Me Not quilt, but it is still waiting for a label.  I did however make a label for my grandson's graduation quilt.

 

And here is a picture of the completed Hollow Cubes quilt!  I really hope he likes it.

 

 

A couple of months ago my local guild had a mini retreat.  We did Stack n Whack, which I had never done before.  I managed to keep the project small and completed it just today.

Here is a picture of the original fabric.  I knew when I first saw it that it would work really well for the stack and whack project, but unfortunately it matches nothing in my house!  Maybe I will put it on Ebay.  Not sure I would do another stack and whack, but I really did enjoy this retreat.

 

And finally......one more picture of Forget Me Not.  I must ask Esther's permission to display it in our local quilt show in October. 

 

And now, I am waiting for Esther's newest BOM to be announced.  Meanwhile, I am working on a simple scrap quilt (well, actually 2 of them) which will become graduation presents for Allora in 2014 and Ireland in 2015!  The good news is that these 2 quilts will make a dent in my stash!

 

So that has been my quilting week.  We are enduring the sadness of my daughter having a miscarriage last week.  She is improving both emotionally and physically each day, and for that we are extremely grateful. 

 

I hope you all have a happy and productive week!  Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.

 

I can't believe that it's Wednesday again.  The older I get, the faster time seems to go.

  My sewing time this week has been devoted to quilting my FMN quilt.  These pics aren't very good, but I wanted to show the quilting designs that I am using.  The blocks are free motion stipple, around the applique, using a metallic multicolor thread.  It is very pretty thread, but my quilting machine did not like it at all!  My original intent was to use that thread throughout, but there was so much breakage that I had to change that plan.  The sashings are done with rayon 40 wt thread, matching color with the fabric.  The free motion feathers are one of my favorite things to do and it is going so much smoother with this thread.  My plan is to do a teardrop overall design in the next area of sashing, which is the multicolor batik, still using the rayon thread.  Maybe I can get up the courage to try the metallic again in the outside borders.

In other quilting, I lead a class this week at my guild, using the disappearing 9 patch block.  It was a lot of fun and we played with several different settings for this versatile block.  I forgot to bring my camera, and I am not sure how to take pics with my phone, so I can't share the results here, but maybe some will bring their blocks to the next meeting and I can get some then.

I have to make time this week to create a label for the hollow cubes quilt that I made for my grandsons high school graduation gift.  I finished the quilt several months ago, but just remembered today that it doesn't have a label yet.  We leave here on June 2nd to travel to New York for the graduation, and then from there it is on to Tacoma Washington for the summer.  Lots of packing to do in the next couple of weeks.  I take at least 2 sewing/embroidery machines and a ton of things to go with them.  I have a Jinny Beyer quilt kit that I purchased a while ago and that will be my first project for the summer.  And of course, I am anxiously waiting for Esther to release the new BOM. 

And finally, I found out this week that I am to be a Grandma once again!  I am really excited and can't wait to get started on some knitting and of course, designing a baby quilt.  I need to pull out some books and magazines and get some ideas.  My knitting books are all about 40 years old, so I think I will treat myself to some new ones! 

Have a great week!