Back in the saddle

Can I just acknowledge that having to work seriously cramps my blogging/sewy/quilty style?!? Its been a while since I put needle to fabric.  Having been weeks since I sewed I can honestly say and assess -- it makes me happy.  This weekend was all about all things sewy.  Score!

First up, Friday afternoon, my friend A and I headed to the Creativ Festival.  Not gonna lie, I was a little disappointed this time around.  Maybe the booth fees went up or the fact that this show was the same weekend as Quilt Market in Houston, but I noticed there were a couple places I usually buy fabric from that weren't there this time around.  Too bad.  I bought a few (only 4) Laurie Wisburn fat quarters and a couple cute pillowcase kits but that's it!

Saturday our guild hosted a free mini-retreat for its members.  I packed all my junk into my car on Friday night so I could sleep later on Saturday and then headed up for the day.  There were lots of ladies who signed up.  Yay!  Makes me happy to see people participating.  I wasn't sure what I wanted to work on so I brought way more than made sense.  I ended up working on the October section for our not-a-BOM.

This is the section I was working on - rows sewn together.  Along with my cute army green chucks.  Ha

And here is what it looks like with the September section to the left.  They will eventually fit nicely together.  I'm starting to really dig what its looking like.  Wasn't sure I would like it but I had a LOT of those crazy blue fabrics left.

By the time I got the rows together our retreat time was over.  I was gonna go home and finish it but then I got my most favourite of text messages -- "Mom: Feel free to come for dinner"  SCORE!  When I finally managed to drag myself back to my house I just decided to unpack my stuff and get organized for today so I could finish this off.

This morning when I got up I knew I would get lost in sewing if I let myself. So after I met a friend for breakfast, I came home and did my work that I had to do.  I used sewing time as my reward.  I'm very effective at tricking myself into getting stuff accomplished.  Started up sewing the rows together and in about an hour, I had this:

The lighting in my house is really different than the lighting at the retreat.  But this is September and October sewn together.  Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

After I finished this I was really curious to see how quickly a hot dog/sausage/burrito pillowcase came together so I decided to whip up the pillowcase kits I bought on Friday night.  It was surprisingly easy.  I watched a 9-minute video by the Missouri Star Quilt Co. and then was off to the races.  It didn't take too long before I had finished both.  I feel like the king of the world in productivity over here today!

I made this one for me first - a prototype in case I royally screwed something up.  Have I mentioned before the obsession I have with snowmen?  Love!

I made this cute pinky one for my niece Rachie.  I think she's gonna love that its Christmas and pink all at the same time!

I figured its probably socially acceptable to wait AT LEAST until Halloween is over before I give it to her even though I wanted to jump in the car and run it right over to my parents' house.  Oh, did I happen to mention I am also OBSESSED with Christmas?

Anyhoo, that's what I've been up to all weekend!  I wish there was another day so I could get in some more!

Happy Delicious Mail

I'll be honest, I don't often get fun mail.  This likely contributes to why I hardly ever go collect my mail.  But today, I went to clear out the mailbox and there was a little key in my mailbox which means I got a package!  Yay!

I opened it up as soon as I got in the house and found the fabric deliciousness I ordered a couple weeks ago when Pink Castle was having a fall 30% off sale.

Here are my goodies:

Typewriters and Newspapers from the Objects line from Robert Kaufman, Text by Allison Glass, and Tipu Birds from Lotta Jansdotter's Bella line

This is Birds of a Feather from Alison Cole - not my usual pick but the colours are so saturated and happy.  I love it!

I also have been reading and reading about wonder clips on various blogs.  I had looked at them before but they are kind of pricey around here.  Usually about 8-10 dollars for a 10-pack.  Since there was a 30% off sale and these were originally priced at 7 a pack, I got some.

Hopefully they will be useful for holding down binding as I sew it on.

And finally, I need to kind of catch up on my Lucky Stars BOM.  I'm falling behind.  Over the summer there were a few really fiddly blocks with small pieces.  Doing the 12.5 inch blocks was hard enough so when I thought about doing the half-sized ones, I came up with all kinds of reasons not to keep up.  However, if I'm going to finish this thing on time - and I intend to dammit! -- I better get cracking.  Here's the one I made today:

Not too shabby.  I have one more half-sized block to catch up on.  Then I can go back to working month by month.  Sad to say, I'm about three months behind.  Yikes!

Alright, time for supper....I think soup is in order!