Cast On A Long and Some Stash

I hope each of you had a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend. Please remember those who have served our country, who are serving our country, as well as their families. We are fortunate to have the freedoms that we do because of their service.

Last weekend was Midnight Knit at my LYS. Several of us decided have a Cast On Along for Traveling Woman. Generally in knitting we have a Knit a Long, in Stitching a Stitch a Long - you get it. Frankly, I don't join them because I know I could not keep up. So we decided to just cast on and if you finish, great. If you don't, that's good too. What made this even simpler is that the cast on was just 3 stitches!

The shop was PACKED! There were probably 30 people there for almost the entire evening. These pictures were taken after 10pm.

Needless to say, we all had a blast! Here is a picture of my project during the night. About 20 of us cast on for Traveling Woman. Can you believe that 2 (that I know for sure) have been finished and I'm pretty sure there is a 3rd (at least) completed.

While we were on vacation for those few days I managed to visit 3 quilts stores. Little Quilts in Marietta, GA, Log Cabin Patchworks in Hiawassee, GA and Bless My Stitches in Murphy, NC. Sadly Log Cabin Patchworks will be closing due to retirement. All shops are really nice but I must say that I LOVED Little Quilts. Loved it!

Here's what I bought at the 3 shops. I can't remember what I purchased where.
Little Quilts had a top made of Josephine's Sampler. Scrumptious!

I'm in a pattern mood. A couple of these patterns are very charm pack friendly.

Fabric wise, I just purchased these 3 yards and the yard above.

Happy Stitches!

Woefully Behind

I'm woefully behind on my BOMs - the ones that I have actually started. Here is the latest block in the $5 quilt series and I have 3 more to make. Two of those are applique. I have 5 blocks for Stitchers Garden to make as the last 2 months have had 2 blocks each month. Hopefully I'll have some time this weekend to get caught up or closer to being caught up.

When I was in Atlanta last month, I picked up a couple of stitching stash additions. I finally found some Belle Soie Mudpie and Chocolat that actually did not look exactly the same so I bought those and a couple of charts.

I'm hoping to have mostly a long weekend at home. We've had more activity than we normally do lately and it will be nice to have some peacefulness. We'll probably grill out one night but that is a normal year round activity for us. Whatever you decide to do I hope each of you will have an enjoyable and safe weekend!

My First Pillowcase!

Saturday I learned how to make pillowcases! My quilt shop is donating pillowcases to the Million Pillowcase Challenge and I figured it was a good time to learn something new and do something good at the same time. It didn't take long and it's something I can do again on my own.

There is something about pink and orange together that I just love. I think it appeals to my inner 5 year old! I hope whoever gets it really likes it.

The pillowcase is sewn so you can't see any raw edges on the inside. This is what intimidated me when I thought about it but it was really easy!

We became an IPhone family in the last month or so. We're all really enjoying it and I can't believe that I lived with my old Razor phone for so long. I'd love to hear any suggestions you have about Apps you can't live without. It's corny but I love this jigsaw puzzle app!

I'm going to try to stay home this long weekend and limit activities outside the house and instead do some fun things inside. I'm really looking forward to it!

Best Laid Plans

Three weeks ago I decided to take a couple of weeks break from blogging and get some things done. You know what they say about the best laid plans....something will always happen to mess them up! Here's how it went down for me:

Week 1: I got sick. I can't sew, knit or stitch while I'm sick. I don't want to get the ick all over my projects.

Week 2: On Vacation. Still sick. Our dog, Cody, blew out his knee while we were gone so we came home several days early. Dad got notification he had doctors appts at Mayo scheduled for the following week. We spent a few days getting ready for my parents visit - we had to move some things out of my sewing room so we could set up a bed for my parents in the room.

Week 3: Parents here. Dad's Mayo visits and exploratory procedure. The good news is that during the exploratory procedure they were able to remove the area in question. The doctors in Orlando weren't able to do it. Great news as we all thought he was heading towards a very complicated surgery.

Fun, huh?

Here's Cody. He has to be on a leash or crated for 3 months during his recovery. Poor Pup. And somehow we're supposed to teach him how to quit jumping on the couch and bed. Not sure how that is going to happen. Here's a cheerful statistic the vet gave us - 50% of the dogs blow out their other knee within 12 months of injuring the first one.

His bandage has been removed. The staples come out next weekend.

I did manage to start stitching the latest LHN ornament.

I have not been reading blogs while I was on break. I will be reading and commenting this week. I'm looking forward to seeing what you've been up to!

Bit of a Break

In an effort to get some things done (not sure done is the right word), I'll be taking a bit of a blogging break. Actually I'm really trying to limit my internet time for a couple of weeks. I will be checking email and I promise that I will read all the blog posts in my Google Reader when I return. Happy Stitches!

Christmas in April

April's Moda Maniacs gathering was a couple of days ago. Each meeting, we get a set of any of the charm packs delivered to the store. The cost is $60 for 6 months and we're guaranteed 8 charm packs (my store sells them for $8). Last month we didn't get anything as that sometimes happens. In April, we got 5! All Christmas.

Aren't they gorgeous?

My dilemma is turning out to be what to do with a single charm pack. Table runners would work but do I need 15 of them? Any other ideas?