Two Weeks?

I can't believe I've gone two weeks without posting! That is not like me at all. So much has happened in the last two weeks, I'm not sure where to start.


I finished Mr. Z's quilt and it is on its way to South Africa. I'm hoping it's gets there for his 2nd birthday, but we'll see.

DH and I went to Sedona, AZ on our getaway. We just got back yesterday. It was a lovely time, so relaxing and just so sweet spending time together. We had one of those incredibly rare perks happen on this trip, one of the things we had heard happens to other people, but never to us. When we got to the resort we were staying at (which we had gotten an amazing rate on in the first place), and we were checking in, they told us they were giving us a free room upgrade! I was in shock.

We went to our room, now a one bedroom suite, and I was amazed. We had a living/dining/kitchen area which was a very nice size. The living area had a couch and chair, and a TV with a DVD/VCR. The dining area had a dinette set with four chairs. The kitchen was complete with full sized fridge, microwave, stove top, plates, pans, silverware, a blender, toaster oven, and even a dishwasher. They had everything you needed in the kitchen including dish soap and towels.

The bedroom was larger than our bedroom at home by almost double. It had a king sized bed, another television, and a pretty large bathroom. There were plenty of towels, including separate pool towels. (Not enough towels is one of my pet peeves at hotels, but this time I was one happy gal) We have some pics of the resort and Sedona, but DH loaded them on his computer, so maybe I'll post some later.


While we were in Sedona, we went up to Flagstaff a couple times. There is a Goodwill Weigh and Pay there, so you pay for clothes by the pound. Here is my stack of 100% cotton finds, I think the grand total is 30 shirts and 1 skirt, but I also got a couple things for my girls. The grand total for everything was $31.


Every time I go to Sedona I say I'm going to make a quilt with Sedona colors in it. This time I actually put my money where my mouth is, and bought some batiks at the LQS in Sedona. The fabric on the bottom was on clearance, and close enough in the color scheme to be good for the backing. I bought the rest of the bolt, but I'll still have to piece something else in if I make the quilt as large as I'm planning. This isn't enough fabric for the quilt I'd like to make, but I ordered some more online.


On the way home, we stopped at several quilt shops, and these two fabrics had to come with me. I'm wondering about the blue for a possible outer border for RRCB. I need it to be bigger than the pieced border, so I have been looking everywhere for possible outer border fabrics. I need to finish the center and then I can audition some possibilities. The orange I have no specific plans for, but it is such a "me" fabric, DH told me to get some.



And how did my sewing on vacation go? I got two dozen blue string blocks made for RRCB. Obviously I haven't trimmed them yet. I was hoping to get all the rest of the string blocks done, but DH was having scooter problems, so he didn't get to ride as much as planned, and I didn't sew as much as planned.


I also got the strings sewn onto two more Christmas stockings. I've got 5 stockings ready to go now, but I'll wait to assemble them until I have them all ready. That means six more to do before I assemble them all.

I learned a lot about sewing away from home. One thing I should have brought but didn't was a lint roller. I have one next to my sewing machine, and had thought to bring it, but decided against it. That was a big mistake and I was forever picking threads off of my clothes. Not exactly the look I was going for on vacation. DH and I decided a vacation with his scooter and my sewing machine is a good fit for us. I wish he hadn't broken down for his sake, but we had fun together anyway.

Now that I'm back home I need to come up with a plan. I have several quilts that need assembly, lots that need to be quilted, plus I need to finish the string blocks and the pieced border for RRCB. I also managed to cut out the grandtwins samurai/geisha quilts, so those need to get done too. I'm thinking I will work on getting the string blocks done first. I'm already in string piecing mode, so I might as well get the last two dozen knocked out. I'm using some thread I don't particularly care for on the string blocks. I've already used up two spools, and by the time I'm done, I should be out of it. I will be glad to see it used, instead of wasting it, or having it lying around. Then I can go back to threads I like for piecing. String blocks are great place to use up unwanted threads though, since the pieces don't have to be just so. When you are trimming blocks to size, there is more fudge room along the way.