Mug Rugs Sent!! ...and other crafting.

The scraps on the fishy one are hiding some revealing stitches...

So today was the last day to send for the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap... and guess what? Those rugs I made all that time ago, finally made it into the mail! lol. I seriously was done a month ago. I feel a little bad to be keeping my partner waiting... but I just didn't have the energy to get to the post office? No excuses I guess. But they did in fact make it out by deadline! 

On another note, for the first time today Allie and I played with beads. Last week I picked up this little ($1) kit from joann's - it's supposed to make a bracelet, but Allie was so much more content to string them all up, then dump them back in the bowl to start over again! She did this probably 20 times before getting bored with it! My little crafter!

Quilt Retreat...

A stowaway? Cute!

I'm going on a quilting retreat next weekend. After (finally) attending my very first meeting with the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild today, I'm super excited! Although I have absolutely no idea what to bring or what to work on. Any tips? 

I'm thinking of taking a few projects so I can flit between them as I like. That way I don't get burnt out on one project. But I'd love to see some FINISHED results from this retreat.... I'm thinking of bringing one of the unfinished/hiding at the bottom of the closet projects out to be finished (it really just needs to be basted and quilted). I may work on two other quilts I'm in the middle of right now too. But I want to bring a bit of stash fabric in case I want to try out something new or do something on a whim... I don't have a lot of stash to go with though. Most of it's spoken for already. lol. 

I did accidentally buy some fabric online last night. What can I say, it was about 1:30AM and it was calling to me. I actually compared prices for about an hour before deciding what and how much and from where.... hopefully sewmamasew gets that fabric to me quick! :) One of the projects that I could foresee myself finishing at this retreat includes some backing fabric I bought. Thanks Aunt Kathy for the Christmas fabric money (a check that I found in my wallet a week ago! lol).

Seriously though, any tips of what to bring / what not to forget? I'd really appreciate it!

To do tonight (if Mary comes to sew)

• Make more Drunk Love blocks for my bee quilt
• Assemble more wonky stars for that quilt
• Cut, prep, and sew binding on the DQS10 quilt
• Put together "extras" and a note for my mug rug swap (needs to be mailed by monday! Eeeek! It's been finished FOREVER!)
• Figure out a backing and quilting pattern for my Urban Home Goods Swap mini. Figure out how I'm going to finish it
• Make more mug rugs from my idea sketches from this round of the swap.
• Bake a cake for Mary's birthday (last week)
• Eat some of that cake
• Plan what I'd like to work on/what to take on the retreat next week
• Hope that my blog readers don't get annoyed at these kinds of posts... for some reason putting it out there gets me off my butt and checking things off!

So much to write about!!

First of all today has been a great day - for once I actually had use of our one car and got a ton done! We went grocery shopping, to Target, and to JoAnn's. I got some great deals at Target, two plain decorative pillows for just over $5 each on clearance! And, two packs of cloth napkins (sets of 4) for just $1.50 each! Score! lol.

When we got home I made us yummy sandwhiches for lunch and Allie played around me as I did the Old Person's Yoga DVD for the first time (it's some dvd from PBS that we got in at work... for people of all ages - beginner friendly/ not intimidating). The Yoga was great. I must say that I must use some crazy muscles shelving books at work because I was able to do the "advanced" methods for all of them (no chair for stability). I guess I could have started with a regular yoga DVD. Cool.

Now the baby's napping and the mail came. It's a good mail day! Two more of my {Sew} Beautiful Bee blocks came in! I actually built up a pretend design wall yesterday (scraps of batting hanging over the "toy wardrobe" in the sewing/play room. Here it is. Seeing them all up there makes me so inspired to make more of them!! Which is a pretty good thing since I still have about a half a dozen to go! This is going to be one big quilt! 

I did quite a bit of sewing the last few nights but I'm going to go ahead and save those for a different post, since I'm already rambling. There may be a tutorial to be made. We'll see! Happy Friday!!

I think I'm going to stick with my gut from now on.

Because I keep trying to go "outside of the box" with projects (outside of my box... which amusingly is snugly where most modern quilters are). I tried to make a subdued sweet little star quilt today. DH took the kid to his moms for a couple hours and I got right on it. Well first of all somewhere along the line the math I did didn't add up to the right number of blocks (not that that mattered since I didn't have enough background fabric in my stash anyhow). I made up 6 star blocks - well two still have to be sewn together. I like them but my subdued fabrics just don't pop the way that I'd like. They kind of blend in to the background. I don't like that. Well the blocks turned out nice, but I'm not amazed by them. Should have gone my normal route (bright and bold); I think I'd be happier with them!

Hope for spring!

A little hope... being put together for my Urban Home Goods Swap partner. 

Linked up at Quilt Story for Fabric Tues!

Dear swap partners...

(DQS10 & Urban Home Goods) I'm so overwhelmed right now with ideas I want to make for you. I love your style, and we have similar tastes. I want to make it all.

I'm really loving the plethora of inspiration from both partners. Especially UHGS partner. My DQS10 partner makes the most amazing stuff. Seriously drool worthy. I feel like I like all their stuff and all their styles, so I should just go with my heart. But I want to make something just so special for them.... lol. Ah. So I think I have a good start.