Crater Lake, Oregon

If you guessed Crater Lake, you were absolutely right!  :-)

And yes, that is snow that you see in the photos!

Thank you so much for stopping by to comment! You didn't know it, but I was doing a little giveaway. :-) 

Shelley  was my first winner because she guessed first. :-) 

 But then I put all the comments into a hat and DH drew another name~

Mom Quilter!  :-)

I will be mailing off a little something to both of you on Friday.  

Ok, if you didn't win~ no worries. I will be traveling again real soon and will have another photo for you.

Stay tuned. LOL

We stayed at a lovely campsite, tucked into the woods. It was so relaxing!

I enjoyed sitting and stitching at night and completed my first two blocks in the 

Bee-utiful Summer Quilt Along on Moda Bake Shop

The quilt along started in June, and blocks are being released every week, so I am behind.

But I don't mind one bit as the stitching is fun!  I haven't trimmed my blocks down yet~ when I do the second one will be centered a bit better. ;-)

I hope you have been taking some time to enjoy the summer too!

Until next time~

Happy stitchin'!

Where in the World...?

Feeling like Carmen Sandiego lately!

Where have I been? :-)

~A Tortoise~

Not the 4 legged ones that are a favorite of mine, but rather a new bag~

The Tortoise Bag, a new release from Sara of Sew Sweetness.

I was lucky enough to be able to test this wonderful bag and enjoyed it immensely!

It has a really unique top opening with two zippers.

I chose to make my handles out of Kraft-Tex and fabric. They will soften up with use.

I also added piping to the sides for a little more red. ;-)

 And a side slip pocket.

Inside there is a zipper pocket, and of course I needed a red lining! LOL

The pattern comes in three sizes and has directions for both cotton and vinyl straps.

Also, there is no hand sewing! Not one stitch!  That is a real plus for me. ;-)

Sara has some great tips spread throughout the pattern too.

Go check out all the different tester versions on Sara's blog~~

Tortoise Bag Blog post

There are so many awesome bags~ even one with turtles!! :-)

Until next time~

Happy stitchin'!

~Happy Tuesday!~

Did you have a good weekend?  We had a very quiet one, but it was nice.

Our whole neighborhood had fireworks last night, so we didn't have to go far to hear the booms and see the lights. LOL

I did sneak in some sewing too!  I am doing a BOM with some of my former HGTV message board friends and I got myself all caught up...again! ;-)

 These blocks are each 10 inches and came from Quilters Cache.

I am doing them in my CW scraps. 

I also got last Friday's Circa 2016 blocks done. Really easy, and since I already had CW scraps out, even easier! LOL

 

Now I am off to clear off the CW scraps and get back to making a baby quilt.

I hope you have a productive week too!

Until next time~

Happy Stitchin'!

Catching Up with Circa 2016

I got behind on my Temecula Quilt Co mini blocks for the Circa 2016 sew along, so I took them along to my retreat and got myself caught up~

 

Only to get home and realize, I needed to now catch up with the 

June blocks I missed while traveling~

I finished the above on Saturday afternoon and then remembered (!)

A new block came out on Friday! :-o

I am now totally caught up! Yay!! :-)

Are you sewing along?  keeping up?  They really are fun little blocks, 

but my hubby thinks I am insane. LOL

Until next time~

Happy stitchin'!!

~Keeping It Cool~

I have a guest tutorial on Samantha's~ Sewing Patterns by Mrs H~ blog today.

Please stop by and say hi! 

Until next time~

Happy Stitchin'!

Home Again!

Hubby and I took a whirling 2 week trip to visit our families in the midwest. Every day was an adventure and I think I came home more tired than I left! LOL But it was all fun!

Including going to a three day quilting retreat with my Mom and 3 friends who met us at the center. (from MN, ND and KS) It was great to see the gals again~ we last met in 2012. And three days of sewing was so much fun!

The retreat center was just outside Sioux Falls, SD, so one morning we took a road trip and hit some of the area shops.  Very fun!

We had been planning this meet up for quite a few months, to coincide with our trip back to the midwest. And I must say, it worked out perfectly.  And I delivered all those quilts in my previous post to my Mom.  :-) I even took them into the hotel with us at night~ I wanted no chance of losing them all! LOL

Before we left I made little retreat bags for everyone.

The pattern is from the Make It, Take It book by Krista Hennebury

These were really fun to make, trying to coordinate colors to my friends favorite colors. 

At retreat, we all took an evening to sew this table topper together~

The pattern is from New Leaf Stitches and is called 'Darling Duet'  We all agreed that we liked our toppers better square than as hexagons. :-)  Can you guess which one is mine?

My Mom got a new purse out of the retreat too! LOL

I sewed this up for her while she did some sewing on blocks for me. win-win!

I modified the Felicity Bag by Clover & Violet.

It has pockets around the outside and a zipper pocket in the inside instead of a frame.  The side pockets on either side of the zipper pocket, close with magnetic snaps. 

One of the ladies made us luggage tags with our names on one side and a cute saying on the other. The one pictured says 'This is NOT your bag' LOL

 

I need to take photos yet of the rest of my projects, so I will be back soon!

Until then~

Happy Stitching!!