Fitting Some Sewing In

It had been nearly a week. But it felt longer.

The website issue over the weekend that continued into this week - an impromptu late afternoon 200 mile round trip excursion to Burnsville.  One group leaving, another group coming in.

Packing for India. (Yes, finally!)

I've had hexie time in the evenings where evening time was available, but really - not much sewing has happened.  And maybe that was a good thing.

It meant that the desire to get back to the machine was strong. I worry about burn out sometimes, but so far - nope. I just need more machine time.

There are some deadlines coming up, you know!

October and Halloween are right around the corner now!

You know what a photo of black and white trimmings and leavings means?

There is something in the works behind the scenes.

And also in the front of the scenes!

I finally got back to piecing a couple of blocks yesterday.

I'm at 18! I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to 25 or 36.

And yes, there will be optional construction methods to make this without Y seams, but you'll have MORE seams. And the Y seams are really not all that hard once you don't let them get the best of you.

Me with my iron after completing a section. "Lie flat, you beast! Behave like a good string star!"

Yesterday's Mail Blessings -

Thank you so muich, everyone!  Your variety is top notch!

As heinous as it is to pick out English paper piecing - I made a decision before going any further. 

I traded out a couple of neutrals that weren't doing anything for me and replaced them with green.  Or there wasn't going to be enough green, and I needed the pop.  I think I like this better.

Some of my greys are still too light, and I'll cull them out from here on out, but I'm not going to dissect this motif any further.  What a pain.  Hand stitches are so much harder to remove than machine stitches!

At any rate.  I packed 3 little hexie kits in my travel stitching bag.  I put 6 more hexie kits to go in my checked luggage. I won't get that far, but it is comforting to know they are there!

Meanwhile at retreat:

The Spooligans are getting their quilty mojo going!

Old Town in purples and greens. Lovely!

All ready for an Appalachian State grad!

Evidence of much chain piecing productivity.

Fourth of July is coming together!  You can find the link to the free PDF pattern on the Free Patterns tab.

*NOTE* This freebie works great in other colors too - and I keep thinking I want to work it up in string blocks.  You know.  Like in my spare time.  LOL!

It's not too early to start working on winter quilts!

I love how this is coming together.

Pattern is Winter's Frost by Annie's Quilting.

This gets me all excited! Strings, and more strings, Baby!

While I made my Open Window with recycled shirt scraps, this one is being made in happy scrappy rainbow EVERYTHING.

My only F.O.M.O. (Fear of missing out!) is that I won't be here for the rest of retreat to see how things are coming together.

But maybe next year, they'll come back for over the porch rail time.

And this girl.  I hate to leave this girl!  But I know she will be in good hands as Hubster Dave and son Jeff are on retreat duty until I return.

Things to know:

The Gift-Away for the 5 copies of Scrap-Savvy is over, and the winners have been contacted.  Since this is being hosted by C&T publishing, I won't have that information on shipping books to winners until I get back from India.  Patience, grasshoppers!  And do check your email inboxes from a notification email from C&T. They need to hear back from you with your mailing address.

I am leaving the house for the airport at 6:45am tomorrow. There will not be a blog post until I return.

I am back the 17th, but give me some time to readjust my body clock and we will slowly get back into the swing of things.

I WILL be posting to  Instagram, Facebook and maybe YouTube.  You can check our daily trip adventures there.

And if you'd just rather take a break and spend more time at your sewing machine with your own projects, go for it!  

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

I know it seems impossible, to have a wonderful stash, and still not have the right fabric for the project I'm working on!

I'm sure I'm not the only one. Right? Right?

See you in about 12 days!