Plane-safe

I'm on vacation. 

But I had to bring these along.

A recycled plastic case makes a great sewing caddy. 

This one came from our recently-purchased black-out curtains.

Scissors were a dilemma, though... for a minute. Then I remembered one of the "favors" from the shop hop I did last fall.

Ta-da!!

A needle threader and thread cutter!!!!

Now you know: my sewing kit meets TSA regulations!

Happy traveling, indeed.

I'll be home soon- I've only sewn a couple more diamonds, but what can I say- I've been "busy" sitting by a pool, or walking around outdoor shopping areas, or riding a sweet boat around in the ocean... yes, busy indeed!

I miss my husband and dogs, though- three great reasons to come home!

Finished Hostess Gift

 It's done, and I love it.

A perfect hostess present.

Around 16 hours to make it total.

I'm ready for Florida!

Cathedral windows

I can't sell my Kindle cover. Just can't do it.

~BUT~

I CAN give away something that will take as much time if not longer...

See this?

It is going to be a cathedral window wine bag.

The usual conundrum has arisen where I needed a gift, but have limited spending money... so hand-made it is! And, along the lines of what it would "cost," this gift will be perfect.

It's for our friends who are graciously hosting my mom and I when we go to Florida. They have been so wonderful to our family over the years. 

All I can do is stitch my gratitude.

See, I could never charge someone an "appropriate" amount for handwork. But I can gladly give it away to a couple who deserves more thanks than words can express. 

Back to work. I have a fast-approaching deadline!

I Need Spring!

I love tulips. 

 I wanted to try my hand at applique again. 

So I did. 

Now, to figure out borders so we'll have a new wallhanging to replace the penguin and put winter away for this year!!!

Saturday!

My husband started following my blog (Hi, Honey!). Now he's going to know what I do all day while he's at work. :D He knows most of it anyway thanks to texting and picture messages.

I got one goal accomplished yesterday- my warmer weather slippers!

The wonky houses are still waiting... they actually got moved further down the list. I just don't feel like working on them right now. Instead, I plan on finishing this pillow:

I machine stitched in the ditch just inside the border. I was lazy impatient and rather than baste, just went ahead with the quilting, so now I can hand quilt the design over the hexagon part.

And, since I got it this far, I can spend most of the night wrapped up in a pile of blankets again! Hmm, what to watch/listen to on Netflix while I stitch away my Saturday?

I got hooked.

Tim called my RRCB in progress beautiful! That's even better than him calling me beautiful! I haven't made much more progress on it though... I've been on a quest of sorts.

HEXAGONS!

I wanted to see if I could find a punch for them so I could conquer learn to English paper piece, and not that 7-hour fiasco that was the first hexie caddy. After much internet searching, and stopping in every place that carries any sort of paper crafting supplies in Kokomo (which, if you want to know, is only 5 according to Google maps), I came home and figured, No problem, I'll just print templates... but then the printer wouldn't communicate with my laptop! So I tried what I had to do last time- uninstall, then redownload software from the Lexmark website (last time I had to do this AFTER a 30 minute phone call with customer service). But guess what? Lexmark doesn't have the software link anymore!!!! Are you kidding me???? Thankfully, Tim saved the day... he was able to get the printer working earlier today, so I asked him- apparently Apple has the needed software, so just by plugging it in, my laptop identified what printer it was, and what it needed to function. This is why I love Apple! But it did take me about 2 hours to get frustrated, trace some pitiful hexies on my own, and finally hear back from Tim.

So, finally, while watching The Biggest Loser:

These are the pitiful hexies- they're slightly larger than the printed ones, but that's ok. I think this will get appliqued.... somewhere. But I have 5 sheets of 33 hexagons to play with. I cut on sheet already, and plan on basting the matching 7 pieces of fabric so that on our trip to get the last piece of furniture from my mom's I'll have something to do on the way up.

I'm telling you- Hexagons are addictive. Slow going right now, but I'm approaching them as a way to teach myself patience, especially while I feel like I'm in limbo again. So, stitch, stitch, breath.... if it's meant to be, it will happen.

Stitch, stitch, breath....