A weekend work/pleasure trip...

    Not much has happened with the sewing room excavation since my last post. We have been working what would be over an hour from home under the best of circumstances, but in addition to the distance, the traffic has been horrible, making the commute even longer, so my time last week was minimal at best. (Or at least that is the story I'm tellin'!)
    We took a quick trip across the state Friday/Saturday to advise a friend on some flooring needs she has for a retail shop she is relocating into a bigger space. Had a great time Friday evening with her and her staff handing out treats to all of the Elsa's, Storm Troopers, Super Heroes and Zombies who visited the store. I love to see the little ones, and the moms and dads who dress up to make the little ones comfortable with their own costumes!
     Of course since she is only about 20 minutes from Lancaster, I was able to squeeze in a trip to The Old Country Store quilt shop in Intercourse and do a little stash feeding. I was pretty proud of myself, I set a budget, stuck to it, and only bought things I had a purpose for already. I got a Kansas Troubles fabric to use as a background for a special project I have been planning for the last few months. It's a collaboration with my cousin that we are both really excited about. Once we get started I will definitely share it here.
     The other yardage I got was some French General "Joyeux Noel". I had intended to get a traditional "true red" with snowflakes for a quilt that I hope to be able to gift to my niece at some point, but when I saw this, it changed my mind! The color is not quite right in the link, it really looks a little more faded, almost a coral red, but very pretty.
   On our way home, we decided to take the Lincoln Highway instead of the Turnpike. The tolls are outrageous, and it's just monotonous on the Turnpike. The other benefit to the Lincoln Highway is the chance to stop and poke around in "junk" shops. Right outside of Gettysburg, we found a chair that needs a little TLC, but was identical to one that a favorite aunt of DDH had when he was growing up. couldn't find a price on it, so I asked the older gentleman at the front counter, and $25 later we were rearranging the back of the Escape to accommodate a piece of DDH's past, and a new project for me.

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    I came home with every intention of tackling the chaos in the sewing room and getting it closer to done, but I brought something else home with us in addition to the fabrics and chair... a nasty head cold. So instead of cleaning I decided to work on one of the quilts that I have in progress. It is a double nine patch variation inspired by this Blue and white double nine patch I saw on Pinterest. There was no credit given for the original maker, and mine is going to have a little different layout. I have all of the 3" nine patch blocks made, in both color arrangements, and all of the 3" squares cut to assemble them into Double Nine Patch blocks.

 Because I chose a fabric that looks like Moire, and has an obvious directional print, assembling the blocks took more patience than I have tonight. To keep track of the number I had done, and keep them in the right orientation, I pinned groups of 5 with a safety pin and threaded the safety pin across the bar of a clothes hanger. Even taking extra precautions did me no good! I was able to complete the five blocks that are done in this configuration, before I had to call it a night. After three blocks got sewn together wrong twice I figured that was a big clue!

 

Thanks for stopping by to check out my blog. If you would like to see what others are working on, check out Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times!