National Sewing Month-Days 19-23...

...And Retreat Report,

Design Wall Monday

And Staying With Grands

 The other day I said I sewed something that I couldn't show. It was this tote bag. I used a preview pack from Benartex and had a blast making it for our Greedy Gift Exchange at retreat. That is always so much fun and it made me feel good that so many wanted my bag. Jody took this home with her--does this make us even now?  

We spent Friday working on these bags. We used Gecko Delight (pattern here) and each of us made one to fit our personalities.  Mine is on the left and my table mate, Cheryl's is on the right. Cheryl cut out oodles of these butterflies and offered them to anyone that wanted them. Thanks Cheryl-it was so fun to sit with you.  I dug into my 1 1/2" batik chunks to create an even more scrappy band. I only had my featherweight with me and she did an awesome job. I hadn't used the walking foot with her before and she did beautiful. I will be making another bag and using my big machine and the decorative stitches that makes this bag so fun. 

Parade of bags. Aren't they great!  After the bags were finished, out came the Pineapple Crazy project. I finished 1 more border block and 4 pineapple blocks.  Each time someone gave me new scraps, I put them into the block immediately so old and new friends will be in my quilt.  

I spent Saturday morning swapping out strips.  This is one of my favorite things to do. I get to touch all the pretties and we each end up with such a fabulous assortment of new fabrics. We also did black and white strips but I forgot to take a picture.

Sunday morning I came home from retreat to unload the car of non-essentials, then repacked it to spend the next 4 nights with the grands while their parents went on a little vacation.  The only sewing since Sunday morning has been on my Circle of Jewels. I can still say I'm sewing everyday, Maybe later today I can get out my machine.  

As usual retreat was a blast. I have such great friends and being able to spend time with them doing what we all love to do, well does it get any better than that!

Last week's list of plans:

• Keep working on Tell It To The Stars  Over halfway
• Finish cutting Wishes and Friends and Companions blocks  All blocks are finished-Yippee!!
• Lay out next row for Circle of Jewels.  Done!
• Finish packing for retreat  Done!
• Attend retreat  Done and FUN!

Plans for this week:

• Recover from retreat and babysitting. :0)
• Get all retreat stuff put away.
• Tell It To The Stars
• Friends and Companions block for the week.

That's probably all I can get to.  Have a great week.