Happy Fourth of July!

It's a very weird week.  Canada has a holiday on July 1, the US has one on July 4. It makes for a very quiet atmosphere around the office as people on both sides of the border take extended vacation.  I'm OK with that.  I might even get a lot of work done today even though I think most of our office is back to work today. 

Yesterday was another crazy day and I accomplished a LOT. I'll be sharing that with you later this week. I have a date with the computer tonight to edit pictures and upload them to the internet. There are a LOT of pictures to deal with, but it's all part of my next deadline and I better not miss it! I made a promise. 

And now that it's July, I had better be thinking about how to spend my summer vacation - well I like to take my vacation in the summer and I have nothing planned to date. Well, nothing except for the sewing retreats.  Funny how those dates get priority on my calendar. 

I'm pretty much packed for the retreat.  I did some more cutting last night on things that I wanted to take with me. That means there should be NO panic packing tonight. The two bags are crammed with projects. The tool bag is filled with options and I'm ready. Wait - I completely forgot about packing some clothes. That is always the least important thing to me and usually throw in whatever happens to be hanging around! I'm so not into clothes!  WAIT - I mean, I'm into clothes to hide the ugly rolls, but I'm pretty much OK to wear whatever. 

I do have some show n tell today. I'm not sure if I've shown this before. So much of what I make is "secret" and then once it gets shown, I forget to post it.  Anyway - here goes.  These are the small giveaway items that we had in the Northcott booth when we went to Paducah. This was made from a pack of nine  5-inch squares. My challenge was to make something from the nine DIFFERENT squares.  A big challenge indeed.  I started by making a block that used all the fabric in the pack. 

Block from nine 5-inch square

Then I added two borders (note the nicely mitered corners) and made a small wall hanging with the block in the centre.  

Small wall hanging

There is a cushion cover as well, but do you think I could find it??   Well, the stack of finished goods in my house has risen dramatically over the last couple of months.  I MUST do something.  I have a plan and just need a day or two to set it in motion.  I could schedule a couple of vacation days, stay at home and get all this done. But what is the fun in that?

I see my kid is writing a blog. Check out this link -   Healthy travel!!!   A kid after my own heart!  And doesn't the look of all those crafting supplies make your heart race?  Oh yes - that's what I would love to do.  I need tons of practice (just like machine quilting) so I can get going. But there is no time.  I don't know why, but I'm so obsessed with quilting - it's almost like I have a mental health issue with it!   Oh well - it could be worse.

On that note, I'm out of here.  A busy day, but NOT an insane day of trying to meet a deadline AND pack for the retreat.  Everything is very much under control.  How did that happen?  A bit of planning perhaps?

Have a super day!

Ciao!