packing

We've had to get serious about packing this weekend. We leave for Zambia, Africa next week (read about our trip here)! There are so many details to take care of still but we are making good progress.

Because our flight tickets are special "missionary" tickets, we are allowed to check three 50 lb bags per person at no charge. That's 300 lbs for us together! We've gotten lots of donations of kids clothing, school uniforms, school supplies and Bibles so they are mostly filled up. Just about everything we are taking we are leaving there as donations.

I am SOOOO excited about this trip! I can't wait to get going!

These are all the bags.

They look smaller in the photo than in real life.

And see, I sewed something practical too.

A pouch that you can tuck into your pants with the loops secured to your belt (we're to have our passport on us at all times).

One thing I am definitely looking forward to: daytime temps of 75 degrees in Zambia (vs. 102 that it is here right now).

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Hopefully, I'll get to post once more before we leave.

exciting day!

Wow, yesterday was awesome!

First, I will start with the most exciting part. My quilt patterns are now for sale at the Fat Quarter Shop!

Next, I am totally on a winning streak (two wins is a streak for me LOL!)! I won this book that Stitched In Color was giving away (THANK YOU Rachel!). The quilts in this book are so gorgeous and modern. I'm ready to be a part of a quilting bee!

And finally, this beautiful fat quart bundle of 1001 Peeps came in the mail yesterday. It's the dusk palate. So pretty!

Yup, it was a good day. :)

this weekend

Something that has been tempting me away from my knitting:

About a month ago I whipped up a Colorbrick Quilt using a fat quarter bundle of Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush fabric (in the Swept Away palate I think). I loved it but it was rather plain. Being eager to try out hand quilting with perle cotton no. 8, I jumped right into it. This quilt is for ME after all so I'm not concerned with absolute perfection. It's actually not difficult at all. There are so many gorgeous hand quilting projects out there that I could not resist any longer.

I hope everyone has been having a lovely weekend!

elementary

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one who has had trouble figuring out how to use the key to tighten the Knit Picks options needles. I originally posted about my problem with keeping the needles tightened onto the cable here. Long story short, I was totally clueless there was a key you were supposed to use to tighten it and then, once I knew that, I couldn't figure out how use it!

Once Devon (and others) left me a comment explaining it (THANK YOU!) I couldn't believe how simple it was. I think the word "key" confused me and made me try to make it more complicated than it was. When I think of a key, I think of something twisting to tighten, which I guess it does that but, I was imagining like a key to a door. It's an elementary concept but that doesn't mean it comes naturally to my brain!

Anyway, in case anyone else's brain out there works like mine, here is a photo showing it.

I haven't had them come loose since the first time I used the key to tighten them!

simply beautiful!

Whew! Sorry I've been away so long! As you will see I've been working hard to finish this Little Folks Log Cabin quilt, which ended up being a queen size!

I am SO, so, so thrilled with how this came out!

Made using an entire fat quarter bundle of Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks voile collection.

The back is a simply pieced combination of Kona Ash, Kona Snow, Moda Bella aqua and a strip of leftover Little Folks.

I made the blocks 15" square (14.5" square finished) and used a total of 36 blocks for a quilt that measures 87" by 87". The design was inspired by SouleMama's Little Folks pillows in this post.

I decided to quilt it with simple straight lines in a grid pattern. This is absolutely the softest quilt EVER!

I must admit that piecing was a little more challenging with the voile because it is so slippery! I tried using Best Press as I pieced but it didn't seem to make any difference in stabilizing it.

A few other things I did was I took Anna Maria's advise to use a smaller machine needle since it is a more fine fabric. Some people have also had fraying problems so I shortened my stitch length a bit to mitigate anything of that sort.

I also read that it was somewhat of a nightmare to sandwich and baste a voile quilt but I had no problems at all with shifting. I just used a ton of pins and thankfully all went well!

The vibe this quilts gives off is cheerful, summery, luxurious happiness! I would love for it to stay with me but this is a custom order for a friend...I know she will be ecstatic when she sees it!