A First

After living in this area all our lives, my husband and I saw our first tornado in real life yesterday.

It was awesome and disturbing at the same time.

Thankfully this weak funnel was actually 6 to 8 miles away (from our house) in a more sparsely populated area and from what I saw on the news it only touched down for a few seconds doing little damage. For two minutes or so we watched it until it shriveled up and dissolved back into the sky. My husband was entirely excited about seeing it but it was way too close for comfort for me after seeing the unbelievable devastation in Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma and other areas lately.

new little camera

A week and a half ago we went on a short notice "vacation" to Washington DC. My husband had to go up there for business for two weeks and they offered to fly me and Jack up for a long weekend to be with him. We had a fantastic time even though Jack came down with a mild fever/cold the day we left. We got to see some sights although only briefly since anyone who has a toddler knows you can't stop to smell the roses for even a minute. hahah!

In preparation for our trip I wanted to get a small point-and-shoot digital camera since I knew it would be too much to carry our bulky SLR while trying to wrangle a toddler.

Of course I had to make a cozy for it! I used the Camera Cozy tutorial on SewMamaSew. Since this camera is pretty small I shortened the length by a couple of inches for a snug fit.

For the outer fabric, I used Roses in Gold from Heather Ross' Far, Far Away 2 collection. The lining is some Hope Valley by Denyse Schmidt. I also used a double layer of batting for extra cushioning.

The camera is a Sony which shoots pretty good pictures and makes HD videos. Now, if only I could figure out how to get them onto the computer!

The trip definitely had some great down time for knitting. This is still my Effortless Cardigan. I'm using Knit Picks interchangeable needles and I'm having the worst time trying to keep them screwed in tight at the joints! Does anyone else have this problem and is it normal? This is my first pair of interchangeable needles so I don't know. It's pretty annoying.

Winner

The lucky winner is comment #5 - Susan of Knitter's Delight! She chose the knitter's prize. Susan, just email me at quiltsbyemily(at)yahoo(dot)com and I'll get you all set up. Awesome!

Thanks so much everyone for reading! I know I don't always have time to reply to comments but I appreciate each and every one!

Here's a little progress photo of my big custom order made entirely from Little Folks voile. Those blocks are time consuming!

Free Pattern for You!

Thank you for waiting so patiently! Here is the pattern for my Royal Squares Quilt.

What I love about this pattern is that it's perfect for using up a single precut jellyroll! Of course, you can also cut your strips from yardage (like I did).

If anyone makes this quilt I would love to see pictures!

Click the photo to download the pdf.

Enjoy!

P.S. Please be respectful. This is for personal use only. Thank you!