Trick or Treat

While I was at the Quilt Expo (in June, in Washington, DC)

I picked up this fantastic Trick or Treat (by Deb Strain

for Moda ) jelly roll.

Halloween is my favorite holiday

and I have been dying to make a quilt for it.

Its going to be somewhere between lap size and twin size.

And I might have enough to get either a wall hanging or table runner out of it.

I also have a couple of matching panels that just need layered and quilted.

I ran out this morning and bought a black swirl and purple sparkle fabric to use as backgrounds and borders.

They are washed and ironed and the black is partially cut.

Tomorrow, the rest of the cutting and hopefully I'll start the piecing.

This should be #8 of my 11 in '11.

Its almost August and the time to think ahead to the holidays is here :)

Aloha!

Aloha, my friends!

Did you know that aloha has 3 meanings?
Hello.

Good bye.

I love you.

Its all in how you say it! Pretty cool, huh?

I learned several other new words while I was

far away in the Pacific ocean, but that's the

one we used most often.

I almost said it to the guy at the burger place last night.

It made me laugh.

So, we're back.

It was an amazing trip.

I'm already looking forward to the day we go back.

Some day.

Probably far in the future.

But some day!

I am disappointed to report that I didn't

visit a single quilt shop while I was away.

I found a few on google, but

they were usually too far away and on a day

we didn't have a rental car.

Total bummer.

But I did find these quilt squares

at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

And here is a pillow in the same display

Very pretty.

But since I didn't find a LQS to visit, I'm going to

have to find some hawaiin fabric online

and design a quilt as a remembrance of our trip.

Here is a pic of dh and I

And here are a few more misc shots

This is me and the kids at Volcanoes National Park

This is hubby, kids and grandma and grandpa

at Waimea Canyon

Hubby, our kids and our niece and nephew

on Waikiki Beach the afternoon of our arrival

Us and the boy at dinner one night

LOL! This is Allie and I kayaking in Kauai.

Hope you enjoyed just a brief peek at our amazing vacation.

Now that I am home, I can get back into my quilting!
What should get done first is running through my mind.

I have at least 5-7 quilts worth of fabric down in the Cave.

And 3 of those need done before christmas.

But, I'm still trying to recover from the trip.

And the sheer amount of laundry that needs to be done

is SCARY!

I'm sure I'll be working on something soon, tho :)

I'll keep you updated!

Santa Sack Swap for Jen

I heard a rumor that Jen recieved her Santa Sack and loved it,

so now I can post pics of it!

I decided on a grocery bag to hold Jen's goodies, so that it will

be reusable when the swap is over.

This is the outside.

I couldn't get those darn pinwheels to look perfect

but its pretty close!

To make it usable all year, I made it reversible:

As a little added touch, I made a matching luggage tag

as the to/from:

Jen, I'm so glad you liked it, I had alot of fun

making it.

Santa Sack Swap

My package from Jen arrived today

with my July Santa Sack gifts.

How fun!

I couldn't wait to open it!

Of course, I only got to open the sack.

But it is so cool!

Jen, its beautiful, thank you so much!

And because Allie pouted over me telling her to hold it up high,

you also get this photo:

But you only get that photo after this one:

Now I'm going to go squish and play with put the other package in the sack and put it in my sewing room.

PS~

Hey Jen!
I mailed your package yesterday, so hopefully it will arrive tomorrow!