Did You Miss Me?

I hope not! I was up late last night sewing and I just didn't feel much like posting to my blog. My bed was calling to me.

Hubby and I are going to a BBQ today, and I'm bringing a couple side dishes. So, with that in mind, yesterday I knew I was going to have to make myself presentable enough not to scare anyone and head out for a little grocery shopping. Well, I always kind of figure if I'm going to have to do ALL that work making myself presentable, I might as well take advantage of the effort and present myself at numerous places. And that's exactly what I did--Goodwill was the first stop, where I found a few odds and ends. Then I stopped at the quilt shop where I found a few more odds and ends. More specifically, several Prairie Paisley fat quarters found their way into my bag, as did two charm packs of the Portugal line by April Cornell. And after all the fun stops were completed, I made my way to Trader Joe's. Not that Trader Joe's isn't fun--because it is! So, all in all, it was a good shopping day with stops at three of my favorite places. Oh, and just so you're not worried about the lack of a Starbucks stop--well, I had ice cream in my Trader Joe's bags, so I headed home instead, gave Hubby some cash, and sent him out to Starbucks. The perfect day, yes?!

When I unpacked my quilt shop purchases, I put away the Prairie Paisley fabrics and pulled out the Portugal charm packs and looked through the Schnibbles patterns to see what I might want to make. I settled fairly quickly on the pattern called "X-Rated." And guess what? Turns out that pattern used the very same fabric line! So here's the fabric and pattern:

As I looked at the pattern, I noticed there were alternate instructions for making a larger quilt. And as I looked through my stash for a "good" neutral, I decided I wasn't too excited by any of the prospects. So I think today before the BBQ--if I have time--I'm going to run back to the quilt shop and buy another charm pack and some neutral. I have plans. I'll make the center the same as the pattern, but I have a different idea for the border; you'll just have to wait and find out what I'm going to do.

So, since I couldn't start playing with the charm squares right away, I went back to working on the Thimbleberries mini-BOM, and here's where I am so far:

Now I can either wait for the fourth quarter fabrics in October from my quilt shop, see if I can buy some of them on line, or use what I have so far to make that last square. And I think I have a plan for that too--I'll change it a little bit because in the original quilt, that square is primarily blue, but I'd like to bring some of the red/pink down into that corner, so stay tuned. Because I don't think I want to wait.

Finally, I wanted to show you what No-Blog Synthia sent me for my birthday. Hubby came in with the mail Friday night and there was a squishy little envelope that revealed this cute little quiltlet!

Synthia added a small sleeve on the back so it can be hung--she said she uses skewers to hang these on. See? My birthday continues! And I'm not even going to think about going back to work tomorrow--I'm in denial!

I hope your weekend is wonderful!