Mountains and Pillowcases

After returning from a lovely trip to St. Louis it has been a whirlwind of work and camp and getting ready for school to start... and a last minute jaunt up to a friend's mountain house last weekend. My return to full-time work last February has made it hard to stay as connected to two of my favorite ladies as I would like, and all of us being available to run away for a quick weekend of girl bonding was just too good to pass up.

My crazy friend Melissa was so excited at the prospect that she went completely over the top whipping up goody bags for us. They were so cute, little trinket necessities like a big drink cup and leis among other dollar store treats, and she somehow managed to print up some cute t-shirts and make pillowcases! If you watch The Office you will recognize the t-shirt quote, and all weekend you could hear melissa expounding "it isn't an event without SWAG!". I have to say I agree!

My pillowcase was made with squirrel fabric (because she is evil, but also knows I love that line) and some lovely Heather Bailey fabric. Christy's pillowcase was cupcakes with cute pink University of Georgia fabric on the edge.

We pretty much ate a huge breakfast, sat on the porch, read trashy magazines, ate snacks, sat on the porch, and gabbed. There may have been a few very large cups of sangria... mmmm.

Back to the pillowcases for a moment. I mentioned in my pillowcase tutorial what a great gift pillowcases are, but I just have to emphasize it again! All week I have gone to bed and smiled at my pillowcase from last weekend, and it will always remind me of good times with friends. Before putting the one Melissa made on my pillow, I had on one from the set that my friend Audrey made for a wedding gifty in our wedding colors. I can pull those out every anniversary as just another little reminder of that wonderful day. We also have ones that we put on pillows for birthdays and almost all major holidays. If you haven't made some I highly recommend it!

Audrey's wedding pillowcases

Knitting Over Saint Louis

I couldn't resist a picture of the Clapotis finally getting some attention on the airplane. My new crackberry uploads pictures right to flickr, fun! Will be back next week after some STL Arch, Cardinals, Imo's pizza and family.

Butterflies Finally Finished!

I wasn't sure I was going to make my weekend goal of finishing the butterfly quilt after carousing at Melissa's 40th birthday party last night, but this afternoon I rallied! I shook off the margarita haze, blasted some tunes (thanks to Jay's suggestion) and tackled the binding. At quilt camp my mom convinced me that I should try machine sewing my binding, and that really helped me complete the binding quickly also. To machine sew the binding you do the first side as usual, and then use a serpentine stitch to do the other side instead of sewing it by hand. I appreciate the speediness of it, and I think it did well on this quilt that I have always planned on being a picnic quilt, but I don't think I would use it on anything I had spent a lot of time on. Would be good for quick baby quilts too.

Specs:

Jane Sassaman's Butterfly Garden Fabrics

71" X 73"

Machine Appliqued Butterflies

Machine Pieced and Freemotion Quilted

July = Non Stop Action

I wanted to get my binding strips cut out and sewn on to take up to the lake for the fourth to finish up my butterfly quilt, but sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the week. Also, Jack says there is not enough room in the car! Every weekend coming up seems to be completely booked, but hopefully I can eek out some time to finish the quilt, it is sooo close to being done.

Our fourth was full of family and fireworks, both natural and man-made. Hope yours was great too!