Phoenix quilt shop + charitable quilting

Both Joann's and Cabbage Rose quilt shop were located within walking distance of my sister's condo outside of Phoenix. Obviously I hit both while on vacation last week.

I loved how the quilt shop was set up and decorated. Organized yet whimsical. Candy-colored, vintage sewing machines atop tall shelves filled with gorgeous bolts of fabric.

They had a bunch of those glittery, sparkly, metallicy kinda prints which were fun to look at but not quite my cup of tea. Also a ton of batiks. I really liked the huge variety of vintage/antique looking floral, stripe and dot prints.

My five week old niece caught a nasty cold and landed herself at the hospital the day before I headed home. She's all better now, so no worries.

But look at that awesome quilt made by some wonderful retirees! She gets to keep it, cool right? Check out AZ Blankets 4 Kids for more info on the group responsible.

I've seen lots of charitable quilting going on around blogland and I've always admired it. I'll have to look into my local guild and see if I can get involved in this sort of thing!

Hope you're having a lovely weekend. I'm stitching up a storm :D

A little desert R&R + hexie progress

Spent the past week visiting my sister's family out in Phoenix. I met my newest niece (5 weeks) and spent lots of time bonding with her older sister (24 months).

The new big sis and I just loved playing with hexagons. She'd count their sides and chew on them and spread my neat little piles out all over the place. Great fun!

I cut and packed bunches of scrappy 2.5in squares so I could EPP to my heart's content while away from home base.

I even assembled a travel sewing kit complete with everything I needed for making 4 or 5 hexie flowers at a time. The nail clippers make for excellent thread snippers.

I made about 12 more while on vacation, bringing the completed flower count up to 43. I'm using these for the Scrap Attack QA.

Not bad, right? I stole moments to sew during nap time, plane or car rides and evenings spent in front of the tv after bonzos were in bed for the night.

It's back to the needle and thread for me!