{*~What I've been up too!~*}

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First I made a block for Patchwork Squared's Modern Solid's Quilt-a-long! This post talks a little bit about my creative process and shows you how to create the Tonganoxie 9 Patch! Thanks for having me Ryan & Charlie!

Then I started cutting....and cutting...and cutting...

 

and more cutting!

Because this weekend is Redwood Sewing Center's Mystery Retreat! When I was tweeting about this yesterday a lot of people were curious so here goes!

You get a packet from them when you sign up. In the packet is cutting instructions and a little chart!

 

So the fabrics on the left are the ones they are using in their quilt, the right is where you paste your picks. They tell you where the color is featured within the quilt and you pick your fabrics around that. You DON'T know what the finished quilt looks like! It's a MYSTERY! Through out the weekend they give you instructions how to sew stuff together.

I picked some favorites: quilters linen, far far away 2, west hill (I ran short & thankfully Jeni & Megan saved my butt!) some Parisville (Thomas very kindly sent me some scraps to play with!), I also raided my scrap bin and if it was pink or purple, I cut it! I cut over 300 pieces. That's crazy right?! I'm so so so excited! I picked FFA2 moons for one border and Anna Maria Horner Innocent Crush lilac-y stripe for the other. It's going to be about 88x88, I'm dying to quilt it myself and give our wedding quilt a break. I have 9 quilts we rotate on our bed and I've been anxious to give them a rest & make a new one. Did you see Sarah is doing a naked bed challenge? That's really fun!

Here is something I love that I don't think I've mentioned before. It's an ArtBin that they sell at JoAnns...probably Michaels too. I think they are used for scrapbooking BUT they are perfect sized for quilt blocks! I keep all my 12.5 inch blocks in here, they lay flat & organized. I have two, one for traveling with fabric, one for storing blocks. They are almost always on sale, they had them yesterday 50% off at JoAnns. Plus, aqua glitter!!! How can you say no to aqua glitter?!

I started my weekender bag! The outside is completely done, I'm not done yet with the lining. It wasn't hard so much as a lot of little steps. I had great company, Katherine was making one too. So we'd tweet back & forth about it. I'm not sure yet how to do the lining but I'm hoping I'll figure it out.

This is a little project I can't talk about because it's a b-day gift for someone who sometimes reads my blog (my mom! ha!).

I've been working on some videos, some orders, writing two new patterns, reading a LOT before bed, but one thing I haven't been doing is hand quilting. I'm not sure what's going on but my elbow gets a funny pain in it...it happens when I knit & cross stitch too. So I'm taking a little break from it which stinks because I have two quilts to be bound & a mini to finish quilting. And the weekender has you hand stitch the lining in! Eeep!!!

Tomorrow I'm getting my hair cut! I have really straight, like doesn't hold a bobby pin straight (I need to tell you that I typed that at first as a bobbin pin...sew much?;)) so I'm hoping it'll be cute and not helmet like. I'm trying to grow out my bangs. I want something very light & fun for the summer, I tend to be very serious & self conscious so this will be fun. Right now my hair is about 4 inches past my shoulders but you'd never know because it's always in a pony tail!

ok! I'm off to finish up some stuff! Have a great weekend!!!