Update on trip

Our "mini-vacation" was stressful, to begin with.

Our van developed what turned out to be a recall enhancement (they don't tell you about it until it breaks) with a part that keeps the oil in the car.

That's an important part and in my thinking, it should have been fixed before a failure.

Anyway, we had car trouble and finding help on a Sunday is next to impossible.

But, we were all safe and that was the most important part.

After fighting with the dealership, AAA, and Enterprise, we got the car in for repair and had transportation, we headed for Coushatta in Kinder, LA.

That part of the trip was OK, but the stresses of the vehicle problem made it not so restful and not so much sewing being accomplished.

When I take my sewing stuff to a hotel, I take over the room.

I have a mini-retreat.

What did I finish on the first trip?

This is another set from Karen K. Stone at the Biloxi retreat.

I think I have this many more to make but in two different colorways.

Once I finish them, I will be trying out how I want to place them for "My" quilt from that progressive retreat.

I'm in a block swap with my friend, Lorena, and made the 12 blocks.

I can't make my mind up if I want to change out two of them or not.

One of my guilds is doing a joint quilt for the place we meet.

This was what was in the kit, so I finished that and returned it on Friday.

I tried out making a few of the masks and like this style better.

I don't suck the mask into my mouth when I'm breathing.

I think I made 6 of them.

Since the dealership didn't get the part in by Friday, they couldn't fix the van.

So, when we were making decisions, we drove home and kept the rental car.

DH found the part locally and we were on the road again on Sunday.

We dropped the part off on Monday and they finally fixed the van.

We drove back to Coushatta, less than 3 hours, and had a nice 4-day mini-vacation.

This is three leftover blocks from the class I took with Charlotte Angotti at Houston.

Now to quilt it.

This is called Light Speed and is for Tom & Sandy (they know about it).

I am putting on borders.

I wanted to see it finished to decide what to do next.

The pattern has two blocks that are not needed.

I decided to use them to make a journal cover for one of the guild challenges.

These two little darlings are a gift from my Secret Sister.

I need to find backing fabric and quilt them.

Aren't they adorable?

A fun block from green scraps.

Another journal cover.

I took one of my UFOs that turned out to only be fabric and one QST block.

I didn't really want to make lots more blocks, so I decided to try another journal cover.

DD's flamingo pillow was finished.

I quilted it in light pink threads.

She and her roommates love it.

During all this cutting and piecing, I broke a rotary blade.

It was fairly new, probably a little more than a week old.

This is the very first time in 30 years of quilting that I have ever broken a blade.

I've chipped them, but wow, that was scary.

So, I made some progress and think it was a successful mini-vacation, well, two min-vacations.