FNwF, RSC Light Blue, Letters to Santa QAL, and IL Shop Hop

The post title seems long but the actual post should be relatively short. Let's begin.

For quite a while I've been working on the Noah's Ark counted stamped cross stitch baby quilt. It has entertained me so much for the $5 (or was it $10?) that I spent on it which included the top and ALL the floss needed to complete it. The guild was selling off the remaining items from the quilt show boutique at deeply discounted prices. I am enjoying it so much! It's a great pick-up project!

The quilt stores in Illinois have started an Illinois Shop Hop which lasts all of August and September. Fred & I have been taking several Friday road trips exploring the towns and finding new and remembered fairly local quilt stores in our Southwest Region of the hop. Yesterday's trip was a long one as we ventured 129 miles straight north to visit Ma's Got a Notion in Havana IL So worth the trip! Tons of wide backs and civil war prints, flannels, and homespuns. I was in 7th heaven!! On we went to Jacksonville IL to visit Times Square Sewing and Sew Sweet Quilt Shop. We also made time to grab a bite to eat at Kim's. It was a small cafe with a friendly staff -- just the kind we place we like to eat! We made a note to try again to eat at Babe's in Havana. We tried to get in there but it was very crowded. Must be good, we thought! We tried to get in at Dora's Spinning Wheel but she's closed Friday - Sunday so that will be another day. After picking up my car for a brake job, we finally made it home .... 281 miles round trip.

With all that travel time, I couldn't just sit and chew poor Fred's ears off. I brought the embroidery and stitched in between stops and definitely during highway mileage. Check the header at the top. That's pretty much where I started the cross stitch on Friday. Here's a picture at the end of the day. I also sewed Friday evening watching Serena Williams lose to an Australian woman and it was a very exciting match! Now for the picture. Check out all the extra blue waves stitched! Now that's progress!

I'm considering the blue embroidery part of my RSC post because it is a light, bright blue too!

The Letters to Santa QAL hosted by Moda is proving very fun also. Stitching the letters is not difficult but there is a lot of cutting to be done before the sewing can begin. I'm OK with that. Just letting you know if you'd like to jump on board too! If you want to, here are the current links: Introduction, 1st Clue, and the Current Clue. I started sewing the letters at last week's retreat and accomplished JOY, CHRISTMAS, and the M for Merry. I now have the first three words finished.

 Click on one of the links above to see a picture of Moda's finished quilt so you can see where my words are going. I'm looking forward to sewing TWINKLE so I can mix in a little green!

Looking back, I guess I got a little wordy so this post is longer than I anticipated. Hope you at least looked at the pictures! Ha!

Have a great weekend and, if you feel like looking in on more quilty posts, check out the Friday night sewers HERE and the other rainbow scrappers HERE.