It's SO GOOD To Be Home!!!

Easy Street is on my Design Wall today....  

Well, it will be once I get these strips sewn together and make a ton of 4-patches  :*D

We just got home last night from our 9-day marathon trip to visit with family in North Carolina for the Thanksgiving holidays!  Whew!  We had SUCH a great time, but we are pretty exhausted.  It is always a joy to spend time with our family, and we treasure every minute together!  But afterward it is so nice to come home to our own home, with our own bed and our own things!  Dorothy was right, There's No Place Like Home!!!

I do think this little fella is going to be missing us though....  =^..^=

This trip, we even took our 17-year-old cat, Gypsy, with us because I would have worried about her too much to enjoy myself, even with someone coming in to feed her twice a day.  I just felt that even for a cat, being left alone that long would not be a good thing.

We were pleasantly surprised at how patient and quiet she was during the trip out there and then back and forth to different homes.  She was a real trooper and behaved like the royal princess she is =^..^=  She was not named Little Egypt for nothing!!!  But on the way home, she had had enough I guess.  About 2 hours into the trip, she began letting us know in no uncertain terms that she wanted out of that darn cage!!!

So we decided that as long as she sat still we would try letting her sit on my lap for a while.  This was my view the rest of the trip!

I was surprised at how interested she was in everything out of the window!  She loved the mountains and was just amazed at the semi trucks as we passed them.  She was fun to watch!

But I can tell you, she was one tickled little kitty when she got to her own house!  She kept looking around as if to make sure she wasn't dreaming!  I actually think we all felt that way :*)

As soon as we got in the house and unpacked the car, I happily trotted up to my sewing studio and dove into the first clue for Easy Street!  Remember I told you yesterday that I found this wonderful gray .....

 .... to use instead of this one I had in my stash?

Well, I could hardly believe it, but when I put them with the background black-on-white (BOW) prints, I decided I like the original gray better!

New gray with the BOW prints

Original gray with the BOW prints

I felt the new one blended in too much with the white prints, and the original gray seems to have more contrast with them, so I went with it.  The new one will go in the stash for another project.


I cut my strips very quickly tonight with my Sizzix 2" die cutter - wow does it make fast work out of that job!  This is 6-1/2 layers of fabric, each cut into five 2" strips.  One swipe of the cutter and I had all the gray strips I needed for Clue #1!

And very little waste too.  That was something I was concerned about with using the cutter, but I've found that I don't have enough waste to worry about at all.  This is all I had left over from the cuts!

Then I layered up the cutter with these cute BOW prints to pair up with the gray strips and make 192 four-patches!

I'll get as many 4-patches as I can sewn up today during my Monday sit-n-sew with friends.  Several of us are doing the Mystery, so it will be fun to work on it together.  I'll try to update this post later today to let you know how far I get :*)

And just because I missed you all so much, I want to share a funny picture with you....

Have you ever seen a plane being transported by truck before?  I HADN'T EITHER!!!  It was the most ridiculous looking thing hanging out of the back of that truck!  But I suppose if you've gotta move a plane and it doesn't fly, you don't have too many options :*D

I hope you all have a fantastic week!  I'll be linking up with Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville for her Easy Street linky party and with Judy at Patchwork Times for her Design Wall Monday post.  Be sure to go by and check out what everyone is working on!!!

Also linking up with:

   

Hugs & Blessings,
Teresa
=^..^=