Vacation's Over, Back to Stitching

At the end of the Cirque show they drop satin scarves from the ceiling. The hubs snagged one for me.

Sorry I didn't come through with the big photo show, but it was way too hot to walk the Strip (107 degrees) and take photos. I did take photos at Ralph Jones Display of the 2010 Christmas trees and will post those shortly so you can have a head start look into what this year's design vibe is going to be.

The neck pain I've had since the beginning of August, which was most likely the result of hefting the 1260 in and out of the SUV for 4 classes a week, got way worse in Vegas. Again, switching hotels every two nights meant that some days I was on check-out duty myself, carting around two 40 lb suitcases and a 25-30 lb tote bag (think wine/liquor/juice bottles). Bad, bad, bad! Owie!

Well, some anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxers and I may be good as new in a couple weeks, as long as I don't lift anything that weighs 10 lbs or more. If not, it's off to the orthopedist. We shall see what transpires. Tomorrow night is Happy Night, so I'll be feeling no pain on my way into the 3-day weekend, which I am really looking forward to knocking out some sewing during. I've got new projects to tackle with the fabric I brought back from Vegas.

This is a definite project for the weekend. These are blacks and oranges. The model for this tote was hanging in one of the Vegas shops I visited, and this is the exact fabric and button used on the model. The shop owner sent me to a regular fabric shop up the street (Heddy's) for trims and buttons, and to check out all the showgirl fabrics. A great stop. I bought a bunch of rattail for couching.

The Christmas Goose had this amazing apron on display. It slips over your head and is open in the back from the yoke down. It has a cute pocket and reminded me very much of an artists smock. The pattern designer is one of their customers, who was in the shop at the time. I couldn't resist the pattern. I thought the apron would make a super gift (and I wanted one as well). When I found Hobby Lobby, they had some decent fabrics on sale, so I picked up enough to make three aprons. And I got some big rick rack at the Goose.

Found this pattern at the Christmas Goose as well. Pincushion pies. How cute is that! Found the cherry fabric at Quiltique, know I have crust fabric at home, and the hubs and I ducked into a Sur La Table at the Miracle Mile and he found the 4" silicone muffin cups that should work out perfectly, especially since they'll be light and unbreakable.

I think I mentioned that one of the shops I visited, Nancy's, was going out of business. If my suitcases weren't so darn heavy to begin with, I may have taken license to go hog wild. Instead I just picked up some Sandy Gervais Awesome yardage. Not sure what will happen with it, but I do like having Fall fabrics on hand. At the top is the pile of rattail I bought, a couple yards each of 21 colors or so.

Life was good at Quiltique, my favorite of all the Vegas/Henderson shops I visited. They had Alexander Henry Day of the Dead fabric to add to my collection. One of these days I'm going to make something really notable from all the bits I've managed to squirrel away since first discovering this line at Houston last year.

Sometimes you just have to buy something you have no plans for, because if you don't, you're going to remember you saw it and regret not picking it up. These two buttons caught my eye at Heddy's, and while I considered yardage, I settled for a fat quarter of this fab heart batik which I found at Quiltique.

And this is the star of the car. I found these neat little gadgets on the notions wall at Quiltique. They're made by the company that makes the rubber bobbin rings. These little spindles are soft and squeeze into a spool of thread, then the bobbin squeezes on the top and you take the bobbin thread and hook it into a groove at the top of the spindle. There's another piece you can buy that you can latch them into, side by side, but what I really wanted was a way to keep threads and bobbins together that I'm carting to classes, or planning to use again in the near future. I love these. 12 in a pack for $5.75. What a deal! I also found Klasse needles at this shop (which was a Bernina dealer). Buy 2, get one free, always, and they cost less than Schmetz at JoAnn. I will likely be ordering in the future from Quiltique, and it's a definite stop for me on all future trips to Sin City.

Last year on my trip to Hawaii I saw these little guys in every shop I visited. Of course I didn't buy one and regretted it. Picked this one up in the swap meet we went to on Sunday (a big indoor flea market on Decatur Street that's open on the weekends. Lots of junk, but lots of fun stuff too.

Yes, his arm is waving. Guess I should go out and buy some lottery tickets tomorrow :)

Well, I'm off to try out the new muscle relaxers, hoping to get some sleep tonight. Must go to the office tomorrow. But chin up...the weekend is a day away.