May already?

Wait, what? It's May? Whew.

SO, my fam and I were very lucky to take a trip to Portugal this spring. My husband travels an insane amount for work, so those airline and hotel points add up to vacation for us! We love to travel. Here I am on a beautiful beach. Like how I can sneak a beach trip in anywhere in the world? Hehhehheh.

Here are the other parts of Chez Ellington.

There are so many incredible things to see in the world. And eat. My husband and I are big on food. See how happy I am with this big Sangria pitcher in front of me?

This was my (and Joe's) most favorite dish in Portugal. Just looking at this picture makes me hungry. Oddly, it was a very thick sort of zuppa de pesce or bouillabaisse. Normally, I'll not order something like that, just not my very favorite. But, wow. What a dish.

Ok so on to other creative mis-endeavors. Remember the purple quilt with the paper pieced border? It's been sitting in my Finish IT pile for awhile now. I picked it up and decided I just did not like the border on it. So, with trusty seam ripper in hand, off it came. Here is is after being quilted (red flowery things) and pinning the binding. Yes, I machine bind everything.

With both of my bees ended, I turned my attention to the free piecing group on Flickr that I am in. Whoa, I realized, I am 3 months behind! So I got cracking. Some things worked out okay. Like below:

And some things just went kerplooey. This poor sad star is going in the Outta Here pile:

Oddly, I keep having star problems. Not the first time, either. It's not a complicated block, but my brain just refuses to play with it. I'll power through them and maybe say good bye star block for awhile.

See? Just more than wonky and will require a little rippage and resew. Whatevah. It happens!

Next up for me are next month's free piece block, and I start cutting for the Triangle Modern Quilt Guild Kona solids challenge! Those nice Kaufman people sent us 40 charm packs!!! John, the swap swami extraordinaire, chose the dusty color set- very cool. Really, the ideas are still percolating. Which means I need to sketch. And the weather is so perfect for sitting on the deck and sketching. SO that's where I'll be, maybe with some sangria too.