Leaving on a Jet Plane

 Yup I love that song.  But it's true tomorrow morning I head of to Milwaukee for the GFWC convention where I will be representing the nonprofit that I work for by day.  (General Federation of Woman's Clubs, I know you'll ask because despite attending at least one Juniorettes meeting in High School I had no clue until last year either.)  But I couldn't leave you all with out some eye candy (especially since I won't be back until at least Tuesday of next week).

I received a great little package in the mail this week.  My bag from the goodie bag swap came from Corrie and I love it.  She nailed it.  Let's see I told her I liked pink and orange and needed a bag with plenty of room because I often carry not only my own stuff but my husbands medical supplies as well.  This is what she came up with.  Isn't it the sweetest.

She even nailed me on the sweet little extras because she sent gummy candy (which I love) a little zippered pouch and a journal book.  Which by the way I've been wanting to pick up to keep grocery list and coupon match ups in since I have become so concerned obsessed with keeping tabs on lately.  The only required "extras" for this swap was a sandwich size baggie of fabric scraps.  Sorry they didn't make it in the picture because I already started using them...

I made my first block for the Japanese + & x quilt along.  It's made all from scraps and at first I thought I hated it but then it grew on me a little.  Now I think I kind of like it.  Maybe I do like it.  I trimmed mine down a little small by accident.  I thought it strange I had so much room on the sides but oh well it was really a practice block anyway.  I might trim them all down to this size though or I might just start over.  I am finding myself wishing I had some fabrics with words on them.  The blocks with words in the flickr group are just so appealing to me.  Honestly I don't think I own a stitch of Japanese fabric so maybe that's what is missing.

Hope you all have a great weekend and I'll see you when I get back from Milwaukee!  If you know of great quilt stores or restaurants there leave me a comment and tell me about them.  I'll have some time in the evenings and I'd love to check it out.