Sewing Weekend

My friend Cassie and my sister came for a long weekend almost two weeks ago and we did some touristy things in Springs.  We visited Red Rock Canyon Park:

We toured the Olympic Training Center:

And we made Cargo Duffel Bags!  It was awesome and I love how ours came out:

I do have to confess that my bag was a lesson in the importance of reading the directions.  I thought I would be glad to get all of the quilting of the pieces out of the way before Cassie came- mainly because it's such a loud process and I was looking forward to talking with her.  Well, it turns out that pre-quilting all of the pieces was definitely not a smart move but I made it work somehow:

Cassie's is perfect and she even exercised lots of patience in installing an impeccable lining too:

On Sunday night, Cassie got working on her Red Letter Day quilt:

And I started another Lily dress with some loved fabrics: an AMH Dowry print and a South African ShweShwe print I've had for ages:

I did a small pleat at the top of the sleeves instead of gathering them and I was much happier with the results- I also found it to be a much quicker process.  I also put half of a hair elastic on the back for the button closure instead of spending tons of time knotting embroidery floss on the back to make a loop:

Charlotte was the most stylishly dressed tourist at the Olympic training center, if I do say so myself (she was the one who insisted on wearing it that morning and I didn't argue):

This summer has been filled with visitors at our home and it's been awesome and helpful with the growing pains of our move.  Now it's time to get "back to normal" as the summer is drawing to a close.  I am looking forward to a little more structure and possibly squeezing in a little more sewing (hopefully.)

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts at Finish it up Friday.