I'm Back from Washington!

Hi!  My goodness I have missed chatting with you!  I just returned from a week in Roy, Washington (a little town south of Tacoma) celebrating the marriage of my best friend from high school's wedding!  (Check my bio...this was a JUST A FEW years ago!)  It really is a wonderful love story.  Janet and Dave met and dated briefly while we were all in high school.  But then Dave went off to the military, Janet to her career and they lost touch.  Roll the clock forward, they reconnected and married on July 6th.

The view of Mt. Rainier from Janet's street.  Amazing.

Her sisters and I were there for a week and as the "city" of Roy hosts a 4th of July parade, well we just HAD to make a float....more specifically, a wedding cake float!

Here I am driving my very first golf cart/wedding cake float around to the back of the house to hide it from the bride.  My buddy was stealing me away from this secret activity so we could....wait for it...go quilt shop visiting!  Yeah!  The Worldwide Quilt Shop Hop continues!  I love that gal!

Here we are in front of the Quilt Barn in Puyallup (I love to say Puy-allup!).  The very friendly people there gave me a LONG list of quilt shops in Western Washington to help me plan my next visit to see my friend!  From this shop I added these fun pieces to the stash:

Then we stopped at Parkland Parish Quilt Co.:

I had to pick up a little more of my favorite Christmas collection from last year, Dear Mr. Clause:

I just love those whistling Santas!

The morning of the parade we told the couple that they were going to be IN the parade and unveiled our project:

We had family and friends dressed in Boston sports or Boston Strong shirts and marched along to "Sweet Caroline."   So much fun.

It was a wonderful vacation.  In addition to the parade float, I had lots of craft opportunities helping to prepare for the wedding.  Although I was away from my sewing room, I certainly got my craft fix for the week!  But, most importantly, it was a beautiful wedding and my heart is bursting with happiness for my dear friend.

Now that I am back, I need to finish the wedding gift!  The binding is on, time for hand sewing!

Oh and did I mention that my friend Janet is the conference coordinator for the annual Sewing and Stitching Expo in Puyallup?  Although she doesn't sew much herself she certainly knows a lot about the industry!  One of these years, I am going to attend this Expo, it looks amazing.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday!