Hanging Out at NRV Fair When I Should've Been Packing for Quilt Camp!

All the essentials are packed and ready to go to Sew Biz Quilt Camp, which starts tomorrow:

My Bernina Quilter's Edition 440 with all its accessories are in the blue sewing machine carrier with (thank you, Bernina) padded handles.

The pink/brown caddy on top of that holds scissors, rotary cutting tools, seam rippers, assorted measuring and marking tools, pin cushions and pins, and all other notions.

My leather-handled market basket holds a chair cushion, cutting mat, cutting/ironing surface, and baggies full of half-done projects to work on.

The main thing I plan to work on at camp was actually started at Quilt Camp 2010. You can see that all the colorful tumbling block sections have already been pieced, and the brown background pieces have been cut. They just need to be arranged and strip-pieced. This is no small task, of course, which is why it's been moved from board to board for two years with no progress made (or even attempted). The fabric pinned below is for the border. Maybe I'll come home with a quilt top! Or maybe not... it just depends on what the fun Sew Biz ladies have up their sleeves for the weekend!

My portable design board was a gift at camp one year. It started out as as just a large, thick slab of styrofoam, which got even better with a tea-dyed muslin covering. So useful- and light to carry!

Some of my stuff is packed in my adorable new bags from TJ Maxx- made of my favorite Michael Miller fabrics! Hanging behind is the two yards of this fabric that I already had. I'm planning to make an iron caddy at camp to match! The smallest bag was perfect for my rotary stuff, and the larger held my most useful thread spools for camp.

So, that's the essentials. Tomorrow morning I'll have time to charge my camera, phone and cam-corder, and to pack the frivolous stuff- like a bed linens, clothes and toiletries!

Tonight, I had a great time with Mabz (left) and her friend at the New River Valley Fair!

One of the Fair highlights for me was seeing the 22 quilts made from the Sew Biz challenge fabrics! I'll post more about the challenge, the Fair and all about camp next week.