What would you pack for a trip?
Today Josh, James and I packed up and headed to Asheville for a quick one-night trip. We enjoy taking these short trips because they don’t take much time to plan, aren’t super expensive, and it gives us the chance to visit our favorite restaurants and shops all in one day.
Except we got to Asheville and found there was no vacancy! I’m not sure what’s going on there, but the only hotels that weren’t filled to capacity were the super expensive ones and that just wasn’t what we were expecting today.
So we headed back home and I started thinking about the bag of crafty stuff I packed for this trip. Whenever we’re getting ready to go, I will throw a handful of supplies in a bag and head out the door with something creative in mind. Usually in the evening we watch a movie and I’ll spend time hand stitching, knitting, or crocheting.
The gear I picked was pretty simple – a white fat quarter, handful of colorful scraps, thread, scissors, and an embroidery hoop. I’ve been really inspired by Melissa Averinos quilted faces I’ve seen through Instagram and I wanted to try making some angry faces.
Why angry faces? They make me happy!
Putting together this bag of travel gear pushed me to identify what I really wanted to play with today. Had we stayed overnight in Asheville I wouldn’t have a choice – if I wanted to stitch on something I’d be limited to just the gear in my travel bag.
So when we got home I decided to stick to the bag and make myself be creative and adventurous at home. I spread out my materials over the kitchen table and have had a blast cutting and arranging small angry face squares.
So what would you pack in your travel craft bag? What do you really want to play with today? Can you give yourself permission to pull out your materials and make a big mess? I promise you’ll have fun if you do!
Let’s go quilt,
Leah Day
I usually take crocheting for the car, and sometimes some hexies for a cross stitch project. If the lighting in the hotel is really bad, and it usually is, I stick with the crocheting. We're leaving tomorrow morning, and my projects are all packed!
My travel project is always EPP. I have 2 different large quilts going, and also teach EPP each month at my LQS. I always have something to keep my hands busy… in the car, at the orthodontist, and in the evenings in front of the TV.
I take Hickory Hill 'Hickory Nuts' Hexies Template pieces-precut: backing, batting top held together with Clover clips. ALWAYS a Clover threader & child scissors for the plane. This is perfect for the car or the 'new crammed plane seating'.
Actually, today I have been designing labels for the last three landscape quilts I made. What's really fun to do is to use a photo of the quilt when it was in its earliest stages (background only, or with a few pieces pinned on to the design board) and then put my finished quilt title, my name, and the date finished over that photo. To me, this is kind of a wake-up call for the buyer of the quilt, reminding them that the finished design wasn't always there, that it pretty much came out of the ether, albeit in stages. So much fun!
Excellent! Have a great trip!
I love hexies for a small project. It does seem like plane seats are getting smaller and smaller, doesn't it?
Excellent! English paper piecing is definitely the perfect project for any sit and stitch time!
That is such a cool idea Linda! I love the idea of having a picture of the work in progress as the label. Awesome!