Vacation Prep

We are taking a winter vacation to the Canary Islands. I decided to only take cross stitch projects since they are the easiest to pack.  We will be gone for 10 days so I don't want to run out of things to keep me busy! 

I'm taking 12 ornaments and a little 5 x 7" picture project. A few years ago we went to Hawaii for two weeks and I finished nine cross stitch ornaments. It is always better to have too many.

They all pack up nicely in my cross stitch kit. Very easy for me to pull out and work on during a flight. 

I have also been cleaning up the sewing room...getting ready for my return when I can tackle the borders on two quilts. I have been trimming my stash of scrap half-square-triangles.

I have about 300 here...but they are from 2 1/2" strips which yields an odd sized square that is 1 3/4". These all came from a king-sized quilt I made 5 our years ago and I've been hoping there would be  enough HSTs to mix with the background fabric for two pillow shams...but...I left that background fabric in Alaska so I'll have to wait...again...to finish this one.

At least I am getting caught up on the tiresome task of trimming these HSTs.

And I am always making more HSTs...this is my never-ending leader/ender project.

And I wanted to show my cupcake ornaments after I "sculpted" them a little bit.

Before...

After...

I stitched through all layers, outlining the frosting and cupcake paper edge to give the ornaments a little more shape.