Paper Piecing

Yesterday was my first adventure with paper piecing. Basically, you have a piece of paper with a pattern on it. You lay your fabric behind the pattern and sew in the line. Next, you flip the fabric away, and sew on the next and next until you have a finished block. I've made a little tutorial to help myself remember how to do this, because I'm sure in one month from now I'll be saying, "How did we do that again?"










It was nice to get away for a few days, although it's a long drive to New Port Beach. The resort was HUGE - over 700 villas. Lots of pros and cons. everything was very nice, but no matter what you did, you had a ways to walk. Even the clubhouse was a bit of a walk, and we were in the closest set of villas. Also, there was no restaurant on site, so you either had to drive somewhere or order in. There were 4 swimming pools and 2 jacuzzi spas and an onsite dayspa. We did spend one afternoon at the pool, but I never went in. It was a little overcast most of the time we were there, but still enough that I did get sunburned on my chest.

Our villa had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a full kitchen, dining room, living room and balcony with a table and chairs. I had a picture of the livingroom, but my husband is sitting there in his underwear, so he probably doesn't want me to share that shot!




On Saturday, Andy and I took the shuttle to Crystal Cove beach and walked around there for a couple of hours. They have a little bar and cafe there, so we ate lunch as well. They have some really cute cottages right on the beach that they rent out, so we may look into that for a future trip. We walked back up (and I do mean UP) to the resort, so that was quite a trek.

Shopping in NewPort Beach is incredible. They have one large mall called Fashion Island. I don't know how many shops there are, but they have Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales, Nordstrom, Macys, Juicy Couture, Giorgiou (can't remember how to spell that), and probably hundreds of others. The only place I bought anything at was J.Jill, and I just picked up a couple of tops and a pair of shorts and casual pants for summer. My feet were giving me problems all weekend, so I didn't want to get any shoes - good thing!! I also found a couple of cute sweaters at Banana Republic in Laguna Beach, but ended up getting them because they didn't have the colors I wanted in my size.

I did get a little sewing done besides the quilt, and I do mean LITTLE. My friend Lindsay had a baby yesterday, so I made her a blanket.