First up is finally completing my little house quilt, which I titled Celebration. I thought it was a 4th of July house quilt, but now I think it may be sort of Christmasy (or not), so I went vague on the title. It’s made from my Home Sweet Home Mini Quilt pattern, and works up quickly. I need to make a Halloween mini houses quilt. Soon.
And since I’m still jet lagging, this is the label, so I can call it done. I love that fabric on the back.
Sometimes I get discouraged about the pile of stuff around my sewing room, and realize one reason why I don’t get a lot completed (which is why I pushed forward to get that little house quilt done) is because this has been a year of traveling. Other trips not on here are Kansas City, San Diego, Sweden (which was in conjunction with Copenhagen), and Switzerland. It’s been fun, but now I’m ready to stay home for a while.
I snapped this photo of my daughter and my mother together (my mother’s namesake) while we were in Utah, another one of our trips.
I finished up my final four Chuck Nohara blocks. I really like this one, and plan to use this design again.
I finished up Cindy’s blocks for our Spelling Bee group. Our group worked together for a year, swapping blocks with each other as we made words based on the alphabet on my Quilt Abecedary Blog. She asked for dark fabrics on low-volume backgrounds for her words.
Since her blog name is Live A Colorful Life, I couldn’t resist this black fabric with little bits of colorful triangles floating around in them.
I also finished Nancy’s blocks for her request on Mid-Century Modern Bee for November. It was a slash and fill approach to making trees, one on light blue and one on green. I hope she likes them. She’ll trim them up to her preferred slant, so they are bigger than she requested (she wants them at 6 1/2″ by 12 1/2″ finished). After four years of working together, our fearless leader decided it’s time to go, so I have only one more block to complete.
I see a lot of bees collapsing and going away, as people seem to have moved on to doing QALs or 100 Block Assemblies. I am still part of one bee (Gridsters) which, as a mark of faith in the bee concept, begins next year anew. I enjoy getting to know the women I trade blocks with over time, and will continue to follow them even though the bee is ending.
Finally, a note about yesterday’s election: In 2004-2005, I lived in Washington DC for a year, while my husband took his sabbatical at the State Department. I was able to attend the Inauguration Ceremonies of President George Bush’s second term. I did not vote for the man, but attended this display of our nation’s ability to keep our system of democracy rolling forward.
That cold January day was an emotional day, full of patriotism and pride in our country. When I was in DC a couple of weeks ago, they had already started building the massive platform which will hold the band, the dignitaries, the guests, and the future leaders of our country. I applaud our country’s ability to focus on what’s important, and hope that I can some time soon feel more enthusiastic about our recently elected officials, in both the Executive and Legislative branches of government.
I still believe in our democracy, and am glad to have participated in expressing this belief by casting my ballot Tuesday morning.
Final note: usually when I can’t decide how to typify my posting, I call it a This ‘N That post, and just throw stuff up. The downside? The title is so vague, if I scroll through later, I can’t tell what I’m talking about. (I also have the same problem when I visit my friends’ blogs, looking for something.) Thankfully, the search box on this blog is run by my software, so you can find just about anything by typing it in the box.
OccasionalPiece--Quilt! 