Busy, busy, busy

I've been home from the retreat for 2 weeks now and Crystal and Elliot are now safely at home in Arizona. I sure do miss them.

I have a new burst of quilting energy. I needed that quilt retreat. I was quite nervous about the reaction of the other retreaters about having a 9 month old baby there with us. We have never had any children at our retreats before. But these wonderful ladies pounced on that baby boy and spoiled him rotten and had a blast playing with him. He was absolutely perfect. Crystal stayed just one night and then came back home to sleep. I think more for Elliot's comfort (and her own!) and the fact that we old broads might keep him up too late with out snoring. She swears it was for our comfort! I chuckled each morning as 16 women watched the door to see if the baby was coming in yet.

I worked on 2 projects. I am doing a Four on the Road from Quilter's Cache. I got all of my blocks done and then discovered I didn't have enough of my background fabric to use in the borders. Suzanne thought she might have some in her stash at home so I put it away and was waiting to hear from her. Yesterday I got a nice little notecard that said if she has it, she can't locate it. Now I will have to go with plan B and use a different fabric for the border.

I worked on my Marbled Rounds Quilt. I had ordered the templates from Nancy Elliott MacDonald and had all of my pieces cut before leaving home. I got all of my blocks made and came home and sewed the black sashing to my blocks and it is now hanging on my design wall with the long sashing strips waiting to be sewn on so it can be made into a top. I already know how I want to quilt it. It is stunning, I love it and hubby hates it. (He just doesn't know art when he sees it!) So instead of hanging it in the living room like I'd originally planned, I'm going to hang it in front of some of my shelves in my quilting room. He doesn't know that when he is sitting in his chair and my door is open that quilt will be right in his line of vision! That will teach him to not like my work!!! I almost feel a bit evil with this plan but I'll get over that soon enough.

This week, I quilted a customer quilt and today I quilted and bound one of my older tops. I have spent some time each day with fabric in my hands. I've made alot of progress on my posie applique blocks and have only 2 more to do until I can start laying out the quilt. I finished the binding on a little table topper and on a lap quilt. I even took my sewing machine to work one day and worked on string blocks. But then got too busy and had to actually work! But my machine is still packed and ready for this week at work. I never know what kind of a day it will be--a sewing day or a work day! Gotta be prepared.

Now I need to get busy and work on a stocking for a stocking exchange. And since blogger doesn't like uploading my pictures, I am again photoless! I wonder if it has to do with changing the settings on my camera, the fact that I am still on pokey ole dial up or a combination of the two. Someday I'll have to try uploading from one of the girls computers.
(Tried again Sunday morning and I still can't upload my photos. Anybody have any ideas for me?)

Until then,
How's your Christmas sewing coming along???