December Goals

I hate having posts with no pictures, but that's what I've got today.  My first December goal has been reached...I passed my NJ State Real Estate Licensing Exam!  My only quilting goal for December is to finish Andrew's quilt, which you can see here. Anything beyond that will be a surprise!  I do have 2 customer quilts to quilt, I plan to get started on those this weekend.  And I still have to do EVERYTHING related to Christmas...the shopping (I've done a little!), cards, baking, decorating, etc.  How many days until Christmas???  You know, this having to go to work thing really gets in the way!  :o)

Thanksgiving

I hope that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We left on Wednesday afternoon and headed north to Providence, RI to see Ellen.  We took her to dinner and although the Chili's left a lot to be desired, it was great to see her and spend some time with her.  Although she's done well at school, she's decided to come back home to go to school and live, so once Christmas comes, she'll be back home for good.  I'm so excited to have her move back home!!!

After spending the night in Providence, we  headed further north to Vermont to spend Thanksgiving with Andrew.  We had a great time!  The boss and I took a long walk on Thanksgiving afternoon, after watching Rutgers win.  We had reservations at Sam's Steakhouse for dinner...this was the first time in my life I ate in a restaurant for Thanksgiving!  After dinner there was a lot of game playing... 

We stayed in Vermont until Saturday.  We made a quick trip to Waterwheel House Quilts in Londonderry where I picked up a few things...

The bundle on the left are Kaffe Fassett's and the bundle on the right are from Lecien.  Both are beautiful! 

We had hoped for some snow while we were in Vermont, but according to all the papers, this is the first time in 15 years that the ski resorts didn't have snow to open on Thanksgiving.  Fortunately, on Friday night they got a start on it...

and Okemo will be opening this coming weekend!

While I was there, I read a book, spent some time knitting and worked on these two applique blocks.  One more block and I can start putting this one together!

And when I arrived home there were some beautiful Christmas paisleys waiting for me from the Fat Quarter Shop!

Once I take my state licensing test on Thursday I'll be ready to get started on decorating for Christmas and finishing up Andrew's quilt.  So, what did you do for Thanksgiving?

What was I thinking?

When Andrew moved to Vermont, I realized it was time to make him a new quilt.  I looked through some magazines, found a block I liked, played with it in EQ for awhile and sent him the results.  Then I moved on to making the blocks.  This is the result...so far!

I didn't anticipate that it would take SO LONG to make each block!  The nine patch centers were a breeze, and it really isn't a difficult block.  But the trimming of the hourglass blocks for the star points...THAT is taking forever!  I'm almost finished the blocks with the blue star points, which you see here. There are 48 of those.  Then it will be on to making the 35 blocks where the nine patches willl be blue and the star points will be red.  They'll be alternated with the blue.  I had high hopes of having this done for Thanksgiving when we head up to visit him.  Now I'm just hoping that I'll have it finished when we go up for Christmas!

Speaking of Christmas, do you use Pandora to listen to music? I decided to set up a station with all my favorite Christmas music, so I asked it for Andy Williams Christmas songs.  I spent a few hours listening to some fabulous Christmas music...Andy Williams, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, The Ray Coniff singers, Josh Groban, Harry Connick, and Michael Buble to name a few.  Give it a try...you get 40 free hours of music a month!

Almost there...

I've got one more week left of Real Estate Licensing class and tonight is a big test.  Our final is on Monday, then if I pass that I can go on to take the state licensing exam.  I've been spending my time studying, taking practice tests and putting all of the vocabulary on index cards so I can study some more.  At least 20 vocabulary words per chapter and 22 chapters = A LOT of index cards!

On Monday, Grace received the H1N1 nasal vaccine at school and had an immediate reaction to it.  Dizziness, exhaustion, aching, a rash on her neck...the nurse called me pretty quickly to come pick her up!  So, did you know that since the nasal vaccine contains a small amount of weakened, live virus, you can get a mild case of H1N1 from it?  She's been home from school since.  I'm hoping she can go back tomorrow, the doctor says she can return once she's been 48 hours without a fever.  I guess a mild case is better than a regular case of swine flu!

Raindrops Keep Falling...

on my head...at least they were this morning. Problem was, I was sitting at the kitchen table! Not the best way to start the day. Hopefully, the problem is solved now that I've pulled out all of the bathtub caulk upstairs, cleaned, scrubbed, bleached and recaulked. We'll see if I have raindrops in my bowl of Total tomorrow morning! Fortunately, something just arrived to make me feel a whole lot better...fabric!

I placed an order yesterday at 1:40pm for these Jo Morton fabrics. I ordered online from Old Country Store Fabrics. I received an email back at 4:54pm, telling me my fabrics had been cut, packed and shipped. I just went to my mailbox and there they were, with a nice note thanking me for my order! I'd highly recommend shopping here...they have beautiful fabrics (I've been to their store many times, it's one of my favorites!) and their service is incredible.

We went to the Phillies World Series Game 4 on Sunday...it was so much fun, although it would have been better if they'd won! They did win last night...here's hoping they can win Games 6 and 7 in the Bronx and bring home the championship for a second year in a row...Go Phils!

More October Finishes...

The feathered tablerunner is bound...

The blue nine patch quilt is bound and ready to be sent off to charity...

My embroidered blocks are set...this one will go on the machine to be basted. I plan to hand quilt it for NEXT Christmas!

And the baby quilt is quilted and finished...right down to the striped binding! I love this quilt, it was based on Jo Morton's Cinnamon Stars quilt in her newest book, Vintage Journey.

Next on the list are the nine patches for the Charming Girls Half Pint Quilt Along and the quilt for Andrew. Those two will be my November goals!

Fall...

Fall has been beautiful here in my world...

I've spent it finishing up my Stitcher's Angel Projects...they are off in the mail to places far away!

I've finished up a few customer quilts...a beautiful floral...

And an adorable Halloween quilt!

And I've finished the top for a special little baby to be...she should be arriving soon! This one is next on the machine...

And to top it all off, Cliff Lee pitched an amazing 6-1 win against the Yankees in Game 1 of the World Series. Un.be.LEE.vable!!!