Check-In - First Week of Break

This is another quilt that was displayed at the Ricky Tims Quilt Seminar. The title is Whisper, Whisper and it was made by a student of his from the UK. I believe he said that she made the quilt first -- the appliques appeared to be white velvet -- then she dyed the finished piece. It was gorgeous!

Since I was on vacation this week, my routine was decidedly different than when I'm working. I slept later every morning except one -- 8:00-ish, instead of 5:00 a.m. Morning pages didn't get done much at all - once, maybe twice and VERY abbreviated. I'm going to try to get back into that habit this week, since I'm back to work tomorrow and things will get back to my more normal routine. I did work through some of the tasks though. Went for a walk on Monday and picked up rocks - aimed for 5, but wound up with more since I'm a lover of rocks and crystals anyway and am always finding them to bring home from wherever I go. I had intended to get out and walk or otherwise get more exercise this week too, but the allergy attack I had after the walk on Monday gave me license to blow that goal off -- see I how rationalize that?! I sent postcards to 5 friends -- 4 are people I communicate regularly with and never get enough of "hearing from" them -- the other is an old friend from college who I haven't heard from in years. I was looking through my address book and found her last known address - decided what could it hurt to use a stamp and see if I could find her. Last time we communicated, they were in Roanoke, VA and had been for quite some time - hope I get a response from her! One day I did some cooking - made chalupa and cooked a pork loin roast. My artist's date this week could have been visits to a couple of quilt shops - or the wallhangings I'm making for my nieces for Christmas. New technique for me that a friend in the AZ Retreat group showed me. All raw edge, machine applique, so the process went quickly - and a good thing since I'm almost out of time. I put the backgrounds together here at home earlier in the week, then Friday went out to Linda's house so she could walk me through the flower appliques I wanted to put on the backgrounds. Got the designs cut and glued on at her house Friday morning and got 2 of the designs quilted on. Last night, I finished quilting the designs on the other 2, then sewed the binding on all 4 wallhangings - today I'm hand-stitching the binding down -- tomorrow I MUST Fed Ex them to Illinois!

Synchronicity in my life this week? On Thursday afternoon, I had to run out to the office to drop off the gifts I bought for several kids at the shelter we sponsored this holiday season (and yes, it is Christmas to me, but half of my office is Jewish, so political correctness is something we strive for - and this year both holidays coincide). While I was there, our personnel manager gave me the holiday bonus that was passed out to the staff at our holiday party - I wasn't in attendance this year since I had already signed up for the Ricky Tims seminar when they picked the party date -- anyway the bonus was MUCH more generous this year than it has been in years past -- and was more than what I spent at the Ricky Tims store - talk about a gift for me!