Off to guild

On my way to quilt guild tonight. Karen Eckmeier is the speaker tonight, and I am bringing my Happy Village quilt to share at show and tell.

Today my package arrived from my Stitcher's Angel, Susana in Spain. I had been wondering when I'd go to the mailbox and find my gifts, and boy it was worth the wait! Today is a rainy and grey day, so no good for photos...tomorrow I will share pictures of all my goodies!!! Thanks Susana!

And to make you all envious, today I went out and did about 75% of my Christmas shopping!!!! It sounds more impressive than it really is. The only shopping I do is for my kids, one niece and one nephew, plus 4 gifts for a family grab bag and gift certificates for dance teachers. I've ordered some things for the kids online over the last few weeks and today I hit Toys R Us and Walmart. All I need to do now is the gift certificate, the stocking stuffers and a handful of things for the kids that I didn't find today.

Quilting Progress

I've been working on my Home Sweet Home quilt for Tonya's House Home and Pantry Quiltalong. So far is is about 30" square. Needs another row of something and a border or two or three. Maybe later this weekend :-)

I guess that winter is on the way

Yesterday, DH was at his favorite hangout in our favorite place, and he was talking to one of the guys he knows that works at the Ski area. We heard unbeliveable news: THE SKI AREA IS OPEN. Yup. October 18th. There is one tiny slope and it is open for free skiing. They put in a ton of new snowmaking guns this summer, and they are testing them out. This morning it was 23 degrees F (thats -5 celceius, for those of you outside the US). I see today on the Mount Snow website this announcement:

"Yeah, we're open. No big deal.
Snowmakers showed up for their second night of winter-mode work last night, firing up the fan guns on Launch Pad to resurface the jib yard. Gaitor and the Park Crew are out shoveling as we speak, shaping transitions and landings. The setup is the same as yesterday: a rail, two boxes and two culvert jibs.
Launch Pad is open to the public today. See a Ranger out on the hill and make sure you grab a "lift" ticket – they’re F-R-E-E, that spells free.
So let’s think about this. Yesterday marked the last downhill race of our summer-long SoBe Energy mountain bike series. It was also the last day to play a round of golf at the Mount Snow Golf Club. Plus, skaters were hanging out in the Carinthia skate park. Historical: on October 19, 2008, a person could golf, skate, mountain bike, ski and ride, all in the same day at Mount Snow. We’re multitaskers.
It looks like tonight will be above the freezing mark, with some light showers and possibly some flurries in store. By Wednesday, another round of nighttime temps in the 20s are forecast, so rest assured we’ll be blowing snow. We’ll keep Launch Pad open to the public as long as there’s enough snow to slide on, so keep a close eye on the snow report for updates.
It’s on."

I guess its time to dig out the winter coats. Winter is a perfect time for quilting, so thats fine. Time to start sewing!

Quilting projects

First of all, I owe a HUGE apology to Dawn for not having posted this on my blog earlier...I'm sorry for not sharing the picture of this great bag sooner! This wonderful bag is the one I received from Dawn for the bag/bucket swap. I am using it now, and I just LOVE it. It is huge and has nice long handles and great inside pockets. It is just gorgeous! Thanks a million, Dawn!

And in my absence, I have been super-busy with real life (not fun stuff, but just junk I had to deal with). However, I did do some sewing. I made the armchair caddy for my partner in the Stitcher's Angel Swap. This is going in the mail to her tomorrow.


I made these blocks from a 'kit' that I had precut for myself. This pattern in Snapshots by Terry Atkinson. These blocks aren't that exciting, but in the end it will be a pretty baby quilt. Maybe I'll find a way to spice it up a bit, or maybe I won't bother. We'll see...


I also have been working on a little quilt for the Priority Hope Challenge. I'm planning to add some sort of a flower, perhaps something dimensional, to this. I'm trying to figure out my best approach, since I'm already at the size limit (I need to trim extra off the top).



I also made two blocks for a community quilt project. Sorry, no pictures. I was given strips of home dec type samples and I was asked to make string blocks for the community quilt. In December it will be given to a family in Southern Vermont living with AIDS/HIV.

So far behind

Wow, two weeks since I've posted. Things have been very busy around here. Lets see, the basement flooded with the heavy rains that we got here recently. Then I had to deal with WAY too much of this for the first time ever. And that of course resulted in huge piles of laundry. Sigh.

I received my gorgeous bag from Linda's Bag Swap in the mail yesterday. I will post a picture tomorrow, I still need to get that taken. Many many thanks to the Dawn in Australia for her wonderful package!! (More details tomorrow!)

Luckily, I did manage to do a little bit of sewing. I finished this project from the Stitchers Angel's patterns

I worked on my BQL Bag Challenge bag for September. I almost finished it on time, but didnt' manage to get the handles done and the photo uploaded in time. I still need to finish it up. That means I'll miss out on the October pattern, but things at home just had to take priority this time. Hopefully I'll finish it this weekend.

We went to the BigE on Thursday last week. Those of you who live in states where there is a big state fair would probably laugh at the Big E, but it is a big thing here in the NorthEast. Basically, the six New England states put on one state fair together, in Springfield MA. We had a good time, though it was changeover day in the big barns so we didn't get to see very many of the farm animals. I'll have to plan that better for next year.

On Saturday in Vermont, there was a big wine festival in town. Unfortunately it poured almost all day Saturday, and it was quite muddy, which kept a lot of people home. Nine of Vermont's 14 wineries were there selling their wines and doing wine tastings. There were some bands, lots of local food and handicraft makers vending their wares, etc. We had a nice time, and perhaps a bit too much wine for me.

We did get to enjoy a bit of fall foliage last weekend in Vermont. Generally it poured most of the time, but finally on Sunday afternoon, the rain stopped and the sky began to clear. The foliage was certainly not at peak, but it was lovely anyway. I imagine that this weekend and next will be even better, though I might not prefer to leave the house because I know that traffic will be horrendous with all the leaf peepers visiting the area.