Giving thanks

It was a wonderfully productive holiday weekend. My friend Pat, who beat me to the punch and posted pictures of all we accomplished, came out for Thanksgiving. I have since decided it is the most perfect weekend to really be productive. I had some of the cooking tasks already done, and Thursday morning I put the turkey in. It roasted and filled the house with aromas while also providing much needed heat. Our unseasonably warm weather had come to an end.

My sewing room is a 12X24 ft. room attached to a detached garage. An 8 ft. baseboard heater is usually sufficient to get going until the south facing slider door starts the solar gain process. Unfortunately winter decided to descend upon us with gray skies and much cooler temperatures. My electrician husband split one of the outlets so that we could borrow the garage circuit to plug in another electric (fan)heater, and after we got going enough to generate some body heat it was enough. In the future that room will have a gas heater that used to be in the house, but we're trying to get more of the house done before running the gas out there, and some of the "stuff" that's out there needs to move back into the house to create space for the gas heater.

To say we were productive is an understatement. Thanks to Pat's already finished blocks, we were able to put together 11 quilts. There is only 1 left to finish quilting, and one that Pat is putting in her quilt bank is just a top since it's easier for her to store it that way. I feel privileged to hand off these quilts to my daughter's pediatric endocrinologist to give to newly diagnosed juvenile diabetics. Just a bit of thanks for the wonderful care we have received since we've been going to her. Lindsay, at 22, is past the pediatric doctor stage, but Dr. K. wants to keep her at least until she's graduated from college, and we're all cool with that. This picture is from this summer when we gave her the first of the kitty quilts! Pat is a prolific piecer and fortunately she is my generous friend.
After we ate our big meal, we were able to just sew and sew the whole weekend and graze on all the leftovers. I did make a Minnesota style wild rice soup with some of the leftover turkey, but other than that we just heated the leftovers. Luckily we all like and eat leftovers. There was not much cooking done after Thursday, and we weren't standing in check-out lines or otherwise fighting the crowds of holiday shoppers. I think I'd like to make this a tradition.