Back from retreat

Had a great time in AZ at the annual quilting retreat.  I won! I won!  My postcard won first place in the postcard challenge--the theme was Home, Sweet, Home, and could mean whatever home meant to you.  For me it was "enchanting" New Mexico skies with quilts and clothes on the line and cranes (which I drew in with marker) flying by.

I was inspired by the sky fabric sent to me by Pat since I was at Jackie's and woefully lacking any scraps or anything I could create a postcard with.  I already spent my winning gift certificate on (of course) fabric from Keepsake Quilting! 

I had to cancel my flight home and have Dale pick me up.  I had way too much stuff even with Southwest's generous two 50 lb. suitcase limit.  Talk about generosity...my friends at retreat sent me home with twelve quilt tops, a finished quilt, and lots of blocks and miscellaneous parts that will become quilts.

 

I found some binding in the stuff I brought home which worked perfectly for a quilt I had quilted before I left for donation.  I will be dropping off three quilts to Dr. Kaufman today, and then will be busy with my favorite part of the process, quilting and binding all those tops.  

Of course, because I was less than productive during the retreat, I had to work all day yesterday to get my sock swap blocks done.  They are going out in today's mail, and I hope they meet the criteria for the Mary Lou Weidman's swap, since this is the first liberated kind of block swap I've been in.  And as you can see, mine are very liberated! Looking forward to having a variety of these blocks!

 

Time keeps on slippin, slippin

Into the future...
And mostly all I've been doing is trying to keep warm.  How quickly the days go by, but the cold ones seem to drag a bit.

Friday it will be two weeks already since I've been home.  Nice to get reacquainted with all my old stuff and try to find room for my new acquisitions.  Then there were birthdays...mine and Dale's.  Found out through one of the Yahoo groups I belong to that I'm actually born in the year of the dragon instead of the snake, as I previously thought.  Who knew the Chinese new years didn't start on Jan. 1st like ours!  It varies from year to year, and would naturally affect those birthdays in January and February.  My good friend Rosie although sharing my same birth year was born in the year of the snake, just nine days after me. I also discovered a birthday twin on the same forum.

 I've managed to quilt and finish two tree skirts, getting gifts finished for next Christmas.  I also put together a quick donation quilt from a panel that Carolyn gave to our cause.  The backing was pinwale corduroy which was also donated and makes a wonderful warm and sturdy backing.  I used a tiger pantograph--yes, I know tigers are in Asia, but I didn't have any African animals panto.  It's hard to pick out the tigers anyway.   

We recorded our lowest temperature since we've lived here...-26 last week!  Fortunately our little house weathered the severe cold well, and we had gas, electricity, and DSL without interruption.  No burst pipes.  There were plenty of failures throughout the state.  That's ice on the inside of our window.  We block the windows with rigid foam insulation covered with batting and fabric.  It helps keep the heat in and cold out overnight.  During the day we take out the blockers for solar gain.