And just where have you been?

I remember hearing that from my family when I had been running behind, and that's all I could think of when I realized it has been more than a week since my last post. Its not that nothing has been going on, in fact the opposite has been, but since a good bit of it is kind of 'downer' type stuff I'm not gonna bore you all with that stuff. This is my upbeat place on the web, and darn it I'm really going to try to keep it that way!! :cD

So let's see....my on-line group's anniversary was a week ago Sunday, and I was a good girl and waited to open my package until the party. I was so proud of myself, self control isn't always one of my strong suits...especially when presents are involved ;D Here are the goodies that my swap mate sent me.

So much great stuff!!! My favorite things were the doodle/mouse pad (a GREAT idea, I can't tell you how many times I want to write down something I've seen on the web and go looking for paper. Now it's right there next to me.), the other is the book of quilt labels she sent me. I love to make special labels for my gift quilts and this book has awesome patterns. The two labels you see are ones she made for me. It was very much worth the wait!! It was also nice to get to chat with some of my on-line friends. I don't get to do that very often so it was a special treat for me.

Now then, on the quilting front I have Jessica's quilt about half way quilted, the baby log cabin all quilted and ready to be bound, and S's baby quilt grid quilted and ready to do free motion. It feels good to be seeing things get done. With all the stress that I've been dealing with here, I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the unfinished projects I've got going on. I've also made the decision, as hard as it is for me, that I will not join any more swaps after I've completed the ones I am in right now. At least until I get some other things in my life straightened out. Quilting is supposed to be an escape for me, and the pressure of deadlines is detracting from the fun factor. So I am going to just quilt for quilting's sake for a while. At least I have 6 weeks to complete the last swap I am in. It's actually kind of cool. You send your swap mate a set of blocks and they turn them into a top for you and send you back a completed top. Here are the blocks I have to work with. There are 8 - 12 inch blocks and 8 - 6 inch blocks. She said she is going for scrappy and other than that anything goes so I am going to break out the graph paper and sketch away til I come up with something I like. One nice thing is I can use up some scraps. Hmmmmmm.....I feel some ideas coming on :cD

I've also added a spot on the bottom of my page where I will keep track of the progress I am making on my Cathedral windows quilt. I will update it periodically as the quilt grows. I am totally hooked on this quilt. I love the portability of it!! Feel free to check it out if you feel so inclined.

Well it is 9:30 in my neck of the woods and I still have stuff to get done before I can call it a day. I hope everyone is making lots of progress. I am going to try to surf around blogland a bit before I turn in tonight, and I am going to try my darnedest to make sure I don't have another week pass me by before I post next time. Warm country wishes all!!