Responses and Update

I kept thinking I was going to get a picture to add to this post and I haven't done it, so I'm just posting without the picture. Maybe I'll add the picture later.

Anyway, I did want to thank all of you for your kind comments on my before and after pictures. It still amazes me when I look at those pictures. Amy asked if I was doing any Quilted Diamonds since my "before" picture is with Linda Franz. My answer to that one is definitely "no!" I got to know Linda on the dearjane.com group just after she had completed her DJ quilt that won so many awards. I bought her book because of the excellent hand piecing instructions as I am hand piecing my own DJ. My DJ is going very slowly because I keep picking up projects that I can finish faster. The DJ is intended to be a wedding gift for my older daughter, so hopefully I have at least another 10 years to complete it (her father hopes it's another 20 years, LOL).

Thanks to Amy who posted pictures of her Star Fling quilt, I now have a couple of those in progress. I've cut enough 3.5" squares to make two of them - one for each daughter - as lap quilts. I will try to finish both tops at my guild's retreat in February. I always get a lot accomplished at retreat because I tend to chain myself to the machine. Opportunities for a weekend of concentrated sewing are very rare in my world, so I take them when I can get them. I also finished the fourth block on my applique BOM and got started on the fifth, so it's been a fairly productive weekend. I didn't have yesterday as a holiday, but I decided to take a vacation day so I could be home with the family. It was a lovely day and the girls ended up spending most of it playing outside. What is with this crazy weather? I can't believe we're having 60-degree days in January in St. Louis. I was used to that sort of thing in Houston, but it's definitely not the norm here. I just hope we don't end up with a late freeze after everything's in bloom!