Hi Everyone!

I'm still here!  I decided to take a bit of a break from blogging in the summer.  I did this for a couple reasons--the first was that I felt like I was only mostly blogging about quilts I was making and then showing the finished result.  I know that that seems like the whole idea of a quilt blog, but I was thinking I wanted to do more, but didn't know what.  In other words, I was feeling a bit stagnant.  The other reason was that I was wondering if the time I was spending writing and reading blogs, etc. was really distracting me from getting more quilting done.  I'm here to say that the jury is still out on that!  I did just as much quilting as I always do, so I decided to come back join in again.  I've been trying to figure out just when to write again, and the weeks slipped by.  Yesterday, though, two things happened:  a memory post from Facebook reminded me that it was a year ago yesterday that I resumed after taking a break to move in the house and get settled, and I heard from a follower in an email that she was concerned and missed me.  (And I've heard from a few more in the past month or so, so I decided the time was right.)

I hope you all are doing okay.  Are you ready for the holidays?  I'm struggling this year.  No presents are wrapped, I still have a few to get, I've baked no cookies, and the cards are still sitting here.  I still have a few days, though, and have plans to get really organized the next couple days.

I've been doing quite a bit of quilting and I do have big news to share to catch you up, but I will do it in later posts.  One thing I just finished was the Temecula Quilt Co's We Wish You A Mini Christmas quilt along.  Each day for 12 days Sheryl provided directions for a cute, tiny block.  On the 13th day, she had three finishing directions.  The blocks were so fun to make--it took maybe 15 minutes and everyone has 15 minutes each day to quilt, right?  Haha, not me.  There were a few days when I got the block done, but there were also days when I had to get caught up by doing 3 or so.

I decided to do mine in Christmas colors, and mostly pulled pieces from my 1.5," 2," and 2.5" scrap squares.

This is my finished quilt.  I ended up sort of combining some of the setting options.  Sheryl had diagonally set the blocks into a runner.  I loved the look of the diagonal set, but didn't want a runner, so I made more of a "quilt" shape.

Here are some of the individual quilt blocks.  I shared the photos on Instagram.

I remade this one.  After it was done I looked at it and thought it looked like a bandaid.  A used, bloody bandaid.  Once I thought that, it was doomed!

I'm also working away on Bonnie Hunter's mystery this year, Allietare.  I have the first three clues done and will be back to share more on that.

I hope you have a wonderful day!  I'm off to wrap gifts.
JoAnne