Countdown to Christmas (which is on Thursday)

This is a very, very good week. The GO! arrives on Thursday, and the UPS guy and the Mail Gal are doing their best to distract me.

I'm working my way through quilt books at our public library and recently found two that I could not live without in my own library. The Quilters Catalog: A Comprehensive Resource Guide hits it out of the park for hints, interviews with famous quilters, websites, how to advice...it's a wealth of information.

All About Machine Arts is fabulous, It's got everything (with corresponding projects). Great information on technique, machines, and materials. This is going to be a well-thumbed go-to book in my studio.

A little software can be a dangerous thing. Well, it could be, if I knew how to use it. The EQ7 upgrade for EQ6 (which I have never used yet) arrived this afternoon. Somehow I need to divide my time between the GO! and EQ7. Maybe I should get my Daytimer out and pencil in appointments for everything:

Oh wait, that won't work, I have to actually work during the day....unless I win the lottery this week then we're good (at least I wrote it in pencil).

Fortunately, I picked up a little something at quilt show this weekend that I can do wherever I am. Not that I know how to do Sashiko, and not like I can read Japanese, which is what these instructions are written in. I'll figure it out...at least I hope I will.

This is so not me. But combined with.

My 1930s feedsack repro fabrics, I think I've got the makings of a quilt. The backing and border fabric was 40% off this weekend at one of the shops we hopped. And I also bought a Dresden plate template at another shop, so I'll be piecing something together eventually. I've never done a Dresden but I think it's a cute way to use these prints. Live and learn! 

(We interrupt this blog for a moment....the hubs just came home from softball and summoned me downstairs through the dark family room, out to the backyard to look at the fireflies that are perched 50 feet up in the trees, blinking their little hearts out. Pretty neat Even neater that the hubs has stopped to admire the fireflies...which he probably thought were UFOs as he came up the street.)

Favorite fabric saved for last. I have not been a Halloween decorator since my daughter was young. I switched to Fall....don't have to put it away, only have to change things out once. Well, I couldn't resist this fabric, found at yet another shop we hopped on Sunday. Half yards of the three prints, a yard and a half of the gingham print for backing and border. It will make a cute table quilt. (And I shall now be forced to pick up a little something Bethany Lowe to set upon it). In case you want to run out and pick some up for yourself (and I highly recommend that you do), it's Boo by Bonnie Sullivan for Maywood Studios.

Is it Thursday yet?