In between...

The week between Christmas and New Year's Day always seems to be a time in between for me.  It's not like the rest of the year.  Most of us are so busy leading up to Christmas Day and then... this week.

The weather's cold here and Mr. QuiltingBug and I are taking this time to relax, sleep, and spend time together.  It feels a little shameful to admit it, but I took 3 naps the day after Christmas (and no - I didn't get up early).

I hope you had a great Christmas and spent it with the ones you love most.  We drove down on Christmas Day to my sister's.  She has the only little ones in the family and it seems right that the kids get to wake up and celebrate Christmas in their own home.  And they were so very gracious about the gifts they received.  My nephew even exclaimed after opening one of his gifts that everyone really had gotten him too much.  And he's only 8!  It was a blessed time.   The drive back, however, was a little tense with all the rain, but we made it safely.

What was the gift you liked most this Christmas?  Mine was a rug cleaner that my sister completely surprised me with.  You can imagine how necessary it is with 6 pets in the household.  We had borrowed my parents long enough to clean all our carpets and were planning to buy one next year. (If someone had told me when I was a teenager that I'd be so excited over a steam cleaner, I would have thought they were joking.)

Mr. QuiltingBug and I didn't exchange gifts but he did make me an ironing board cover while he's been on vacation.

I got the dimensions from Tamah and he was very sweet and made it for me.  It sits over the top of my existing ironing board to extend the surface to 22" x 60".  Now I can easily iron large pieces of fabric - like the backings for quilts.  I ironed about 8 yards of fabric today and it made it so much easier.  I covered the surface with batting and some canvas I bought at JoAnns.

Not much sewing going on right now other than handwork.  Mr. QuiltingBug and I spent a good amount of time watching Dexter Season 4 in the last couple of days and I'd sit there and applique at the same time.  Tonight I finished block 6 of the Baltimore Halloween quilt.

There's less stitching in these blocks than on the ships, but the pieces also tend to be a lot smaller and more difficult to applique.  Still, I'm liking how they're turning out.

Until next time...