November 18

Another day happily spent at home.
I cleaned the house and sewed a lot.
I pieced the backing for the crosses quilt and basted more little diamonds. Did some laundry, washed the floors. C wanted to plan our Thanksgiving menu but he spent most of the day on the phone. While I was waiting I browsed flickr. In the quick crafts for sanity pool I found these nifty little bowls so I followed the link over to the tutorial and gave it a shot.
It was a little confusing in the beginning, but I persisted. Then I got here and thought, what is this thing?
In less than an hour, maybe 45 minutes? Definitely quick, but I don't recommend it as a way to stay sane. It was almost more trouble than it was worth. It's a thread catcher, btw, which I noticed I really need to use. While vacuuming I had to turn the machine over and snip threads out of the spinning brush...

It got a little hairy there for a while, something went wrong with the seams on the inside corners. But instead of stopping to investigate or rip out stitches, I forged ahead and with the help of some heavy duty hand quilting thread, I ended up with this:

Sorry for the bad photos, it's wintertime. The dark fabric is actually deep brown, and the other is kind of turquoise.
After that little refresher project, I was ready to start on my next Christmas present. I am having so much fun playing with these fabrics. Such a warm color palette is new for me. I can't wait to see what else happens in this one.