It's Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas . . .

You see the beautiful quilt above? This quilt was the result of a Christmas Round Robin that I participated in with several other quilters when I lived in southern California. A Round Robin starts with a medallion, or center block, and as the medallion and coordinating fabrics are passed from quilter to quilter, a new border is added all the way around the quilt by each person. Some borders are very complicated and require math - OMG - while others include embellishments like beading and buttons. For this quilt, I started with my favorite Christmas theme - the 12 Days of Christmas. I "fussy cut" all twelve of the medallion pieces and placed them on the center block, then threw some extra pieces into the bag so my quilting friends could include them in other borders - or not. After several months of passing the quilts around to each other, we all received our completed quilts, and oh, what a surprise to see the results! I had requested that my Round Robin have a Christmas theme since I display my quilts throughout my home during the holidays. I have had this quilt for ten years, and every year when I unpack it, it still makes me smile and remember my southern California quilting friends. One of my "prized possessions" as my mother would say!

Four Seasons Quilt Shoppe - Last Home Game for Tim!

You know, I'm not really a die-hard college football fan and the only "sports" event I watch on TV is University of Florida college football, and only if it's an important game . . . like Saturday's game against Florida State. Important for two reasons - it was the last time that quarterback Tim Tebow will play at Florida Field, and perhaps the last regular season game that FSU Coach Bobby Bowden will coach. Both are legends . . . both have earned the respect of their fans . . . and both will be remembered for a long, long time in college sports.

My brother, my nephew, and I drove to Florida for Thanksgiving, and had a wonderful time with family and friends. But I know the highlight of the weekend for my brother, Flip, and his son, Brian, was attending the Florida/FSU game in Gainesville (FL). They were able to score some great "bull gator" tickets, and had great seats! The Florida win over FSU made the event just that much sweeter, too. Tim Tebow and the Gators will now face Alabama next weekened for the SEC championship game, right here in Atlanta, and all eyes will be on Tebow to lead them, yet again, to victory. You know, it's good to be a Gator!

Life is Good @ Four Seasons Quilt Shoppe!

Have you every had a really great weekend? A weekend when you accomplished so much and felt really productive? That's the kind of weekend I've had . . . and it feels so great! Since September, I've had vendor shows, and vacation, and quilting, quilting, quilting, and I seemed to be working against some self-imposed deadline all the time. With all of this behind me, I was able to relax, get caught up on some customer quilting and quilt making, watch some really bad B movies and some really great box office smashes, too. And prepare dinner, clean the house, take clothes to the consignment shop, drop kittens at the Humane Society, take care of the dry cleaning, and spend time with the kitties - both mine and the foster kittens, too. And relax . . . you know, not hurried, my own agenda - just relaxed. I need more weekends like this . . . I think we all do, don't you! Oh . . . and the above photo . . . from vacation in New Hampshire - that's Squam Lake, where they filmed "On Golden Pond". So beautiful . . .