Pre-holiday madness

I'm ahead of schedule this year. In other words, I've already had my pre-holiday meltdown over the fact Dan and I have bought into the whole "Christmas machine". This year we're actually trying to do something about it (the machine and the meltdown). We're trying to scale back the gift-giving, and the insanity of holiday baking has been axed in favor of NOT gaining 10 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Years. We decided to do our annual end-of-year/holiday letter and send it along with holiday cards. God bless Dan: we wrote the letter together, he bought the cards and stuffed and licked fully 90% of the envelopes. (Why can't they make envelope adhesive taste like something good--something like single malt scotch).

The crazy organizing spree has wound down. The clutter is definitely feeling a little lighter. The sewing room's even clean enough to work. I'm trying to balance my time between printing and sewing. When I concentrate too much on one I miss the other. Though to be honest I could probably print cloth until drop.

The piece that I kept overdying earlier over the summer has turned into this, as shown in my post from September 16.

It sat for a while, but has finally turned into a piece about prayer flags, inspired by a community craft project at a church retreat. (Wikipedia page on Prayer Flags). The photo below shows a corner of the piece, which I'm still quilting. The "flags" are all raw edge pieces stitched only along the top. If you click the picture you can see some of the quilting detail and get a better look at the flag construction.

I'm pleased with the way this is turning out. I'm also surprised and delighted that I've got two pieces in work now that I think are worth showing. It's a first for me to have one; let alone two.