Trip Around the World Top Done!

This afternoon I got the top done for the Trip Around the World I've been working on for that past several weeks.  I'm so pleased with the way it turned out.  The pictures don't do it justice; it looks much cooler in person.  What looks blue is actually a royal purple.  Its another queen sized quilt.  I do have any idea what I'm going to do for the back, so I'll need to figure that out before I take it to my long armer. 

I don't have any clue what to name it.  Any ideas?

I bought a Nook Color this week and have been playing around with it.  I downloaded a few free books and also bought a couple from the Best Seller list.  There's alot that this thing can do that I haven't played with, tho. 

The weather here is finally above freezing.  I'm hoping that some of the snow will start to melt over the next few days.  I'd probably better put some salt down on the sidewalks so that the melted snow doesn't turn to ice overnight.  I'd hate if anyone slipped and fell.

I'm thinking about making Chicken Marsala for dinner for tonight, so I guess I'd better get off the computer and go buy some chicken breasts and wine at the grocery store.

Blizzard and More

Like most of the Midwest, we got socked Monday and Tuesday with more snow.  Monday was the dreaded Lake Effect snow, then on Tuesday started the good stuff.  I got off of work early on Tuesday to pick up DD.  It didn't take me as long as I expected to drive home and since I had a few minutes before school let out, I went down to the harbor to take a few pictures.

Snow blowing off the ice flows towards the bluffs

Port Washington Light House drenched with frozen spray

Both school and work were cancelled for today, so after I got up and around this morning, I went out to clear the driveway.  It was quite a lot of work since I had a 3 foot drift stacked up against my garage door and a 4 foot pile of snow courtesy of the snow plow at the foot of the driveway.  I have a smaller snow blower (I can actually pick it up to put it into my car when I need to take it to the shop), so I had to use the snow shovel to reduce the height of the drifts and piles so I could blow the rest away with the snow blower.  The sidewalks have to be done per city regulations (or else you get a ticket), and the snow there was up to the top of the snow blower housing.  It was really tough going.  I was out there about an hour; usually, I can snow blow the driveway in about 30 minutes.

But once I got the driveway done, I was able to come back in and QUILT!  I worked most of the day on my new Trip Around the World and got the first half of the top done.  I just took this picture and still have time for most of another quarter to go before the end of the day (I hope).

DD has gone for the evening to play with a friend, so I have the house to myself.  What a luxury!

New Trip Around the World

While I was in Florida over the holidays I went fabric shopping at the LQS (I know, shock, right?).  At first nothing grabbed my eye, but then I saw this:

Gold and yellow are totally outside of my comfort zone, so I walked away from it a couple of times,  But I kept coming back to it.  It spoke to me.  So I picked it up.  It spoke to me some more.  It said it had some friends that wanted to go, too.  I just had to find them.  So after much searching and adding and subtracting, here are the friends that wanted to come, too.

Originally, just the green and yellow friends came home to play.  But there was some yelling and screaming and crying that they needed some of their purple friends.  So a couple of days later, we went back to the LQS and found the purple friends.

No, the original inspiration fabric is NOT in the rainbow of colors.  He said that because he's so special, he needed a special place.  We negotiated and decided that he could be the main border.

See how well he plays with others?

I'm using the tube method and am ready for the tube seam on the first quarter panel.  When I have that together, I'll take a picture and post it for you.

On a totally different front, I am keeping an eye on something I'm trying in the oven.  DD and I are going to a Super Bowl party next weekend, so I'm testing an appetizer recipe.  Its not too hard:  bacon wrapped water chestnuts.  They're in the oven and will be ready in about 15 minutes.  I'll take a picture, but you'll have to wait until the next post to see it and find out how they turn out.

Have a great evening!