Bloggers' Quilt Festival

Here is my entry for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival that Amy at Amy's Creative Side is hosting. It's a Santa sampler from Bird Brain Designs. Las Colchas started it as a block of the month in, maybe 2008? The only thing is, I did everything completely different than was included in the block of the month. I used different fabric to embroider the Santas on, used a different embroidery stitch, and used a different color perl cotton than came with the kits. One day when I was in the shop picking up my kit for the month, I saw a fat quarter stack of these Sturbridge Village scarlets and knew I had to have them to set the Santas, so I did a completely different setting than the one that came with the pattern. So, I'm not sure I can call this a block of the month anymore.
The picture above was taken when the top was finished I finally finished hand quilting it last fall. I'm really happy with it and I'm thinking about entering it in the San Antonio Quilt Show this year. I've been quilting for many, many years but have never entered a quilt in a judged show. I would love to get a ribbon of any kind - "honorable mention" would thrill me to death.
Yesterday was graduation at the college I work at. More than 870 students crossed the stage (and more than that graduated, but chose not to be in the ceremony). It was chaos right up until the time of the processional, but after that it was perfect! My part of graduation is to help organize the "VIPs" on the stage party - our administrators, board of trustees, the speakers, soloist, etc., making sure they have their academic regalia on right, get lined up for the processional like they're supposed to be and get to the right place at the right time, etc. It's a wonderful ceremony and the students are so happy and excited, but I'm always so glad when it's over!

Finished!

I really need a better place to take pictures of quilts. A better camera wouldn't hurt, either.

On my design wall (bed)

Here's what I'm working on today. Christmas is not over at my house, apparently, because these redwork Santas just won't go back to the North Pole! I finished stitching the last one about a week ago. I bought a stack of Sturbridge Village fat quarters at the same time I bought the fabric for the Santas, which was about a year ago. The Santas were a bom program, but I changed up the setting because I wanted a bigger quilt. I can't decide if I'm going to put another border on it or not. What do you think?

It's back to work on Monday. It's been a great two weeks to be off. One of the reasons I like working in education is the time off at the holidays. It's better than vacation because everyone else at work is off, too, so nothing is piling up on my desk while I'm gone.

Have to run to the post office to mail a book I sold on Amazon. I ordered Flat Belly Diet in paperback back in October. I got it last week, read through it once and realized it was waaaayy to restrictive for me to stick to long term, so I listed it for sale and it sold in one day. I hope the person who bought it will like it.