New Days ahead

I do love new starts and here we are in 2008. Wow! Not so many photos, but a couple of things going on. First of all, I have to go back to mid December - I forgot to tell about my delightful quilt guild Christmas party. One gal offered to host a potluck supper, (in her house full of Christmas decor). We decided to do an "ugly" fabric exchange. Each person was to bring at least 1/2 yard of fabric, in a plain, brown bag. We put the bags under her tree while we enjoyed dinner and chatting about our favorite quilting "gadget" of the past year. Eventually we were fully sated and decided to start the exchange. We did the typical: draw a number, choose a gift or choose someone else's gift. There was quite a bit of changing back and forth before each fabric found a home. We had a delightful time. Here are a couple of examples:













I plagerized brazenly from Molly's Place blog (http://sewhappy10000.blogspot.com/) before the party and each of us were given a square of muslin and one red strip. We were to take the muslin home and fill it with assorted Christmas fabrics (i.e. string pieced) They aren't all back, as yet, but likely they will be complete by our regular guild gathering on Thursday. We will draw one member's name and that person will get all the squares. With just a bit of sashing, someone will have a Christmas quilt all set to go next year.











This Saturday, Elaine has again offered her home for a quilting day for our guild group. (we had a great time there in September). Next Tuesday we start again with our refugee ladies. Stone Soup is up and running for 2008. Monday we got 10 quilts 'sandwiched' and a couple of backs pieced. I'm getting my "fix" going early in the year! :-)

I have a party suggestion, for anyone interested. Today some friends organized a fondue party for New Year. There were 10 of us. We just had the most fun. We had three different kinds of fondue: 2 different cheese ones, with bread and vegetables and a chicken broth one with chicken, shrimp and scallops. We did find that we had to rotate our places at the table every little while, so each person could be close to the various fondue pots. We had sauces: artichoke, curry, mango salsa, jalapeno pepper. We had lots of laughter around the table. After dinner we played a rousing game of Apples to Apples (a Christmas gift) and then moved on to the chocolate fondue for dessert. For dippers we had pound cake, bananas, strawberries, pineapple and little squares of rice krispie treats. [The Biggest Loser is on TV as I type this - I think there is a message there. So, tomorrow I will enjoy remembering this fun time as I continue my walking regime.]

Happy New Beginnnings to you all.