I served a Thanksgiving feast for 8 (with much help from my mom and sister), so I took a few days off to give my abode a little TLC, as the launch of the magazine has caused me to be a bit neglectful of my housekeeping duties. But the place is still neat-as-a-pin except for the sewing mess in the living room and dining room, so that's encouraging. (And before you say, "doesn't she have a sewing room?", yes, I do, but it didn't get the pre-Thanksgiving housekeeping attention it so desperately needs and I needed space to spread out....)

Speaking of pins, I've spent the last two days working on some holiday and some belated gifts (and watching one Christmas made-for-TV movie after another---I don't know if I can take one more "girl returns home for the holidays and runs into old flame and, despite all odds, rekindles romance" plotline). Now that my sewing machine is back home, I was finally able to get the borders on Janet's quilt (see
photo). Happy Friday to me! No, it's not quilted yet, but I've signed up for a class that will allow me rental of a quilting machine at a local shop, so I'm optimistic that it could be finished before 2007 officially ends. (I thought that Halloween deadline might be overambitious.)

I spent today (Saturday) finishing another quilt that's been waiting in the wings to be quilted and bound. It's much smaller than Janet's, so I felt confident quilting it myself on the dining room table. Ran out to buy thread this morning, and at 8 pm, had to run out AGAIN, as I'd gone through one spool for the top and one for the bobbin! Oh well. Can't give away the secret of who this one goes to yet, but suffice to say that the fabric was purchased for said child's BABY quilt in 1999! YIKES. And it's been pieced, layered, pinned, and waiting to be quilted since July!

Hope your Thanksgiving was great and you'll hear from me more regularly next week when I'm back in the office. Thanks for understanding about my time off.