Back From Chicago!

I tried posting from the airport on Friday but the connection was SO SLOW and frustrating!  I'm home for a while now!  Whoo Hoo!

So I'll catch you up!  I've been to northern Michigan with some friends, then to New Orleans with Joe then to Chicago to visit my eldest daughter.  Now I'm home until I go down to the Quilt Festival in Houston!  So what have I been up to?

  I got Lotus Temple quilted and bound before I went up north!

 In northern Michigan we stayed at one of the girls' cottage.  When I went into the room I was staying in there was an antique crazy quilt hanging on the armoir!  I had to take it down to inspect it!










There were award ribbons in addition to lots of embroidery, velvet, satin and tapestries.

 Upon closer inspection, I think someone had taken an old, worn crazy quilt, cut out the deteriorated pieces and re-pieced them, added new pieces and re-assembled it.  There was also a new backing on it.  It was really well done and a great way to preserve a beautiful antique quilt.

The weather was touch and go with rain moving in and out all weekend.  It did make for some dramatic cloud scenes!

Two days after I got home, we went to New Orleans.  One of the things I did was went on a tour of the city.  We went to the 9th Ward and saw some of the re-birth.

 Some of the devastation was apparent.

 Other areas have come back.  This was a playground in the Musician's Village area.  The structures were in the shape of musical instruments.

 We drove around the Garden District.  I wanted to go on a Garden District tour but since I was there in the non-tourist season and mid-week, there were no available tours.

A really fascinating parts of the tour was the cemetery.  The tour guide explained about the burial practices.

Then there was Bourbon Street!  We had not been there in 20 years and it has changed so much.  It used to be centered around the music with a few strip clubs.  Now it was predominately strip clubs and all about drinking.

But now, back to the sewing!  I have set up a sewing station in my family room to be up in the natural light.  I've started working on my Hidden Circles quilt and have been paper piecing the spiky section! 

I got 32 sections done, enough for 8 blocks!  I thought I would start putting a few blocks together and discovered I had done everything in reverse!  Neutral where the color should have been and vise versa!

I'm putting this project away for a while and going back to finishing another UFO.  This time I am going to finish my Log Cabin Stars.  Pictures to come.

Got to go to my workout.

Happy Stitching!