Best New Year Wishes!

Our New Year is starting with a real cold spell. Many parts of the country are having very severe cold weather. Here in SC it is cold too. I wear my fuzzy jammies at night and my woolly sweaters during the day. Some winters here are so warm that I rarely wear any of my old, warm clothes from Ohio. My old cashmere sweater feels mighty good today. I think it is suppose to warm up soon. This is wonderful quilting weather, especially if you have bindings to sew on. You can sew them on while the quilt keeps you warm over your lap.
Since Christmas break, our group of quilters from St. Cyprian's have met once again to finish their rag quilts. They are coming nicely and will be welcome by their families during this cold weather, so they better get them done this week! We are moving on then to a fusible applique project. During the month of Dec., a festival for Our Lady of Guadalupe was held for the members of the parish. My friend Elva (who speaks Spanish and is my interpreter) invited me to go and be part of the celebration. It was truly wonderful and so enlightening to see these families come together and put on a play, singing, dancing and eating! They transformed the plain, well used hall into a fairyland of beauty! I included some pictures of little Isiah and his dancing partner doing the Mexican hat dance. It brought the house down! There is another picture of Isaiah and his mom, Mary, who left for Mexico a couple of weeks later. Mary was a super student of ours and I hated to say good-bye to her. The very bright quilt that I call "Salsa" I made in Nov. and Dec. Those aren't the colors I usually go for, but this bright quilt I really love. I am now working on one of my UFOs (unfinished objects) that I started at least 10 years ago. It is "Oak leaves and Reel", which is a favorite traditional pattern. I am making it in all contemporary colors. It is very scrappy and will require over 500 half square triangles in the borders. Yuck! Maybe I don't want to finish this after all.