Rainbow Siggies

Hard to believe it is late November, and that Thanksgiving is nearly here. OK, let's be real - Christmas is nearly here. I saw nasty white flakes falling from the sky (OK, there were only a few and much of the sky was still blue, but still...it was snow, which only means that winter is coming). The week flew by. I managed to spend much of it working on house plans. I seem to have a trap door, whereby everything and every odd job seem to fall. Quilter, mother, teacher, launderer, occasional housekeeper, groundskeeper, present shopper, and more lately -- draftsmen, new kitchen researcher, and patio deconstructor. The last 3 tasks are going to be my demise.

You see, we are officially having our house remodeled next spring. The estimate came in good, but it omits several things which have fallen into my lap to "look into". We have to remove our patio and walkway pavers (there's only about 2000 of them if I remember!) before the real snow arrives. Who knows when that will be, but we have definitely had appreciable snow in November before. I need to visit a draftsman to get certified prints made, but I have to generate the "plan" and gather all pertinent dimensions first. I designed and built a house 20 years ago, and as an engineer, I certainly know how to make basic blueprints. I just refuse to do this task because I don't want to relearn the codes and how to do appropriate electrical/plumbing and structural prints. The draftsman will get my desired and our "as is" floor layout, and he can do the rest. Sophie and I went to a kitchen showroom yesterday to look into countertops and cabinets. It's all so fun I just want to turn into a bear and hibernate until spring. Just imagine how sarcastic I will be in 3 months when I am packing up my entire downstairs!

And as if that is not enough, my Thermo morons are driving me nuts this week! Sigh...

So, today I had a little longer than usual to quilt because Sophie stayed at preschool longer for a Thanksgiving feast. I got to quilt two quilts that a local gal brought me recently. These are both from the Siggy swaps that were going on recently. I love her chosen layouts - they really give the quilts personality. Though I saw these swaps months ago and wondered who would want a quilt with 100 names on them, I had fun picking out people that I recognized from my variety of swaps - both swappers and hosts alike! The quilting is simple because the quilt and fabric layouts are the focus.
I do love what she did on the backing, but I will probably cut off a finger to get another bias-cut backing :-)) The diagonal stripes are fantastic, especially with this quilt, but they really should be constructed on-grain and with HST's. Lessons...there are always lessons to be learned in this craft.

Here's the second quilt. It's a bit larger than the other one, and also in the rainbow setting, with siggy blocks spaced by the 4x4 blocks. Really effective layout, again.

SO, time for me to use my remaining afternoon to do some xmas work. Have a warm (ha!) weekend.