christmas blocks ... what else?

Due to medical issues of both of us, found in our terminal medical exam, our COS date has been extended to June 23. Oh, woe is me! But with the cost of medical these days I am glad to get things under suspicion, looked into on the PC dime. Thankfully, so far, all but a couple of things have returned normal. Two are still pending. So, here we sit, in a hotel that has awesome, chest cold-producing, air conditioning, with one of us not feeling up to speed. Therefore, no touristing and not wandering far from the hotel for meals. This evening - Casco Viajo for dinner with a very good friend, Christine.

For now I am able to sit here in the hotel and work on my readily available needlework projects. This means the Christmas blocks. Almost finished the sleigh (missing one thread for the toy bag) and started the T, which is now more than half finished.

As per my personality, I am now getting a little tired of this particular group of squares and will have to go to something else. So, what do I have available? I never expected to be sitting in a hotel for 2 weeks, and didn't plan accordingly. I guess it will have to be a cross-stitch project that I started during my last visit to my parents. Another UFO in the making - a pillow for the "carrocasa", our home on wheels, with colours that were chosen with the interior motorhome colours in mind.

And so it goes ...

PC commemorative mola ...

Just had to share - picked up the mola that I had commissioned for my time here in Panama Peace Corps. It was designed by Deirdre Doyno, a fellow volunteer and one of our adopted "daughters", for a t-shirt. It worked fabulously and the sewer did exquisite work on it.

This is Rosa Lidia Alba and she can be found at the Balboa Arteseñia Centro.

Gluttony to it's best ...

Well, I am a glutton for punishment. Here I am, packing up all my projects for moving back to the US and I get emails: the Block of the Month (BOM) that you are interested in is re-opening; the santa kits that you wanted notification of, are in. So, of course I had to do it.

The BOM is a Rainbow Dear Jane.

Now this isn't your usual 12 month BOM: Nooooo, it will actually run for 23 months. You get 10 blocks and fabric every month. The originators of this, The Twiddletails Store, assure me the most vivid, brilliant colours that they can find will arrive. Just what I wanted to do. Of course, there are ways to even add more in if you want. I can't even begin to imagine the work that this is going to entail. Luckily for me, the blocks don't start to arrive until August, hopefully however, before we leave the country again. I plan on doing these all by hand as I want to carry the blocks with me as I travel. Should be good conversation starts, at any rate.

I can't wait to see the first set of fabrics.There are 225 different blocks, 225 different fabrics, and reportedly, well over 5000 pieces in this quilt. It may be a 23 month BOM club, but it will definitely be a bit longer than that for me in the making. Who knows just how long! I will however, keep a running commentary once I get started. Anyone else out there doing one?

And now for the next bit of gluttony - Santas From Around the World.

They come from What's the Point needlework shop. Even though it is a "by the month" club again, I am only interested in the US and the Canada Santas. Great Christmas presents for the family. Aren't they cute?

It is back to sorting, sorting, discarding, and packing .....