Working hard, falling behind and here comes '08

Right now my house is in a huge state of chaos. But, we are getting hardwood floors! DH and I are giving that to each other as a Christmas present. I'll have to post photos later, of a before and after. Its going to be quite dramatic.

On other fronts, I have fallen behind. The Sonnet quilt is not getting completed before Christmas. I would have needed to sew on it all weekend to finish, and instead moved furniture, removed carpeting, painted, etc. to get ready for the flooring folks, who come today.

I do have some handmade gifts though: a quilt for my Grandma, 2 Swarovski crystal bracelets (one for Mom, one for SIL), and two Christmas pillow covers for a Great Aunt and Great Uncle.

My quilting goals to finish in '08:
-Sonnet quilt (started)
-Brother's graduation quilt (started)
-DH's Christmas stocking (started)
-My Christmas stocking
-tree skirt
-quilt for friend's baby, gender unknown, due in April
-quilted tote bag for Steph (started)

Paper cutouts

I cut these out using my Xacto and some patterns from DH's cousin in Czech Republic. They came out really nice, although I'm not sure if I'm using the proper scherenschnitte technique. I think the artist is from Hlinsko or nearby.

More quilt-a-long blocks

I just got caught up with block 2 and 3 today. It really is a mystery to me what it will look like after the blocks are done--even though AmandaJean posted what her finished quilt looked like. I'm dreaming up different ways to set the blocks. Its great to be using up some stash fabrics that I haven't touched in years.

During my "photo shoot", my cat kept trying to steal the show!