Scrappy Irish Chain - a last minute UFO. CHECK!
Chunky Churndash. Well, not QUITE a CHECK! Afterall, I'm AM human. Three finishes in one day would be just a wee bit insane. Besides, I'm all out of batting, so I wouldn't have been able to finish this off today anyway ;0) 
((Back-pedaling)) Yesterday found me by-passing Chunky Churndash because I was suddenly motivated and inspired to finish up Lucidity. And although this quilt LOOKS simple, for those of you that aren't border-making lovers, this would be a monkey on your back with all those lonnnnng blasted sashing strips!!! Really---it was like putting 11 borders on one quilt! As stated, this was my status as of 8:00 last night....backing ALLLLMOST pieced, and I simply didn't have any passion left after being 6 INCHES short!!!!!!! Bad calculation?? No, I just crossed my fingers and hoped it would fit...... sadly, it didn't...
...with my Princess helper. Caitlyn prepped my basting pins for me and even helped me put a few in. She was so proud.
Nothing fancy with the quilting. I chose one of my decorative stitches and travelled the length of each sashing strip in purple thread...
...and Lucidity sees a finish! Binding-n-all (just no label YET). 
Out came Christmas Lights. I spent the afternoon quilting the two sections, pieced them together and started cutting and sewing on the set of borders. At 8:00, the quilt made it to the stage pictured; today will bring on a FINISH (and I'll have some pins again to use on Chunky Churndash.
and Chunky Churndash (for my parents).
Christmas Lights awaiting quilting...
The start of Carolina Christmas... Colors chosen are greens, purples, white and black. I have yet to miss one of Bonnie's mysteries, so... time (SOON!) to start cracking away at it.
Christmas is right around the corner---holy buckets! Where has this year gone? The girls went to the library last Monday for the annual reading of "T'was the Night Before Christmas" by Santa. 
Snow finally hit last week, too, so it actually feels like Christmas now.
Cass had her Winter Program Tuesday evening. DH drove on the way home and picked a fight with a big doe. Sadly, no one really won the fight; the car is sitting dead in the driveway (still), and the deer didn't fare too well either. However, we all walked away without a single scratch. We're still waiting to hear from the insurance company to see what the game-plan will be... until then, I've been bumming rides with DH and coworkers. 
Finally, has your family turned into a "tech family?" Pictured: Cassie playing on her DS, Candace playing on the ipod touch, Me on the laptop, and Caitlyn on the other laptop. DH couldn't resist taking the pic when he saw this; it's not QUITE the norm, but pretty close....
I finished up the Christmas Lights step 2 from Bonnie Hunter (Quiltmaker magazine), and kept going since I just received the latest Quiltmaker in the mail on Saturday. I know this quilt won't be very large, but I still decided to quilt it in sections to really make the quilting pretty, so..... this is the current state and will wait patiently on the floor until I find a good day or two to quilt it. MAYBE, just MAYBE this weekend?!?!!?!? I should be able to catch up a bit with my life on Thursday and Friday since the students don't have school. We teachers have inservice....and I have NO TOURNAMENTS this weekend.....so......! It's looking promising!!!!
While working on the CL mystery, I was also sewing up the hour-glass blocks for Chunky Churndash as leaders-enders. Recall that this will be gifted to my parents for helping out this summer with the girls when I had so many math workshops.
Our school has survived yet another Homecoming week--this is my DEAR, DEAR coworker (and former mentor!). This lady is amazing---I coached under her for 8 years and she taught me so much. I never would have been able to accept the Head Coach position without her former guidance and leadership. Even now, her door is open when I need an "ear" with the vball season. This is also the lady whose family I made quilts for last Christmas (Masha's Wonky Nines, Andre's Out of this World, Isaac's My Blue Heaven, and Jan's Family Gems)
Yesterday morning, we received a call from our neighbor wondering if we were going to the Labor Day parade in town. He always has a "train" in the parade and was in need of 3 more passengers, so he invited the girls to ride along! Needless to say, they LOVED it!!!
All 12 of block Y are complete....
Block Z (?) are almost complete---just need to have the 4-corners sewn yet. At 12:30, I headed upstairs for lunch, and never made it back down. After lunch, I actually was a bit motivated to do something with the bowl of cucumbers DH picked last night. So----3 pints and 1 quart of Dill pickles are finished, and 8 pints of Bread-n-Butter pickles (FIL's favorite)
Yesterday, it felt so good to get downstairs to actually SEW SOMETHING! It has been so long since I've done anything! I still had a stack of HST pieces sitting my the machine for another sample of Steppin' Out using some dyed fabrics, so I whipped through those to just get them done; they were then set out of the way for now, joining the 4-patches that I had done the day before I had started these so many weeks ago.
I thought it would be fun to start my summer break by starting a new project (HAHAhAH......AS IF I need something else to work on!!) But, come on ----it's BONNIE's Christmas Lights mystery. I can't just sit by and let everyone else take part in this one and not me.....so.....it turned into a classic "putz" day of pulling fabrics, cutting, sewing.....and before I knew it (seriously!!!), all of Step 1 was finished!!! Proudly, all of the fabrics are from the stash; I can NOT buy anything new. I will NEVER use all my fabric---and I don't even really have that much compared to some individuals! 
Remember last week when I said MIL and I were cutting fabric for a Double Wedding Ring quilt for a friend of the family? Well, here are some of the pieces I was in charge of (already sewn and pressed). My MIL was in charge of cutting 196 of EACH color; which she has cut, sewn together and already basted. I was in charge of 98 of each color, which I have also cut and sewn, but I am waiting for basting because she is going to teach me how to hand-baste with thread. (I normally cheat and glue-baste the edges.) Well---I DID glue-baste 24 of them because I am making a wall-hanging to go along with the quilt we are making. 
So, with some time left last night, I decided to print out the May block for Beth Ferrier's BOM Now-n-Forever. May's color is emerald. 
