Back to normal?

So, am I Back to normal? Well, I'm home now and busy as ever, so yes, I guess I'm back to normal for me! I sure am paying the price for being gone so long! And I didn't get my taxes done before I left :( So...I'm stuck at the computer. But I had to take a break to finish my Quilt 24 Challenge's first quilt. It was due by April 1. We had a meeting that day, so we REALLY had to have it done! Okay, not really--we are really challenging ourselves, so if we don't get things done, it's our own loss. But it's nice to have deadlines. So, while adjusting to being back in my own time zone, I sewed in the wee hours of the mornings to finish about 4 hours before our meeting!

This is my first quilt--(which was to be a twin quilt, according to our challenge rules) and you'll recognize it as Judy L's "Gratitude" pattern! I figured I might as well kill 2 birds with one stone, although I didn't follow her one hour a day. It was more like ...sew like a banshee during a retreat on the blocks and sew like mad during the middle of the night! But hey, it worked and it's done. I can't tell if my eyes are blurry (it's 1 AM here), or it was a blurry picture..the blocks look a bit blurry to me. At our meeting, it was really great to see everyone's quilts--they were all so different but beautiful! I think we all are enjoying the challenge it gives us to be very creative with our fabric. I can't wait until next month.

Our next quilt is to be a medallion quilt and I designed my own, so am now working about 1/2 hour a day on those. I'd MUCH rather work on those than my books/taxes so I have to limit myself until I get them done.

Thank you all so much for bearing with me while I posted mostly non-quilt related posts about my trips. Not only am I sharing my adventures with you, I'm really recording them for me. I hope that if they bored you, you went on. I do enjoy looking at other's pictures of where they live, they visit, their kids along with the quilts.

By the way, did you see the new "The Quilt Show" with Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson? Ricky said that quilters do have other lives! :) How many of you signed up for the series? I read somewhere (I forget now where) that they pay for cable and weren't going to pay for more shows. Well, my feeling is that all the good quilt shows are gone (from my area at least) and for the price of less than 2 yards of fabric, I can watch quilt shows for year, at my convenience. And they are close to an hour long! There are a few ads, but very short ones...not annoying long ones that last longer than the show segments! So....what are your thoughts? If you are against it, why? If you did subscribe, did you like the first shows? Just curious....

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Gratitudes:

1. Taxes--hate to do them, but love the freedoms we have because of them

2. Fun challenges to keep us inspired

3. Pansies