Happy New Year

I start with a finish.  I feel like I've been working on this forever.  In the grand scheme of things, it's probably only been 1 1/2 years since I bought the templates.  I made one star and stopped because I found it difficult.  But, I convinced myself that I should make something, and rather than aim for a full sized bed quilt, I thought a smaller piece would make a good purse.

I'm very pleased with the result.  Each of the steps was difficult, but the result is terrific.

Finishing the bag left me with a void in hand work.  I still have the spools that I've been playing with.  I spend a few evenings hand piecing a few more.  I spent an evening going through my scrap bucket and choosing new fabrics to cut.  My goal for this project is to make it a "charm" quilt.  This quilt will not fit into the strict definition of charm quilt because I'm using duplicates on the background pieces and each of the three pieces of the actual spool will be the same fabric.  I'm calling a charm quilt because I am using different fabrics for each of the spools.  Each spool is 3" square (I think.)

Last week, DH found that there was heavy solar activity that may product vivid northern lights as far south as Boston.  It's been on his bucket list to see northern lights and since we're retired and looking for new adventures, we headed north to Presque Isle, ME to see what we could see.  The best time for viewing the lights (at least for this time) were predicted between midnight and 4AM.  So, we left the hotel in Presque Isle at headed north to Madawaska - the northern most town on Route 1.  Madawaska at 2AM was pretty quiet.  And cold.  The thermometer in the car read -9 degrees F.  Unfortunately, we didn't see any lights.  It was overcast and the forecast for the lights changed while we were on our way.

But, we had a good adventure, went to someplace I had never visited before, went further north than I had ever been before, and got a great view of Mt. Katahdin on the way home.

Lastly, I got a FitBit for Christmas.  I'm trying to more more and get back in shape.  If you have one, too and would like to link up and offer each other encouragement, let me know.  I'd love to be your cheerleader.