Caught between Christmas & the New Year

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was quiet and very enjoyable.

Here is our Christmas tree this year.

Every year around Christmas, one of our local TV stations host a "KOATs for Kids" and people donate new coats or lightly used coats to keep the kids warm during the winter. This year, instead of making Christmas presents, I decided to use some of the polar fleece that has been aging for the last few years, to make coats for the kids. The last day of the drive is on Sunday, December 30th. I've made 4 coats for teens and 4 coats for younger children. We will be dropping them off tomorrow. Earlier this week, I was wondering if I could get them all done, but I will do the finishing work, for the last 4, today; wash and dry the tomorrow and drop them off. If I have time, I'll post the pictures of the coats.

Can't wait for the challenge to start, I'll clean out my sewing studio on New Years Day, after the Rose parade, and taking down the Christmas tree, and I'll be ready to start on the 2nd. Until then, have a safe and happy New Year.

A New Blog and Blogger

This is my first attempt at a blog and this blog is specifically for the "Take it Further Challenge 2008". On the 1st of every month we will get a new challenge and during the month each member will blog or Flickr their progress on the challenge. I'm looking forward to participating in this challenge. I know it will be hard for me to keep up the blog, because I am not a journaler but self discipline is always good, right?

I live in Albuquerque, NM and enjoy anything to do with fiber and fabric. I now have the time to experiment with different techniques and I am looking forward to the learning.

I have also start reading and working through the book "Art Quilt Workbook" by Jane Davila and Elin Waterston. On the cover of the book it also said that the book consists of exercises and techniques to ignite your creativity. I have to say that I'm working on the first set of exercises and I am finding the book is excellent, especially for me as I've never had any art classes, well except for the ubiquitous "Art History" required classes.

If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions for a new blogger and challenge member, please leave a comment.

I want to wish everyone a very happy holiday season.

Meg