Christmas in September, revisited

Spent most of the day today sewing, thanks to a cooperative family - we had friends round yesterday so the day was spent mostly cooking and eating, with a walk in between some of the gorging, so today I made up for it while the kids lazed around in front of the telly in the morning and did crafty things in the afternoon - not sure entirely what the project was, but it involved a box, some glue, and cutting lots of pictures out of discarded catalogues - whatever, it kept them happy while I sewed and DH edited another chapter or two of the book he's editing (on invertebrate neurobiology - aren't you glad you asked?)

Anyway, I finished all the blocks I had to make for the Christmas block swap, so they can go out in the post tomorrow, hopefully. I am also making 9 of these for myself in colours that are more "me" - blues, silvers, etc - finished one or two of those and partly finished a few more, but there's no deadline on them, so it's not so pressing. The ones I get back from this swap, I think I will make into a Christmas lap quilt for my mother in law - haven't given her a quilty present in a few years, so I think I can get away with it again.

I also worked on some blue and yellow "liberated" nine-patches for another swap (yes, I know, I'm a bit over-committed on swaps at the moment, though I think I've just about caught up - usually I don't have quite as many going on at once, but there were a lot I couldn't resist, for one reason or another) - not my normal colours, but I had quite a bit of yellow in my stash for a change, so I decided it would be fun and quick. And I wanted something to contrast with all the little bitty pieces of the Christmas Star block, which these did really well. I intend to make a few more - I think I have another 6 pairs or so cut out (you start with two squares - one yellow and one blue - and you end up with two blocks that are the negative of one another). I think they look really nice, actually, and I'll probably use the blocks I get back (eventually) for a baby quilt - nice neutral colour scheme for the baby of unknown gender...