Just who am I, anyway?

Today it's literally been an entire year since I've posted here. As I've just joined Sharon Boggin's TAST for 2012 (that's "Take a Stitch Tuesday), I've renewed interest in this Blog. I first "met" Sharon when I received squishies from her in the USA/Australian squishie exchange conducted by her and Willa. One year, many of the Australian squishies were lost in transit, and Sharon heroically filled in for the missing pieces. I think I got three from her that year, all of them lovely. I subsequently took an online class from her on crazy quilting. I seem to be a perpetual student in that area.

Here's what I've been working most on lately: my daughter's quilt. I see from a previous post that I started this quilt in 2009 (February ), so I'm not what you'd call a speedy quilter. In my defense, this quilt is by far the most intricate I've ever tackled. Here's a picture of its progress:

It's actually gone far beyond that, but the next "layer" is a bunch of 6" star blocks (32 of them), pieced out of 1" pieces, to be laid out on point for the next border. I'm having a lot of fun with it, but am struggling with giving myself permission to work on it. Even though it's now a "have-to" project, it's so much fun that I tend to try to have my day's work done before I allow myself to work on it.

And.... I also struggle with whether I'm a sane quilter, a crazy one, or a knitter. I love all three crafts. One of the reason I joined TAST is to be forced to work more on crazy quilting.

GREETINGS from Anchorage, Alaska! 

This is a picture of the room we're staying in, which is actually an upgrade from the one we had requested (Someone was in that room when we arrived). This room has been very nice, because there's a little ante room with a curtain divider, so that Jay can go to bed (and get up at 5 a.m.), and I can continue to work here. The owners added a room heater after we arrived and discovered the heater wasn't working. It looks like an old-fashined stove, complete with face fire and is very comforting. I've put together the first block, a center medallion, to a BOM quilt I'm making for Alyson and Brad, and made some bead scissor fobs/zipper pulls with Kathryn's help. (Owner of the B & B). She has an enviable work corner in their living room and does very wonderful free-form bead work. I'll include some pictures when I get home, and can get some of my pictures uploaded. Well, that's all for now.... Jay is finished with all his assigned sewing machines and has gone to Willow, Alaska, and a festival there. We'd planned on both of us going, but it snowed 12 inches yesterday; there were 75 auto accidents in Anchorage last night. I didn't want to white-knuckle it for 3 hours today and drive Jay crazy, so I'm here in the warmth and comfort of our room... looking out on the beautiful snow. That's my idea of enjoying a snowfall!