Pop Quiz

In the week since I last posted, I have:
a) coughed my way through every day
b) worked until the wee hours of the morning
c) almost completed a quilt
d) consumed more latkes than one should
e) all of the above

I suppose I should have added "taken weird pictures, like the one above." The answer is, of course, e -- all of the above. I returned from Thanksgiving with a cold, which was an unfortunate way to start off December. The cold is gone, but the cough lingers. Last week also represented crunch time vis a vis schoolwork; the necessary work occurred, though not without some rather late nights/early mornings. I thought I was done with those about a decade ago when I was a newspaper editor in college, but I was wrong. I hope that I am asleep at 3 am for the foreseeable future.

Despite my coughing fits and work duties, I also plowed my way to an almost completed quilt over the past week. After living without access to my sewing machine and fabric stash, I needed to make something when I got back, and I had committed to the "100 Quilts for Christmas" project, so it was time to dig in and get started. I opted for a strip quilt, quite frankly because they come together easily.

I plunged into the (trendy) red + aqua combo. I had some moments of doubt, as it laid on my living room floor, mocking me as I stepped over it to close the curtains at night, but not getting much sewing done. Finally, this weekend I was able to spend real time with it, and transform it from a bunch of fabric strips into a quilt.

It's not quite done yet -- these pictures are intentionally misleading since I need to finish quilting about 1/3 of it. I had to pause yesterday to make and eat many many latkes (the 5th night of Chanukah and all). Also, I had to make and eat chocolate-y goodness (no relation to Chanukah). But holidays present opportunities and rationales for making bad-for-you-but-so-tasty treats like oreo (or, in my case, TJ's Joe-Joe) truffles. Make them: they're easy, delicious, and everyone will think you're a master chef/baker/culinary artist.

About that quilting, well, I hope to finish this one this week. It's a bigger quilt, for a bigger kid since I've read that there's often a need for items and gifts for older kids.