Adding some 'grateful', a la the November challenge and 'artistic', a la December challenge to your projects? Those table runners for Thanksgiving and those Xmas gifts can all incorporate the challenge topics...............

I was tossing around the idea of a holiday table runner recently and realized that with all the traumas and set backs of losing everything the last few years we have managed to turn life back into that bowl of cherries--although they are not the perfect gorgeous fruit of b4. Instead it is cherry jam now with us scaling down, doing with less, etc. So a Thanksgiving wall/table runner with summery jam jars for us. (It is spring/summer here in South America now. A lot of expats come over for a big get together with 25-30 friends in a potluck with the new work hanging on the patio)

What are you guys up to?

Love the jam jars!! How did you end up in Chile? If you would not mind sharing?
Just got a fabulous idea for the Nov challenge. Delivered 8 baby quilts for shelter with Far Rockaway that go straight to the children who have so little. Have 3 beautiful quilts for Krystyna and her neighbors new homes. Lotsa tops need quilting. But a little "me" time too.

I knew once you got going on your project some lives would definitely be changed for the better! It is so good for those little kids to get new 'blankies' made with love, and I bet you enjoyed cleaning out some UFOs ;) Wish I could offer to throw them on the LA and give you some quilting help...................

Us and Chile? Well, there we were with a series of choices. Carl is 66 and could work forever so we could just afford life in Calif. (Private health insurance and property taxes alone meant $3000mo and that was before we ate or put gas in the car, or paid the light bill.) So it was time for a new adventure. We always wanted to be in a position to use our skills to give away our talents to project we loved. When we rented out our house and came to SA we could give scholarships to the music/art students who could not otherwise afford to stay in school. They have huge followings for classical and jazz music here which are Carl's specialties so he could put together groups and get them places to play for $$ but not need to worry about paying ourselves.

We chose Chile because it is indistinguishable from the 'first world'. Fantastic freeways, shopping malls, etc. Our doctors have trained all over the world including the US. There is a strong and growing middle class with a longer history of a working democracy than most of Europe and the US. (Except for a US engineered coup that lasted 16 years in the 80's and the change back was accomplished without major uprising) It is one of the only countries on the planet that has NO DEBT. They run a surplus. What's not to love?

So we came here and I wrote the book that's shown in my signature plus I have a blog about our adventures;
http://www.goodwriter.info/Blog/index.html

But then the property manager didn't pay our house insurance and our house burned down. SO no house, no income, lost fabric stash,lost rulers, books, early quilts. All my hubby's early music compositions that hadn't been digitized....everything gone but the piano and long arm which had already been shipped here.

We sued of course but he wasn't worth a third what we had in it all. It is the one business in all of regulated Calif that does not require it's owner to carry 'errors and omissions' insurance. (Don't I wish we had known that!) So here in our 60's we got to start over this year. I can so empathize with those who have lost everything.

Last year and again this year though I have a project to donate quilts to the kids at a local orphanage. This little facility runs on a shoestring and these kids all have drug addicted parents who are in jail or have abandoned them and there is no other family to take them. That giving feeds my desire to help and the kids are such darlings. At the moment I use polyester batting and the choice of cotton & cotton/poly is limited as when you are working class you want clothes that drip dry.

Quilting is not well known here yet. It is more for the leisured monied class. There is a quilt store in the seriously expensive end of town where cottons run $45 yard and with our new reality I certainly don't shop there but have offered to give classes and also do some LAing. When we met the Q shop owner had just been ordering her own machine to put in the shop so I won't do a lot of that except for my own projects I think.

So now you have our history on that one...:) I keep enticing people down here to visit because we do love it here. (Driest desert in the world with the Nazca lines, huge telescopes to get night tours containing the clearest, highest skies in the world, redwood forests down south where the trees are only slightly smaller than those in Calif, burbling volcanos, the absolutely vertical Andes) Once our hapless friends and relatives are hooked as tourists then I can then beg them to put some new quilt fabrics in their suitcases for the trip down and so far, altho not a great solution, it has been workable. This situation also makes me try new techniques with new materials. And I have really started exploring fabric painting, bleaching and it's vegetable dyeing,etc. Necessity is a good spur. And also this forum and my SAQA buddies is great for ideas and inspiration.

Hope you are not too sorry you asked about Chile! LOL

Keep working on those give aways--how about some photos? And I can't wait to see your November idea.

That's a fascinating story. Thanks for sharing!

So, here is my November piece, almost done. It's about my great surprise, our bonus baby. Now 24, beautiful (see her with the ponytail), many talents, puzzled about the next step. I used a coloring page jigsaw puzzle for templates.
top & bottom edges are raw.

Theme for December: Molly's Christmas. Have to give Big Sister equal time.
l time!~a

Dotty--love that puzzle motif. You are a productive lady. What a totally fun idea that puzzle raw edge is and I plan on stealing it and using it mercilessly......

We had an 'oops baby' and I know some of the feelings that accompany that situation. Sounds like you, similarly to us, have a wonderful outcome from your surprise. Life offers such interesting twists............

Can't wait to see that sister idea.

First two babies came after loss and with much effort. Lily was such a gift. I was thrilled. DH now XDH, no so.
They are now 35, 34, & 24, and still baby her! Started Molly's Christmas tree last night. Adapting a log cabin tree.
My Bee had a lovely dinner party , but... this quilt was in my brain and I could not wait to get going!

Dotty-like your November piece....

Spent most of 2 days on new piece. Ripped apart 10 3" blocks. I guess that is why this is a challenge!!