Make-A-List Monday - Home Again!

Hi, all!

It's Monday, and I'm finally back in the U.S.!  We had quite the trip back - left late from Beijing, which was worrisome because we only had a 90 minute layover in Dallas, and had to collect our luggage and go through customs before boarding our flight home.  Well - we arrived at DFW 30 minutes before our next flight was supposed to start boarding, then sat on the tarmac for over an hour - needless to say, we missed our connecting flight.  But we stayed at a very nice hotel overnight, with a great bed (more on Chinese beds later) and got a good night's sleep.  Early flight Sunday morning, and voila, we are home!  

But now it's time to get back to work - so let's see how last week's list went...

1.  Work on Nathanael's stocking.  I'm close to being finished, so maybe I can get the top stitching done during my LONG flights!

Done!  I couldn't stitch on the flight - sitting in the middle seat gives you no elbow room for stitching, but I did take a morning in the hotel (rainy day) and finished the topstitching!  So here is the finished cross-stitch...

2.  Work on a hexie project I'm taking along.

Done!  I made up a whole pile of hexies, and started sewing them together last night.  I always forget how fun hexies are to make!

3.  Write up the tutorial for a recent quilt.

Done!  I'll be posting this sometime in the next couple of weeks!

4.  See the Great Wall of China!

Done!  We had a great time - but wow, is the Great Wall steep!  You can kind of get an idea of how steep from this picture.  I made it to this point and stopped; my husband went up farther, and another guy we were with went all the way to the top.  I'm glad I stopped when I did - I wasn't too sore the next day (unlike some others I could mention!)  The steps are very uneven - sometimes six inches apart, sometimes twelve or even fifteen inches!  Very hard to climb, both up and down....

Our sightseeing was made infinitely better by this pretty lady...

 ...named Joy!  She was our guide on Monday and then again on Friday when I went shopping, and I don't know what we would have done without her!  Amazingly, it was her first day on a new job, working as an assistant in a publishing company, when she took us to the Great Wall.  I'll tell you more about Joy later on this week.

So that's how my week went last week.  Something tells me this week's list will be much longer....

1.  Finish a pillow top for Emmy.

2.  Cut the sashing and cornerstones for the t-shirt quilt.

3.  Assemble the t-shirt quilt.

4.  Cut the background pieces for a ministry quilt.

5.  Assemble the ministry quilt.

6.  Take my car to shop for recall work.

7.  Scan and email a quilt pattern to a friend.

8.  Take a picture of all fifty quilts for Ethiopia on Wednesday night with the members of the kids' classes.

9.  Start re-organizing the garage so we can park both cars in there again!

10. Keep up with any quilt ministry needs that come up.

Well, that's certainly enough to keep me busy this week - and there are lots more things I can work on if I get through all this!  After all, 'tis the season and all that... I've got lots of things started and commission jobs to finish, too!

So now the question is - - - what are YOU working on this week?

Hugs!

Sarah