Way too busy!

This is a crazy week which began with having my teeth cleaned Monday.  That evening, my jaw started to wobble and feel bad, and so far it has been a little difficult to chew.  I think I stretched while at the dentist, so now I have to take it easy while eating.  My neck and shoulder are sore, too, so I have been taking Ibuprophen to sleep.  Ugh!

Yesterday, we had a nice long walk in the forest.  The weather couldn't be more beautiful lately - warm days, cool nights.  We walked over the Mainline Trail, following old railroad beds through the abandoned quarries.  A few weeks ago, I noticed some seed pods on a tree that looked like beech, but I was told they are hazlenuts and that squirrels love them.  They really must because there are none left.  Instead, we did notice this odd seed pod, the red speckled blob in the middle.  It turns out to be a seed pod for jack-in-the-pulpit.  Quite interesting!  We will have to look hard for the flower next spring.

Last night was our first quilt guild meeting of the new year, and I talked about the gift bag challenge for the coming year.  Next month, anyone who wants to participate will bring a gift bag, which I will put into a brown paper bag.  Then each person will pick up a brown bag on the way home and make something quilty inspired by that bag.  Should be fun.  There's also going to be a round robin, and I can't resist!  I have already decided not to do the mystery quilt for the year as I never like what I end up with.  We'll see how my round robin turns out - I still have to make a center block and think it may be a square of four scrappy pineapple blocks.

Today we ran around, too, so I didn't get a lot of stitching in.  I do have two sections of the big rainbow scrappy quilt put together and hand sewed the backs together this morning.  Hope to get a little quilting in tomorrow and then, maybe put the next section on.  I am soooo anxious for this quilt to be finished, but it will be another week or two, I think!