Nancy Goldworthy is a long arm quilter and author.

One of her books is Quilter’s Guide to UFO’s – UnFinished Objects.

She was the speaker last week at the Peninsula Quilt Guild.

She brought lots of quilts for inspiration…

…which I LOVE!

I never get tired of looking at quilts.

Nancy swears that all of these quilts used to be UFO’s.

They languished in her sewing room.

But eventually lived to see the light of day…

…and become finished quilts.

Some were piles of blocks.

Some were from block exchanges.

Some were set on point.

Some were tops that needed quilting.

Nancy even has a chart of what she needs to finish.

It was a real inspiration to all of us.  Thanks, Nancy.

This is a quilt I designed called Summer Fun.

The name came more from the fabric than the design.  I had this cute baseball fabric that I used in it.

The quilt uses nine fat quarters and a background.

This pattern is in my second book, Fat Quarter Fun.

In the book I also sho it in a little sample with just two colors and not much contrast.  Very sweet!  I just love to see how different the same pattern can look in different fabrics.  Sometimes it’s hard to believe they even are the same pattern.

At our last Quilt Retreat, Sue made one with purple and lavender.  Isn’t is stunning!?!  And don’t you love the blatant advertising, with her holding up the book!  She is a former Anna Lena’s employee, after all.

She stopped by today to use my long arm to quilt it.

I think the Daisy Pano is looking great on it.

If you’ve made quilts from my books or patterns, I’d love it if you’d send me photos.

Christmas Day was a Very Merry Christmas at our house.

The mantle is filled with my Christmas village.

Despite Bob’s concerns that all the heat will go up the chimney, we have a roaring fire!

Here’s the tree…

…with lots of blown glass ornaments collected over the years.  It’s so fun to think of the places I visited and who I was with when I got each of them–like New York, San Francisco, Colonial Williamsburg and the Hotel Del Coronado.

For years I collected vintage looking boxes.  I hadn’t used them in over 15 years.

But this year I dug them out and discovered I still love them!

We did brunch here, with fresh Dungeness crab legs, barbecued pork, gruyere potatoes, my mom’s homemade potato salad and her homemade cheese–along with some Cougar Gold.

I baked cardamom bread…

and pecan sticky buns and orange rolls.  We love our carbs in this family!

Sally, Ray, Dad, Mom and Cole.

Cole (hey! how did he get in there again!?!), Melissa, Matt and Bob.

A very Merry Christmas indeed!

We always celebrate Christmas Eve at my mom and dad’s house.

Mom has a penchant for poinsettias.

She uses them liberally on her tree…

…up her stairway…

…and all her gift-wrap features them.  If you look outside the windows, you can see the ocean!

We didn’t get a group family photo, so here we all are, individually.  My beautiful mom.

My handsome dad.

My skinny sister Sally.

Her husband Ray.

Our nephew  Cole.

DH Bob.

And me, obviously ready to get the opening of gifts underway!