Vacation vs. Holiday

Why is it that it takes a lot of work to take time off work? Being Canadian, I keep saying I'm taking holidays. In the U.S. the translation is vacation. So since I'm living south of the border, I'm going on vacation! Now be careful about looking at this link, you just might want to go here yourself. I have had this gift certificate since last year, and due to health issues, I just could not go away. The proprietors have been very generous and have extended the dates on this gift certificate and are honoring it this year. I've added on one more night, so this will give us 3 nights and 2 full days along with 2 days of travel. Here's where I'm going. Echo Valley. Have you heard of it? Do you wish you were coming?
I've been busy getting ready for this trip. I have just finished basting 36 of these.

I needed them to applique to four of these blocks.

And in case I get bored doing applique, I've got this marked, basted and ready to go.

I'm doing traditional Baptist Fans on this top and I'm working the fans in from all four sides. This will look like the quilts of days gone by where women gathered around the quilting frame and all quilted at the same time from all four sides. I've marked the first round and am hoping I have enough confidence to freehand the rest of the fans. I'm using a rust colored thread from YLI, I've marked using the blue Mark B-gone pen and made 5 rounds of fans. If you want to see how I've started quilting this, click the photo for a close up.

I had a very nice lunch out today with Louise. We chatted about quilting and bloggers and quilt stores and quilt shows. We ran out of time, but not talk. We follow many of the same blogs. Technology sure had made this blog world a great avenue to keep informed and inspired by our fellow quilters.
Check back for one more post before I leave; since I'm going away, I'm going to have a give away!
I've got to go walk my dog.
Sharon