Yoohoo! I'm over here!

Here I go again! Kind of like this Christmas cactus, blooming the first week of January.

Better late than never!

Yes, I've moved my blog from "Cheery Chirp" to this new space, "Chirp." Certainly I intend to still strive for a cheery presentation, but the title was too cute, don't you agree? Chirp is the title I first chose when I tried this blogger stuff, and Cheery Chirp is what I ended up with when I couldn't figure out how to do it the first time around. I've figured out some stuff, though, and I hadn't let go of this name, so here I am, now.

Apart from the fun association of the word chirp with the twitter and tweeting phenomenon, it was a nickname I acquired during my first year in college, because I had a funny, squeaking laugh. Confession: I liked the attention I got from that laugh, so I began to do it intentionally, and it got annoying. I hope I learned that lesson; I love the positive attention/feedback I get from you, my readers, on this blog, and I will try not to get too cute with it!

I participate in a book club, with women I've met mostly via school employment. It's everything I hoped it would be: intelligent women sharing their thoughts and associations with good books, and social connections with people who make room in their hearts and lives for other people and ideas. We read some good books last year,  and seem to have focused on strong women in times past with Jane Eyre and Rebecca, Half Broke Horses and Follow the River, and The Shell Seekers. We thought Catch-22 was too sarcastic, and we were inspired by Same Kind of Different as Me. Another confession: I didn't read Follow the River, because I was busy sewing. I think that makes this wall hanging I made rather ironic. 

Book lovers never go to bed alone.

Last year I participated in an on-line quilt-along;

And I used Christmas fabrics to make the blocks. I put them together just in time for us to use all through December, in this quilt:

Confession: whenever I sat down to watch a Christmas movie with the family, or the occasional Jeopardy or The Closer episode, I had this quilt on my lap, adding decorative quilt stitches with embroidery floss. It wasn't really, completely finished until a few days before Christmas. I'm sorry I don't have a close-up photo for you to see, it's really cute, though!

That's three confessions, a good way to start the new year! I think I'm going to connect this blog a little more to the projects I'm working on, and the occasional picture of me and the family enjoying life. Maybe there will be more interaction with the quilting/blogging community. I hope I'll continue to hear from you, I sure do appreciate your comments!