Happy Thanksgiving! and I am thankful for this year. A little more personal list at the end. The quilt I made thinking of thanksgiving:

The pattern is the triple Irish chain.  I made a double Irish chain quilt with my mom when I was in second grade.  To be honest, I may have sewed very, very little of it – we made it in a quilting class, and I remember roaming the hallways a bit better then sitting at the sewing machine.  Either way, it was the quilt on my bed until well into high school, and I have good memories of it.

I wanted the colors to reflect the fall season, and Thanksgiving itself.  I pulled the outer two rows of color from the pictures from our Thanksgiving ’09 meal (on the right).  The middle row of the chain takes the bright colors from a Valentine’s bouquet (2008, middle).

A simple border of longer strips to finish out the chains and preserve the full white blocks, a simple quilted medallion, and interlocking circles within the chain finish out the quilt.

I use photos to add to the shading of these digital quilts, to add to the personal significance and visual depth.  In this quilt, I used the photo on the left – my boyfriend and I taking a nap after cooking and stuffing ourselves silly at our Thanksgiving for two last year (miiiight be posed).  I’m missing him a lot – even though this quilt is about Thanksgiving, it also ended up being about us – pictures of us, our meals, and a bouquet from M…  perfect.

So: my thankful list?  I’m thankful for:

• For my boyfriend… in every way, and the chance to be with him.
• For my family – I’m so lucky to have a supportive family backing me.
• For creativity.
• For new yoga.
• For this opportunity to come to a foreign country – new friends and experiences. I quite like being an expat.
• For the opportunity to have some of the crazy times I didn’t quite get to in college – and realizing they are equally as fun and overrated as they were in my head.
• For Sasha, my little foster dog, who taught me a ton about animal ownership and friendship and love – in one tiny commitment-free package.
• For new habits – writing and yoga and thinking more thoroughly.
• For my students – the chance to look back on so much of my childhood and school through new eyes, the (almost) daily little perks of happy kindegarten children, the interesting things you hear from the older.
• For this crazy technological age – I can talk to my boyfriend and my parents for free – and anyone in the country.
• For my ipod touch – best christmas present ever – seriously changed the way I do things – particularly books.
• For new beginnings, growth, and the opportunity all around us.

And for countless other small hopes, pleasures, and dreams that surround us every day.