No People Pics Today :-(

Well, I didn't get out on my walk today - so no 'people' pictures. It was thundering when I woke and so hazy I couldn't tell if it was just talking from 10 miles away or from right above me - so I called it a day and stayed in.  Oh darn.  

Last night we went out with friends to eat.  Oh wait, we didn't!  Oh, wait, yes we did!  Let me explain... Last week, Michelle and I had made arrangements to go to eat chili crab last night.  Her little guy Alex got  ill, so she called and canceled.  Then she called back and asked if we had eaten, that Alex was better, so we did get to go out and eat.  Chili and pepper crab are some of Steve and my favorite things to eat.  Pepper crab is black pepper - and oh my gosh it is yummy!  Steve loves the chili crab:

Here is a picutre of Etienne and Michelle:

Michelle, for future reference - orange background does not do well with my photo editing skills... I haven't  figured out how to get your color right.  Sorry if you are a little orange around the edges - E looks great though!  lol...

Here is E eating crab with a chopstick - rather amusing but it works pretty darned good!

So hard to say goodbye to friends - this is the most difficult part of leaving Singapore  :-(

Ok, so now to my quilt - I have finally made progress people!  Yesterday was AWESOME!  I went to my quilting group and got this beautiful set of going away pictures!

I know most you you have no idea, but these are common places we go to here in Singapore - but the pictures were taken 'in the old days' - years and years ago!  Now tell me this is not AWESOME!  I am racing out to take pictures of the same locations before I leave.  Before and after pics - how cool will that be?

So now I need your advice on the quilt - I worked hard on it yesterday and got a bunch of squares done - whoot!  Here is one way I can lay them out - bear claws is what it is called.  I liked it just fine.  

Then I put it together the way our instructor said to do it:

And darn it, I like that too - in fact, I am not sure that the Batik does not show up better in the one above.... so now I need a vote -what do you think?

Guess what?  You are not done yet!  I am going to throw a kink in the works.  The group of girls that I quilt with gave me an awesome going away party yesterday (remember the going away pictures?) and they also each sewed a square for me and signed it!  Some of the girls were not there to give theirs to me but I got quite a few of them and will get the rest next week.  Mind you - all of them used different backgrounds and materials, so it doesn't match mine - but I love them!  I added them to my quilt and this is what it looked like in bear claws form:

 

And here it is arranged the other way:

 

Now my questions to you are: 

Shall I add them all to my quilt or make a lap quilt using all the squares they gave me so I can always have them close to me?  I absolutely love both ideas, so maybe you should chose  ;-)  Add to one quilt or make a separate lap quilt?

Secondly, do you like the bear claw pattern or the the flower pattern best?

Please, please vote.  I am too tired to make this decision and I trust you my friends...