Speeding up

Just when I thought things would settle and I'd gain some quiet momentum, I find myself hurtling towards Christmas ... so I'm all busy again. There are probably no readers left out there, but anyway.
Before I get started on Christmas gifts, I thought I'd finish off this quilt, which is a present for my sister-in-law's 50th birthday.
I'm keen to finish it soon, because she'll be 52 in a couple of months ...
The all-over stippling is looking okay, though there are occasional angular bits, and two points at which I have crossed over a stitching line. But I'm telling myself this is the idea of handmade stuff. As I'm stitching, I keep telling myself, "Curves ... curves ..." to stop doing loops and zig-zags, which feel more natural.
Faves
:: I'm reading Stella Gibbons' (of Cold Comfort Farm) novel, Westwood on the kindle and loving it.
:: David and I have spent several weeks watching 20 gripping, tense episodes of the Danish thriller, The Killing, and now we wish we could start it all over again, it was SO good. And how fascinating it was to hear the Danish language spoken. It sounded quite guttural, with not so many staccato consonants as in the Romance languages. And for the most part it seemed entirely incomprehensible, until suddenly the characters would say a short sentence or the odd word that sounded like German, or English. It just added to the fabulous TV, in my opinion.
We are also loving The Slap - so brilliantly done. I forgot how truly despicable so many of the characters are - good stuff. Likewise the BBC adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst's novel, The Line of Beauty. Lord knows if either of these will get to air in the US - there's so much graphic, no-holds-barred sex in them that they'll cause conniptions.
Oh well - back to the swirly-wirly and curves, curves, curves ...