Monday, February 24, 2014

Surviving the Last Weeks of Winter

A typical Northwest winter pretty much looks like this.


And this:




In spite of that, my tulips are just peeking up, promising some bright color for spring.  We had lots of snow and ice a couple of weeks ago and I was surprised to see some little tulip leaves when it melted.  I should've known.  Dutch winters are generally more intense than winter here.






Went skiing in Utah last week.  Getting out of Dodge for a few days in mid-winter seems to be good for my attitude.  Sometimes winter seems endless.



Could this be a quilt?  I would have to live about 6 lives to follow up on all the good quilt ideas I have. It seems that every picture or fruit or flower could be a great quilt.

I do't think I've ever seen such massive icicles.


And here's an idea for a fence that would never have occurred to me.




This is a picture of the coordinating block I made for Mother Goes Mod.  Both blocks will be in one pattern.


Here's one way to put them together.


Same basic block as the original, but just different enough to change the look, even with the same fabrics.

Work on the wedding quilt continues.  This week I'm making 84 of these:


Then I'll make 84 of these:


I might have some extra time to work on it as I'm trying not to expose the world to the neat chest cold that's going around and found me.  Oddly, people don't like it when the person next to them in line coughs up a lung.  So I shall attempt to keep my cooties to myself.  The biggest issue (besides my personal whining) with a cold is keeping the dogs out of the kleenex.  Ella likes to pull a box off of a table or desk, pull a couple hundred out and then shred them to atomic particles.  She has a basket full of toys and a bunch of tennis balls in the back yard.  What could be so fascinating about kleenex?  And do I really want to know?



Steer clear of the coughing people and
Quilt On!

Candy



Thursday, February 6, 2014

Time Flies When You're Quilting

Would someone like to tell me how it got to be February already?  One minute I was putting away Christmas decorations, and all of a sudden, January is history.  I'm pretty sure that one reason is that everything takes about twice as long to accomplish as I think it should.  Take, for instance, just a couple of errands. Let's get gas, pick up a couple of things at Target (across the street from the gas station with "reasonably" priced diesel) and a half dozen things at Safeway (on the way home).  Forty-five minutes should do it, but let's get real and schedule an hour.  Two hours later, I'm home.  I didn't do anything I wasn't planning to do with the possible exception of checking out some new sweaters at Target and thinking of a couple of grocery items I hadn't put on the list.  This, my friends, is real life.

And in that same vein, it's currently 20 degrees and snowing here.  Now this would be about SOP if I were writing from Chicago, Boston or Portland, Maine.  However, in Portland, Oregon, this is big news.  It's breezy, so the snow is doing more blowing around than piling up, and with a quarter of an INCH on the ground, the local schools are letting the kids out early.



  For those of you falling on the floor with laughter, I have to say that it's pretty hilly around here and the thought of a school bus sliding around would make any mother's blood run cold.  Also, while we have some snow-clearing equipment,  snow is rare enough here to make having enough plows, etc. for a serious storm unrealistic.  So we'll make a pot of tea and hunker down with the sewing machine for a few days and dream of leaves and bright colored flowers.


Ella and Toby like to go out about every five minutes when it's snowing.  They stay out about 30 seconds and then want back in.



We like to call this "snow face."  As soon as it melts, she wants to go do it again.


I've decided to add a second block option to my "Mother Goes Mod" pattern.  I was inspired when I was cleaning out a drawer with patterns in it and found a couple of old garment patterns.  They always had multiple views of the same basic dress (or pants, or skirt) so that the seamstress could make it hers.


Seems to me that quilters should have the same opportunity.  So I'm giving it a shot and this quilt seemed like the perfect place to start.

Also putting in some time everyday on "The Wedding Quilt."  I do NOT want to be in a hurry at the end.  Making 194 of these.

And then a couple  million of some other pieces.


The cool thing about quilters is they're never bored.  If they can't decide what to do next, they can always look at patterns or quilt magazines or rearrange the stash.  And sometimes even clean up the studio.  Okay, the cleaning up part isn't always that fun.  The good part is that I always find a UFO or a piece of fabric that I've forgotten about that inspires me again.

Candy