Hello December!

The welcoming committee for December is decidedly late. Ahem. Well, I will claim the last week of classes as my excuse. Finished up today, and all that's left is to give a final next week. 

So here's to a new month, even if I am a couple days late with my welcome. Let's take a look at the November wrap-up first.

Top Row: A quick finish with an embroidery project. The stitching goes fast when it's this simple. I hung this in my long-arm room. And speaking of the long-arm room, I quilted Wishes for my sister, shown in the middle. Last, I painted the little rocker that my kids used as toddlers. It was weathered and worn; colored on and had stickers all over. Now as a white rocker, it will display a pretty little quilt or pillow.

Middle Row: Our great-niece Eve sits in her jammies with her grampa's new dog, Rusty. We visited family on DH's side the weekend before Thanksgiving. In the center, a pretty fall decoration for my newly finished kitchen countertop. And last, I finally started making the churn dash blocks for our group exchange coming up near Christmas.

Bottom Row: The kitchen!! I believe you have seen the pics in a recent post. I also put together a video for Instagram, if you want to go over there and have a look at before, during and after photos. I started another embroidery project since I enjoyed the earlier one so much, I traced out this much more complicated one and have started plugging away on it.  Finally, I end with the beautiful snow fall we had on the final night of November - it created a backyard sculpture.

That snow was what they call a wet snow - very heavy and look how it hung on the branches of our sweet bay magnolia. So pretty and unusual. We had quite a bit of snow overnight and through the next day.

On December first, DH and I ran a few errands in town, and coming back into our driveway, I had him stop for me in a few places so I could capture some of the beautiful snowy scenes. Isn't it pretty? I think the first snow of the season is the prettiest of all, and having it come in December is all the more wonderful. Both DH and I remarked that it helped to put us into the Christmas spirit! How nice!

Well, first up this month, I get to finish up my class work by the 10th or 11th, then it's full-tilt to Christmas! I hope there is lots of time for sewing! Heck, with Covid rearing up it's ugly head again, what else is there for me to do, right??

Let's have a great month!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

What a Winter

The winter of 2013-14 will go down as one of much snow and record-setting low temperatures. Friday afternoon, Valentine's Day, found us being covered up with the most beautiful snow. While we have had previous pretty snows, this one shrouded our entire property in a stunning veil of large lacy snowflakes.

I'm not one to complain much about the weather. I find I am quite content watching the Olympics, sewing, reading, cooking or baking, and generally just puttering around the house. We have two birdfeeders that provide no end of enjoyment watching the ever-growing flock of birds that frequent them. We counted over a dozen male cardinals yesterday! Twelve! They are beautiful pops of red against the pine trees and snow.

We were housebound this past weekend, as we didn't trust the car to get us out the driveway without getting stuck. I will try getting out later this morning as I must go to OU-C for my Monday classes.The man we called to plow our lane never showed up, so it might be tricky!

I spent much of the weekend sewing. I've caught up on the Wishes quilt along and the Tell It To The Stars quilt along. I will show you these new blocks in coming posts. I have also finished tacking down the binding on Broken Dishes, and it is now ready to gift to DD1 this coming Saturday at the bridal shower. Finally, I made some significant progress on a t-shirt quilt that I've been commissioned to make. My second one! I would like to make quick work of it, and get if off my plate well before the intensity of the wedding begins to take over.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Mixed Messages

We saw the Baltimore orioles back at our birdfeeder this weekend. They have been regulars in the spring for 3 or 4 years now! It is a true sign of spring when the orioles appear. We have at least one pair - the female with her more subtle coloration, and the male with his brighter orangey-red vest. They rarely fly up to the feeder, but prefer to stay on the ground and eat the seeds that have been scattered about by other birds.

This looks like a male; the vest is red and the belly is white.
The contrast is not as pronounced in the female.

So that is a sign of spring, but Mother Nature is sending out mixed messages here in south-central Ohio! The snow came yesterday (above) and increased overnight! Take a look!

I'm confident Mother Nature will get it all figured out soon.

Let me take a moment to have you go check out Little Bit Funky. I mentioned this blog in my previous post - the origin of the Chapstick Cozy. Well, you have got to read her Palm Sunday post about Resurrection Eggs. It is wonderful. Even though my kids are all grown, it helped remind me of the significance of Holy Week. God Bless!

Hope you have a great Monday!
Happy Quilting, Friends!

 

Sewing and Snow

I'll show the snow parts first. Here is our dog Steve frolicking in the 10" of snow we had on Friday. Thankfully, our power has stayed on, and we have been able to get out of our driveway. We are situated on a rural piece of land and have a very long driveway, one in which we frequently get stuck if we have any significant snowfalls. To prevent that, we bought our first 4WD vehicle last month; well-timed purchase, I'd say.

Here's a shot looking down our driveway:

And a shot of the woods around our house:

Okay, enough of that; let's get back to the important stuff: sewing and quilting progress!

Miss Bernina is a happy, humming machine once again. It took a trip to Columbus and a 4-hour session with Beth's Creative Stitchery in order to get her back to pristine condition, but it was so, so worth it.

I've been steadily working on two projects. The Kaffe Fassett Broken Dishes quilt continues to keep me captivated with all the interesting combinations of fabrics. Here's the one that's under construction right now:

And, because of the down time without my machine, I spent more focused time on Cheddar Cheese and Crackers, which I'm hand-piecing. I've finished all the interior cheese blocks, and nearly all the border blocks.

In between ball games today, I hope to get this doll quilt top close to finished. I'll finish off the triangle cheese blocks, and I'll machine piece the 4-patch blocks.

Right now I'm watching my beloved Ohio State Buckeyes and later, of course, there's the Super Bowl. I don't have a favorite in this one; I'll just enjoy a good  game.