moving along . . .

So this morning, I did a thing.  I hid my blog.  Or rather, I made it private.  Who knows ... at some point I may go back and make it public again, but for now, I need the space to write and upload pics, without the need to field comments and return blog views. *Edit* 5/3/21:  I've taken it off private, but eliminated comments.  There, all better!

***Note to self:  DELETE the above, you selfish thing you, if you ever make the blog public again!  

We had a crazy week.  Snow flurries , threat of snow, ice, then real snow meant we had no office hours this week!  

Here's pictures taken Thursday (the morning after), Friday, and finally, this morning.  You can definitely see it fading, but still trying to hang in there!

The girls got some good snow, too!  I was so glad!  This county is so big, we often don't get the same weather.  Point in case, my parents, who live twenty-five miles south of us, got nothing but rain. Boo!

I love this pic with all the tracks in the snow.  NONE of which are human! Such fun! It's cool to see hard evidence of the little feeding station ecosystem we've created!  Ha!!

So anyway, coupled with a short day on the Thursday before Valentine's Day (staff lunch and enrichment), followed by a holiday Monday (President's Day), and I've not worked for nine days. (Okay.  I've not gone *in* to work. I have worked from home, just to be clear.)  Ten days including Sunday, before going back to work on Monday.  LOL!  Then I work two days and am off for the rest of the week to celebrate my mom's 80th birthday with two of my sisters!  We're piling up on my folks and reliving the good ol' days for the long weekend.  Should be fun!

I finished both Christmas table runners, hand quilted and bound ... one for Jules and one for Lar.  I should probably make labels for them, but I'm so lazy.

They're similar but different.  Have no idea which one will get which.  I'll gift them when they arrive on Wednesday; we're going to stop and have a sisters' lunch at Chicken Salad Chick before we head to the folk's house.  :)

I've also been slowly working on stitching down the wool on the Hospital Sketches blocks.  Finished the utilitarian stitching on this one . . . 

I know it needs some embellishment via fancy stitches.  It just *needs* it.  I'll get busy on that.  Eventually.

I also played around in EQ designing a foundational pieced kimono, for a friend, based on a pattern by Betty Blais. 

I just love these fabrics!  It's a blend of Asian prints and batiks. Yum! I upsized it considerably, to make it a wall hanging. It would be a pretty to display in the spring/summer!

I still need to get out in the Nook.  Time wise this would have been the perfect week for it, but it's just been too darn cold out there.  We have been able to get out on the sun porch, with the propane heater going at full blast! 

So glad we've been able to use this into winter.  I'd have hated getting it screened in late November and then not being able to enjoy it until Spring!

Enough for now.  We lost power last night and it didn't come back on until 10:30, so we lost a big part of the day!  Perhaps I'll make this a weekly thing ... to share pics and tidbits of life, so I can recall them when my memory struggles.  Bahahahaha!!!

:)

wow, snow blow out . . .

Lesson learned.  Usually I don't let myself get all worked up by the weather forecasts. But they were all so sure and hyped up about the 'snowmageddon' of North Alabama, that I bought into it. I mean gosh ... GROCERY STORES closed their doors EARLY last night in anticipation of the event. Plus we'd already had a lovely dusting that they *weren't* expecting on Tuesday morning . . . 

So, against my better judgment, I bought into it.  Serves me right . . . I am SO disappointed!!  We woke up this morning to *nothing* ... blah ... and now it's raining ... blah.  And while they continue to pitch the snow, it continues to rain. Again, blah.  Blah, blah, BLAH!!!

On a (much) brighter note, I not only finished piecing my snowflake . . .

(Yes, that's the actual, not a photoshop illusion!) I also went ahead and got it quilted and bound!

My quilting was some very simple stitch-in-the-ditch quilting around the snowflake and the outer pieces. With sparkly thread.  :)  I'm calling it Midnight Snow.  It's all the snow I've got.  LOL!

I've also made some progress on my Celtic knot garden . . .

Working on the hedge knots, now.  Tedious, but it'll be worth it in the end!  One thing I quickly learned with the colonial knot is that shorter working thread is better. I'm working a line of the hedges until I catch up to myself.  Then I'll start the other side.  I have to admit, I'm looking forward to getting to the French knots!

And hey -- today is the last opportunity to make a comment and enter to win a copy of Shades of Mercy! Click HERE for a chance to win!

Linking up today to Esther Aliu's WIPs on Wednesdays (WOW)!

:)

what a great start . . .

All in all, January 1, 2014 was a pretty terrific day!  I started it by celebrating my final finish of 2013, which was Block 4 - Kansas Sunflower from Grandmother's Choice fame.  I again remember why I skipped it. 

BUT, it's finished now, and I put the final stitches in just minutes before midnight!

This morning I headed out bright and early (well . . . bright and early for New Year's Day, anyway) to meet the gals of my stitcher's group.  We have an annual tradition of meeting up at the local quilt shop, Patches and Stitches, for the annual "everything's 25% or more" sale.

I came away with a modest haul.  Just a little something to get my stash report going for the new year, a new quilting stencil, and a darling little pineapple cross stitch that caught my eye.  I also got some new YLI quilting thread, which managed to escape the photo.  Hmmmph.

From Patches we all headed out to Nothing But Noodles (one of our favorite gathering spots).

I had the Asian Sesame Noodles.  It was quite good!

The photo is an awkward one . . . but since I'm not in it . . . !!!  It's a *marvelous* group of women and I enjoy their company!

After a quick jaunt into the grocery store, I headed home for an afternoon cup of coffee with my hubby. Then I headed into the sewing room!  I worked on my paper pieced snowflake.  I was determined to add two triangles to the existing one . . . 

I finished one and stitched the two together.  Progress.

Then I finished the third!  Whoohoo!  Now I have a whole half!  You know what I can do with a half?

Graphic illusions!!

2026 . . . I have a date to have a whole quilt made from these blocks. Bahahaha!!  (It may be a whole quilt of graphical illusions!)

So I'd say an excellent day.  Bring on the rest of 2014!!

:)

out with the ... hmmmm . . .

You know, as I move my marker from "50", I'm not so sure I like that saying any more!  Out with the old??!  But why?  It's still perfectly good!  New is *not* necessarily better ... is it?!  NO!  Ha!

Todd and I did venture out for a bit yesterday.  It wasn't encouraging that right off the bat, the car decided not to cooperate!

A jump start and she was fine.  We even stopped and had the battery checked to make sure it didn't need replacing, but it was fine, too.  I think she may have been a tad jealous that we used the golf cart for our 'first' outing.  Persnickety thing!

We needed real food, so the grocery store was on our circuit.  Actually, I went there while Todd took off to see about the car.  Call me crazy but I'd been craving red meat.  With gravy.  And homemade yeast rolls (what is this affair with bread making lately?) . . .

Dinner was good . . . and so will be today's lunch!

I finished whipping up all my little pieces for the GC block and started whipping them together.

I remember now why I skipped this block.  I've probably made it a lot more difficult than it needed to be, but it sure looks pretty!

Especially when it's attached to the background fabric!

When I got tired of whipping pieces together, I pulled out my snowflake block fabrics.  I decided that since I really did want the look of a snowflake, I'd try it in blues and whites and grey.  Here's what I came up with:

I had to do a little refresher course on paper-piecing, it had been so long.  But once I saw the first step, it all came back ... like riding a bicycle ...

Yes -- I'm very pleased with the overall on this one!!  (I photocopied my one finished one six times so I could see what the finished piece would look like.  It's how I roll.)  Now only five more triangles to do. Hmmm . . . where is that GC block?

If my recollecting is correct, in addition to the snowflake, I started (and even finished) a couple of other NewFO projects in the merry ol' month of December.

Pretty darn productive and definitely worth a link up to the December NewFO linky party over at Cat Patches!!

Finally, the view out of the RV window this morning . . .

I love living in a place where this is what greets me in the morning!  Enjoy this last day of 2013 and let me wish you a very happy, peaceful and blessing-filled 2014!

:)

out of the grey . . .

Yesterday, the fog (both internal *and* external) started to lift and Todd and I ventured as far as the golf cart for a ride about the camp.  *Anything* to get out from the tiny walls of the RV for just a bit and allow some "clean" air in to clear the cobwebs!

Serenity Pond, looking off the deck.

From the deck of Serenity Pond, looking down onto Silty Bottom Pond.

It was a lovely afternoon.  The clouds finally started to break apart and a bit of sunshine can do miracles!

I'd also run out of bread the day before . . . but neither of us had the energy to leave the camp.  Luckily I had the makings for bread.

Give a gal a loaf of bread and her family eats.  Teach a gal how to make bread and her family will never go hungry.  Isn't that how that platitude goes??! Something like that.

Okay, so the final design wall of the year is still sporting Grandmother's Choice blocks.  I went through and did all the easy ones, so now it's back to the tougher blocks.  Or rather, the more 'involved' blocks, I should say.  I'm determined to do all of them.  No excuses!

Sarah challenged me to have made some progress on this one before evening's end (yesterday).  I'd say I accepted the challenge!  ;)

I popped in a DVD while whipping . . . 

If you've not seen any of this series, it's quite good!  There's some fascinating information and history.

I also ran across this foundation paper piecing block (actually, it's a set of blocks--called "Spike Your English") at Quilting on the Square.

It reminded me a bit of a snowflake (and as an added benefit, it finishes in the shape of a hexagon!!!!), and I had the urge to give it a try.

Originally, I was thinking about using batiks for it . . . 

But now I'm not so sure.  One of the things I love about this design is the simplicity and consistency.  I'm a little afraid that using batiks would make each triangle different, and so you wouldn't get the same sense of 'sameness'.  Any thoughts?  Linking up to Patchwork Times.  

Today I *have* to go to the grocery store.  Wish me luck.

:)