Yet More Snow and Quilting Updates

You just know you are in for one of those days when it starts with this:

The snow continued to fall here last night.  The snow mixed with high winds (60 to 80 km/hr) resulted in white out conditions and a bit of a wild drive to work today. 

Barbecue season and meals in the backyard seem so far away.

This truck is not going anywhere soon.

On the quilting front, progress is being made on piecing the blocks for Got Stripes and on attaching the binding to Fire Escape.

I am currently working on row 7 of 11 on Got Stripes.  Rows 1 to 5 are completely joined together.  Row 6 blocks are joined to one another but row 6 is not yet joined to rows 1 to 5.  I have just started working on row 7 - only one star block assembled so far on that row.

The binding has been attached to Fire Escape.  When I can steal a few moments, I work on hand stitching the binding to the back of the quilt.

Snow!

It has been snowing here continuously for the last 12 hours.  It has finally stopped, but they say more snow is on its way.  We were enjoying a rather mild winter....until now!

A Fresh Dump of that White Stuff

This is what we woke up to this morning....

This is a close up shot of some of the snow in our yard.

DH and I decided to bundle up and go for a walk in the snow.

This tree looked so lonely all by itself.

Branches were heavy with snow.

The robins seemed confused by all the snow.

They were puffed up in the trees--trying to stay warm.

This is the tree in our front yard. I don't like snow, but I have to admit that it made this tree look gorgeous.
Some of the streets in our little town.

After our walk, we warmed up with hot chocolate and fresh banana bread.

Today I am wanting to get back to working on my Bridge Creek Blossom quilt. I put the blocks up on the design wall Friday night and played with their placement. As you can see, it is a little hard to lay out the blocks for a queen size quilt on a double size design wall. We'll see how far I get on this top today.

The Drive Home

These two shots were taken on the drive home from work today.

That is not fog. It is blowing and drifting snow!

It is cold!

More Snow!

This is what we woke up to.......for the second day in a row!

Oh Spring, where are you?

Snow!

What a change in weather! We had an absolutely beautiful weekend with lots of sunshine. Today we are back in the grips of winter. The forecast is snow for at least the next 24 hours, then record breaking cold temperatures through the rest of the week.

Pansy Lap Quilt - Finished Flimsy

When I was in a local fabric store a month ago, I fell in love with a pansy fabric that was marked down to clear it out as there was less than 2m left on the bolt. I was then on the search for the perfect pattern that would allow me to showcase the gorgeous print with minimal cutting. I found the pattern I was looking for in the Dec/Jan 2011 issue of Quick Quilts (page 14 - Manor House designed by Kari Nichols). This one finishes at approximately 53" x 70"--a perfect lap size.

I am working on the "reward" system right now. If I finish an old UFO, then I get to work on a reward. A reward for me is a simple project - something new - something that will qualify as quick gratification because it is fast - something that I can finish quickly so my reward doesn't turn into another UFO. This pansy project was my reward for finishing my Christmas Patience Corners to the flimsy stage.

I wasn't quite ready to call it a night last night when I had the lap quilt finished so I made this matching candle mat (still a flimsy). This is Sandra E. Andersen's design and is called Candlelight.

This is a picture of the mountain that I can see from our living room window. We woke up to a light dusting of snow on the ground this morning. The snow on our lawn was gone before noon, but the snow remains on the nearby mountains.

Daisy Chain Progress and Snow

This is what is currently happening outside........it is snowing! We had a green Christmas, free of any hint of snow, but now it is snowing.

I am currently on vacation so I don't have to go to work. I don't have any appointments anywhere. The pantry is fully stocked so I don't have to go shopping for groceries. I don't particularly like snow but I am not stressing over it today because I don't have to drive anywhere!

This is perfect weather to be inside quilting. I am continuing to work on my Daisy Chain quilt today.

This is a picture of the first 5 blocks as they look finished.

Last night I finished off all 48 blocks for this quilt. Today I will be working on sashing and assembly of the row.

..................let it snow!

Is Spring Finally Here?

This is the weather that we woke up to on the morning of April 1st. Yes, that is snow! Although it was April Fool's Day, this was no joke! They mentioned on the TV news that we have had 5 months in a row where we have had snow. This is very unusual weather for this part of the country. We are tired of snow! By Saturday (April 4) the weather had improved significantly. I couldn't resist taking a few pictures in the afternoon.

This is the view that my DD has when she is at work.

The red strip in the foreground in this picture is a cranberry field. There are no cranberries at this time of year.

A pasture just a little farther down the same road. This is the view I have when driving home from work each day.

Look on the ground at the base of these trees.

This is where I found the most beautiful and delicate little blue flowers.

And at the base of another tree.....

Crocuses--a sure sign of spring.

There are no signs of spring in my yard so I headed to the greenhouse to fix that.

We have had nice warm weather with no sign of snow since Friday. Let's hope that Spring decides to stay and the cold weather and snow is gone till winter!