Thanksgiving

 

Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada.  We had our turkey dinner last night.  I like to have our turkey on

Winter is not over yet!

Today, we had more of the white stuff.

I guess it was premature to think that winter was on its way out!

Ice and Quilt Progress

This morning, we woke up to a layer of freezing rain covering everything.

Although the ice coating on everything is pretty, it is definitely not safe to be driving or walking in this weather.

 

It was safe to stay inside and quilt though.  :)

By 11:00 pm, I had finished making all the blocks for the Got Stripes quilt - with the exception of one.  I was short a green background strip.  I need to cut some green background  pieces to finish the last block and to replace some pieces in a block that is already pieced into the quilt top.  I made the mistake of reversing one piece of background fabric--front for back so I will need to do some reverse sewing.   

I also finished the binding on my Fire Escape quilt.  After finishing the binding, I spread the quilt out over the table to take a picture. 

A picture without the flash shows the colours of the quilt to be a little closer to reality and shows the swirl quilting design a little better.

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.

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.

Machine Quilting

This morning the weather was fabulous! Wonderful warm sunshine filled my quilt studio.

I have been pushing myself this weekend to get 4 customer quilts quilted.

This morning's sunshine gave me the energy to complete all 4 quilts!

Even Joey enjoyed the warmth of the sun.

All 4 quilts were scrap quilts....

...utilizing everything in the scrap basket.

I also finished a secret project this weekend.....the next FAB challenge. I can't show pictures, because the recipient definitely reads this blog....so stay tuned for the reveal!

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.