Snow, Cold, and Spring Fever

 When last I blogged, we were in the midst of big snows, and lots of cold weather. I can't count the number of days David spent in flannel shirts (and he really doesn't like flannel).  I even purchased some more just to keep from having to do laundry every other day.  All of this winter weather led to a bad case of Spring Fever.  I spent my days finishing the Orange Crush quilt............

Here it is on the longarm.  I put this little topper on the longarm at the bottom of the quilt and quilted it as well.

They are both fully finished now and ready for show and tell at guild tomorrow night.  Such nice spring looking fabric.

And then, I just couldn't help myself, so I made a rabbit..............and some paper pieced carrots.

Here is the flimsy of this wall hanging.  It's not quilted yet, but will be soon so that I can hang it for Easter.

The whole thing was so fun to make.  The bunny comes from the Elizabeth Hartman Bunny Bunch pattern and the carrots are paper pieced from a pattern I downloaded.  Each carrot is different.  The bunny's shirt fabric came from the fat quarter I received from our guild's Quilted Cow box.  I will be using this as my challenge project for guild.  We had to use some of the fat quarter we were given and keep the dimensions to less than 80 inches in perimeter and a few other requirements (which I may have bent the rules on a little).  

All of the bad weather found Mabel getting to spend more time inside...........

She helped bind the Orange Crush quilt.

She tried to take on Esme with a pencil, but Esme wasn't having it and got the pencil away from her.

And the back of the couch became a favorite place to sleep.

More cutting table mischief.......

Orange Crush was a UFO, so that crosses another off my list.  More finishes to come.

Christi

President's Day Snow

So if the photo above had been taken this morning, the ground outside would be white with snow!  This is how Willow greeted me at the back door this morning...........

Backside covered in snow...........she had been out playing and didn't understand why she couldn't come in when she was covered in snow.

We weren't supposed to get snow until later tonight and all day tomorrow.  But big beautiful flakes started this morning and I'd say we have at least 3 inches so far.  My prediction was that most students wouldn't go to school at all this week as they are out for President's Day today and we are supposed to have snow tomorrow and then frigid temps which will make it too cold for school.  We'll see what happens.  It should be a good sewing week!

David professes to not like flannel shirts, so only has a couple.  But when the temps dip this low, he suddenly LIKES flannel shirts.  When I noticed that he was wearing one yesterday and we weren't even to the coldest days yet, I stopped at Walmart and picked up 3 more.  (I figure the investment was worth not having to do laundry every other day to keep him in flannel shirts.)  They were on a clearance rack right next to the Easter decor and candy.............talk about mixing up your seasons!

When I visited Sarah, we looked over some fabric options for a new quilt for her bed.  We settled on the black background for this one.

I'm also awaiting the backing to arrive for her 4-H t-shirt quilt that is ready to quilt.  And we worked out the layout for her next t-shirt quilt.

I made a couple more placemats for our guild charity project from the leftover pieces of the braid border on Bricks in the Barnyard.

At guild meeting last week, Kris showed her block lotto butterfly quilt.  She is the first to bring back a completed quilt from the blocks she won.  

Here was another quilt I liked from show and tell.  

The new block lotto block to make for March is this one.  I have 3 completed.  It will be interesting to see all the different colors.

Mabel helped with fabric selection for my block lotto blocks and also helped to compress the fabric back into the color tubs.

I made the half square triangles I was assigned for our opportunity quilt............

And I made the three blocks for my group's Quilt of Valor quilt.  So, all my guild "homework" is completed for the meeting in March.

Mabel was also on hand to help with the trees for the Lookout quilt.  She made sure none of the fabric escaped from it's tub.

And, I am excited to say that Lookout is a flimsy!  I think this turned out so cute.  I made the baby quilt size, so it can either be a wall hanging or a baby quilt.  It's made totally from scraps from my stash.  I have fabric for the backing and can't wait to get it quilted.

Mabel also discovered that the Mondo bag was a great place to relax while hanging out in the sewing room.

I have also been working on the block lotto blocks that I received.  (I didn't win, but the winner gifted them to me.)  I have 52 leaves (I had made 27 of them in an effort to win) and am adding a churn dash border to them.  I want to make a fall quilt for my bed, so it needs to be big.

I now have 36 completed blocks.  

Piano lessons have been happening as weather permits.  Mabel sometimes hangs around to offer her opinion.  I'm pretty sure she's saying this guy needed to practice more!  

Well, we'll see what the weather brings us this week.  It has quit snowing for now.  

Christi

Last weekend found me driving with 2 cousins up to Bethany to my uncle's funeral.  Right before we left the funeral, we took a girl cousin picture............

The last time we took this picture was at one of Jackson's high school football games.  Jackson will graduate from college this spring.

David went to St. Peters to work on stuff in Sarah's house.  He built shelves in her basement.  

Her cat did some investigating.

He also installed a gas log in the fireplace.  This included running the gas line.  He set a record on Saturday with 5 trips to Menards, 1 trip to Home Depot, and 1 trip to Ace Hardware.

 I am headed to St. Peters today and David is going to a funeral visitation for his cousin's husband tomorrow.  On the way he will stop and have lunch with my cousins in Ashland.  He's also going to help install a new deadbolt while he's there.  I hope it doesn't require as many trips to the home stores as last Saturday.

Another UFO finish for 2025!  I think this makes 4 of the 10 on the list.  This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern called Bricks in the Barnyard.  It's all quilted and bound and ready for show and tell at guild this week.  I put a plaid flannel on the back that is so soft.  It took several nights to bind it because I kept falling asleep under the warm softness of it.

While it was on the longarm, I did some "cleaning" and created a couple of placemats from the leftover parts as well as this table topper from the leftovers of Orange Crush.  We're going to start calling these things collateral damage.

I also worked on cutting the sashings and borders for Randolph & Rudy.  Mabel was on hand to help with ruler selection.

Obviously it was a taxing job.

But here is the quilt in it's flimsy form.  I love it.  It was so much fun to make.  I have some gray plaid flannel that has a light blue stripe in it that I plan to use for the backing.  And I think there is just enough of the blue background left for binding.  My sister has seen photos of the blocks and has offered to let the bears and deer reside at her house.  

I truly think I might be addicted to Elizabeth Hartman patterns.  This is the other pattern that I got for Christmas from Sarah.  I started pulling fabrics from my stash even before R&R became a flimsy.

Yesterday I cut the pieces for the bear, deer, and rabbit blocks and last night I made the bear and deer.

These have been appropriately sniffed by Esme.

Again, they are so cute!  I can't wait to work on the rabbit block.  I am going to make the baby quilt size since that's what I could get from the fabric in my stash.  So, I will need a dozen tree blocks.  And I've already decided that the gray/blue plaid flannel will make a wonderful backing.

In other news, we released Willow from the Cone of Shame yesterday after lunch.  Mabel had worked so hard as the emotional support kitty.

We invited both of them inside and worked the collar off and proceeded with a good allover scratching and brushing of Willow.  She then licked her butt for a good 10 minutes (no kisses from her anytime soon).  I guess a week of not being able to do that was pretty awful.  She then went back outside to roll in the sunshine and Mabel took a much needed nap to recuperate from her support duties.

I'm off to St. Peters after lunch.  Sarah wants to make homemade pizza for supper and then I imagine we will sit in front of the fireplace and watch TV.  I've found an estate sale to hit Saturday morning and she has promised to take me to The Quilted Cow!  I can't wait!  I also need to go to a music store and since both my hair dryer and my food processor quit this week, I would love to find some replacements.

Oh, and I started a new book (audiobook) which I am loving..........How to Read a Book by Monica Wood.  So even the car time is going to be great!  And then the Chiefs are going for their 3-Peat on Sunday so it's looking to be a wonderful weekend.  

Christi

Willow's Woes

Well, Willow is now wearing the cone of shame, though it's not her fault at all.  We noticed that she had been licking and chewing at her back leg and that it was swollen, so David took her to the vet Thursday morning.  She basically had a nasty heat rash on both back legs probably from the bath she got during the cold spell and someone was in a hurry with the dryer and didn't get her all the way dry.  So, she got a steroid shot, antibiotic pills, and some of each back leg shaved as well as the wonderful cone.  So basically she is a mess and looks it.

Mabel has been staying with her as her emotional support kitty or comfort kitten, whichever you find believable.  This was what I saw when I looked at the window at them.  Neither is happy with the situation.  I'm just keeping a watch for Mabel to snuggle up Inside the cone.  Now, that would be a picture! 

David went to visit Sarah in St. Peters without me.  I was planning to go, but am now attending a funeral tomorrow, so he went by himself.  He is building some shelving in her basement and hopefully getting her fireplace converted to gas and the gas logs installed.  I may get to go visit next weekend. 

 I did finish the last 3 bears last night.  These might be my favorites.  The candy canes were a little stressful, but oh so cute!

Today was spent on laundry, bookkeeping, piano lesson prep for next week, sweeping and mopping the kitchen and dining room (Willow left some paw prints 🐾).  And I quilted the Bricks in the Barnyard quilt.  It had been so long since I had quilted anything.  It is still on the machine because I didn't get the binding attached yet.  

I was planning to make black raspberry jelly with all of the berries from my freezer, but that didn't happen.  At least they are all thawed out now.  Hopefully I'll find time for that in the coming week.

Getting back to Willow, she has to wear her cone for a week.  And, the vet also told her that at 101 pounds, she was overweight.  It's just not been her week.  Maybe this rainy weather will clear up next week and I will be able to be outside with her more.

Christi