Snow Day

I woke up to find Norm's car stuck and abandoned in the driveway, with footprints leading away from it.  He must have had to walk to work this morning.  That can't have been fun.

We had a winter storm yesterday and into last night with snow, sleet, and wind.  I ventured out this morning to put the recycle bin upright.  Walking on the snow, it felt like styrofoam, dense and hard.  Perfect for building a snow fort, although that's not in my plans today.

Though the weather outside was frightful, it was comfy in the sewing room yesterday.  I'm piecing strips together for a new quilt.  The pattern is called "Joy in the Morning" by Gayle Bong, found in her book, S is for Scraps: 18 Great Quilts.

These gorgeous fabrics were sent to me by fellow quilter Marei as part of a scrap swap last year.  I finally took time to sort the 3.5-inch strips over this past weekend.  Thanks again, Marei!

I put the brightly colored pieces into one pile and then started pairing them.  I'd like to make a bigger quilt than the one in the book, but we'll see how it goes once I get a count after cutting the strip sets into pieces.

The big-stitch hand quilting on the improv quilt is slow going.  Here's how things look so far (and you might have to look closely, lol).

I wove in and out of one of the straight stitching lines with a red thread, just for kicks.  Something a little different, and my favorite part about the stitching thus far.

We spent some time at my daughter's place on Christmas.  She couldn't travel because she was tending to the medical needs of her cat which had surgery a few weeks ago.

Keaky is hanging in there but is not out of the woods yet.  He apparently had a fairly good day on Sunday, though, wanting belly rubs and rediscovering his favorite mermaid toy.

Later in the evening on Christmas, I attended the regular family get-together.  Even Dad got into the crazy sweater spirit and wore his vintage John Deere sweater from 1971.  Nita's and mine were from the thrift store.  I thought about sewing some tacky garland around the neckline of my ugly-sweater vest, but that didn't happen.

My brothers provided the entertainment.  It's always a treat to listen to them jam.

There was the annual Dirty Santa gift exchange as well, where stealing is allowed and encouraged.  My first gift was stolen, but I kept a scrap of the paper it was wrapped in.  Why?  

Quilt inspiration, of course!