Winter Wonderland

 

What a difference 24 hours can make. I snapped this photo when I was returning from our morning walk. I think there's a bit of a mixed message here. 

Let's get both meanings of Christmas in the same scene! 

The meaning of Christmas

It's a bizarre display, but if it makes the owners happy, then it's their right to put this on their lawn. Just wait for the "after" pictures of outside at the end of the blog. But notice how green the grass is in this picture.  

As I searched for something the other day, I found this small quilt that I had made for a challenge several years ago. The theme of the challenge was Gone Viral or something like that. I think the theme was related to quilting on the internet. I think it's appropriate for our current situation! It's a bit difficult to read the word, but there's a word on it. 

My Gone Viral challenge quilt

When people saw it, it reminded them of a virus, so they didn't like it. Well, it works now! I was ahead of my time!

OH MY GOSH -- we had so much fun at the Virtual Retreat yesterday. We had some new people join us, and well - the day literally flew by. I'm not kidding - do you know how much more fun it was to sew with everyone than it was to sew alone!  Some people stayed most of the day, some people popped in to say HI, some people popped in and out as it suited their day. We got to see some amazing show and tell, answered some questions, solved the problems of the world, and just had FUN!!!! A HUGE thank you to everyone who logged in. 

The next one is scheduled for December 19, and 20 so get it on your calendar so you can stop by and say HI!!! 

What's even better is that I accomplished a TON of work, and I was a happy camper!!!

I started the day by going shopping. I needed some backing fabric for those two small red/white quilts that I finished a couple of weeks ago. I dug out the basket of red fabric and searched through them for something that worked. 

Shopping Chez Elaine

I found some red and white striped fabric, and that works for me. So this is the small quilt that I made with the four leftover blocks. The binding and the top were done, and now the backing is ready as well. So this got moved to the "to be quilted" pile. 

A mini-quilt ready to be quilted

I had enough of the striped fabric to use for the backing of the larger quilt as well. Hmm - that high-contrast could be a problem in those white setting triangles, but I don't think it'll be that big of a deal. The striped backing stays, so one more got moved to the "to be quilted" pile. This quilt is only 23 by 27 or something like that. 

A second mini-quilt ready to be quilted

I see that I"m missing a few pictures this morning. I was so focused that I didn't snap a lot of pictures as I was sewing. I must do that today!!! I need credit for everything I do! I was just so happy to have a day of personal sewing that I completely forgot to take pictures!!! But I swear I took pictures. 

I got quite a bit of stuff put away as well, which was GREAT. I have all the other Art-To-Heart books, so I had to have it when I saw this latest one. It's now on the bookshelf!

New Art-to-Heart book

All of the thread that I purchased this past week got filed away into a drawer, so that was good. I hope to fire up the embroidery machine this week, so I can get started. 

New thread purchases stored away

I also had some other spools hanging around, and now everything is in the same cabinet. Yeah!!

More thread

Even though I said I wasn't going to sweep everything off that cutting table, that's what I ended up doing. I got a block cut out and sewn together, so that was a huge thing to happen. You can't see the block, but you'll see it later this week. I love having the Zoom link on my laptop because I can move the group around as I need to in the studio to keep talking to them. 

Cutting out a block

Oh, for gosh sakes - I just found the four missing pictures. I finally emptied the scrap box, which was a little bit overflowing. I filled two small pet mats but haven't dug the serger out to close off the end yet. 

The overflowing scrap box

I had a customer who wanted me to add the border to their quilt before I quilt it. So that got put on as well. It's a GIANT quilt. 

Adding a border to a giant quilt for a customer

Here are the two Halloween quilts that I finished off a couple of weeks ago. Now the backing is ready, and I made the binding for both of them yesterday. Two more quilts get moved to the "to be quilted" pile. I have to confess that I've not been filling out the book but just stacking them in a pile. I'll deal with that once my time crisis is over. 

Two more small quilts added to the "to be quilted" pile

And speaking of the time crisis - yes - we all know that it's never going to get better at my house. I'm just a busy person - it's my nature. I knew November was going to be a crazy month, and it didn't disappoint. However, I'm happy to report that December and potentially January will be "quiet". They'll be quieter, so that will give me a bit of breathing room to catch up on some stuff. I'll be busy, but with no deadlines, it allows a lot more flexibility. 

Oh - I even handstitched a snap onto my jacket. Well, half of it had come undone, and I stitched it back in place BEFORE it fell off. Wow - that never happens.

My snap is now securely stitched in place

As if that wasn't enough, I also got half of my Summer Moon quilt sewn together. There are two columns on the left and the blocks still to sew together on the right. I'm happy and hope to get it done today as I desperately need that design wall for the next quilt that has a deadline. 

Summer Moon is half sewn together

Shortly after I got back to the house in the morning, it started to snow, and it snowed most of the day. It was so weird to chat with the others here in Southern Ontario and see the snow's progress as it moved east. It was like the day we had the thunderstorms when we were on a Virtual Retreat. 

This is the backyard at some point during the day! A LOT of snow fell. 

The snow in the backyard

But it sure looked pretty last night with the Christmas lights on in the neighborhood. 

A winter wonderland

I'm working on three documents that NEED to be finished off today. I made good headway this morning and hope to finish off later today. So progress is being made, and that makes me happy! 

This week, there are five presentations and four classes, and most of the prep work is done or almost done. Still busy, but a bit more relaxed! 

On that note, I'm out of here! It's Monday sewing, and that's always a good day!

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!