1-11-11

This last weekend we went to the Olympic National Forest with my sister and her sweetie.  We had a lot of fun together.  I'll tell more about that in my next post, along with some photos.  Anyway, I got a chance to get an updated photo of her flower stitchery that I showed in my previous post.  This photo isn't the best, because I only had one little lamp for lighting.  So, the photos were either over- or under-exposed.  But this is pretty close. 

 

Here are the  blocks I made for the Block Lotto this month.  I think these would make a great charity quilt.  The blocks use 2 1/2 inch strips.  They're fun and easy to do.  The block is called "Stacks".

I've started making a name block for my DGD#1 for her birthday this month.  I'm actually following the instructions in Tonya's book for these.  I thought I'd try them out!  hee hee!  Oh, and the order of the letters has no relation to how they are in the name, by the way.  Hmm, it looks like that Y might be a little small.  Or maybe I need to trim the other letters down some.  I started with the S because that is the one that is the hardest to make small, so all the other letters can be made to co-exist nicely with it.  I have another 4 letters to go, and I seem to be having some difficulty getting into the quilt studio lately.  Sadly, there's too many other things needing my attention.  *sigh* 

Barbara Brackman has started a new blog about Civil War quilts/blocks and history, and is having a quilt-along.  She's doing a block a week.  I'm thinking of playing along, although the last thing I need is another committment.  But I had to go out to the local quilt shop, The Wild Rose in Orting, today to pick up my Bernina from the "doctor".  And they have LOTS of reproduction fabrics.  Well, I have lots of shirtings and lots of indigos, of course, but no Prussian Blue.  So I just had to get some, didn't I??  And that little brown print called to me too.  Just in case I decide to do the quilt-along, you know?  I'm already behind, so I'd better make up my mind pretty quickly, I think.

And this is what followed me home from our stop in Port Angeles this weekend.  My sister had seen a quilt shop on their way through there to meet up with us, and wanted to go back to see it.  It worked out really well, because the shop owner had the Seahawks game on the radio, and the guys could listen to the 4th quarter while my sister and I scoped out the shop.  Over on the left of the photo there are 4 pieces of hand-dyed wool.  (Rust, purple, another purple and green, from top to bottom.)  I don't have a plan for these, exactly, but they were so yummy I couldn't resist.  Same with the other fabrics too!

Last week we had about 2 or 3 inches of snow that stuck around all week.  It was cold all week too, so the snow never melted, and the pond stayed frozen too.  Then about 2 days after the snow fell, we had some more "weather".  In the space of about half an hour, we got rain, then snow, then hail, then more snow.  And it got even colder.  A couple of days later when I went out to my car, I found this on the roof of the car.  Ice crystals!  In all my years of living in Michigan and other places that got snow, I don't think I've ever seen this before.  These crystals were about 3 or 4 inches high!  Just fascinating.  I hated to clean off my car.  LOL

Here's another shot that maybe you can see better.  At the bottom of the photo, you can see the roof of my red car. 

Tonight we're getting icy snow - it's actually hissing as it falls.  Sound like tomorrow is a perfect day to stay home and get into the quilt studio, doesn't it?