Another snowy day? Alrighty then... I think that's Mother Nature's wayof saying keep quilting!!

Another snowy day? Alrighty then... I think that's Mother Nature's way of saying keep quilting!!, a photo by Life on the Selvage Edge on Flickr.

Last weekend it was decided another "Crafty Day" was needed at church. After looking at the church calendar, it was realized that this weekend was the only open dates for quite some time. And a nice bunch of people had the weekend open. Let the crafting commence!

It couldn't have come at a better time - I had been suffering sewing machine withdrawals... it had been nearly a month since I had sat down behind my machine. The horrors! A work conference in New Orleans happened at the beginning of the month... it was a great time! I am very fortunate to have colleagues that are awesome friends. We all work at different churches in the area and while we get together once a month to meet and see each other at other events, this conference is our time each year to re-connect, learn, and we always have lots of fun!

And with it being in New Orleans, we ate awesome food -Muffaletta from Johnny's, a lunch at Emeril's NOLA (I wanted to lick my plate it was so good!), pralines, beignets (I always forget and wear black!), and I tried my first grits! This northern girl liked them!

Since we were there right before Mardi Gras, we were able to catch a couple parades that went right by our hotel. Came home with a nice haul of beads! It was a fun experience!  

Oh, yeah we saw Morgan Freeman.  Yup.  For reals.  He was filming a movie that's coming out next year called "Now You See Me."  We stumbled upon the filming one evening while we were out exploring the French Quarter.  There he was, filming a scene right in front of us.  Uh, cool!  We stood around quite awhile watching them film. They filmed the same scene over and over the whole time we watched.  There's Morgan Freeman walking through a crowd.  He stops to talk to the crowd/press and enters the theater.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat....   It was an eye-opener to see how it was done.  While it was a crowd scene that was jockeying for Freeman's attention, there was absolutely no noise.  It was so weird.  They must dub the crowd noise in post-production.  I never knew.  Anyhow, it sounds like it should be a fun movie though.  I can't wait to watch it!

On the way home, during a long layover, I felt "it": the dreaded tickle in the back of my throat. Within 24 hours, a cold invaded my body that left me sneezing, coughing, runny nose, and out of commission on the couch for a week.

Anyway, all the travel and then sickness meant for a long absence from my machine.

But all that was solved this past week... Mondays are my day off and that afternoon we got reaquainted while I started working on the granny square quilt. I saw this pop up in my Google Reader from Blue Elephant Stitches in January and knew I would be making this!  Then Old Red Barn was going to host a quilt along... combine that with all the leftover 2.5" squares I had from the Bust Yo Scraps quilt along, and I was sold!

Then on Wednesday our grassy yard (in Northern Minnesota.  In February. ) finally got some snow.  And not just a dusting.  A full on blizzard.  The wind was blowing, the snow was falling, and there was no school for two days.  I was told to stay home from work on Wednesday so I sewed a bunch that day!  Got a bunch of squares done.  Then Friday and Saturday I was at Crafty Day and got the Granny Square quilt all pieced and sandwiched together while another 10 inches of snow fell outside. Also got the binding ready to go.  I've decided to handstitch it with an orange perle cotton 8.  It's going to take me a bit, but I think it's just what it needs.