Narnia

As it was snowing for the umpteenth time a couple days ago and wondering if spring will ever reach Northern Minnesota, I read that our first snowfall for this season happened on September 22, the earliest in 17 years.

You do the math... That makes 7 months of snow.

Add to it that in April we have gotten over 50" of snow, breaking the record for the snowiest April ever in our city, and you can understand why everyone is grumbling.

Narnia Duluth - where it is always winter but never Christmas.

It sure is pretty when it looks like this. In December.

In April, it isn't appreciated too much.

Last week schools were closed Monday and Friday due to the awful road conditions. The week before that the would have missed a day and a half due to weather like neighboring districts except our district was on "spring" break.

We are all kind of wondering why we live here. Including the robins. "We flew back here why?!"

Last Friday some friends shoveled out of the latest foot of snow we had received and we met up in our church fellowship hall for another Crafty Weekend. It was a good distraction from plotting how I might stow away in a friend's suitcase on her family's trip to the land of palm trees and Disney World.

I channeled my winter rage into sewing and I was quite productive (there was a lot of rage to channel)...

My first Quarter 2 finish! Anna Maria Horner voile Plus Quilt, backed with flannel, no batting. I feel like Linus his blanket - I find myself carrying this from the bed to the couch and back. This will be a nice weight summer cover up (if we ever get summer!)

Next up, I made 2 lunch bags from this Pink Penguin tutorial. I had made two more earlier in the week.

The red one was a birthday present for my sister, coffee pots are for me, the brown was just because I could! And the fourth one I gave to a friend before I got a decent picture of it! They are fun and easy to make, using up a bunch of cotton duck leftovers from other projects. I lined the inside with some oil cloth/vinyl I picked up at Hobby Lobby, making it easy to wipe up spills.

 

Then I made four of these cuties, the Puffy Pouch, another Pink Penguin tutorial. The plan was to make one for a friend's birthday and one for myself. Then two friends that were crafting hinted strongly that they would each love one.

I used a metal tape measure (thank you, Dollar Tree!) to do the closure instead of a "real" closure or Velcro as suggested by the pattern . While I love how they look, the tutorial is fantastic, and it was fun to make one, making four was not as fun! They are putsy with the pleats and they took longer than the lunch bags! I will probably make more in the future, but never more than one at a time!

Other things I've been working on during my days off and snow days...

Pieced together these random blocks. A top finish!

This baby blanket will be for an upcoming quilt silent auction. Just have to finish hand stitching the binding for another Quarter 2 finish!

This weekend we may get up to 60F! What a difference a few days can make! Looking forward to sun and melting snow! Dare we say Spring has arrived?!

This little guy will appreciate the warmer temps as he's been a tad chilly in his brand new spring haircut!

 

 

 

 

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Snow, snow, and more snow

This past week was our son's spring break. Or should I say, "spring" break. We started out Monday with rain/snow mix, then all that melted. But on Thursday Mother Nature played the ultimate joke. 40 mph winds with gusts into 60+mph and a foot of snow by the time it finally quit. Husband's job sent everyone home early that day and stayed closed into Friday. Yesterday wasn't nice, but it wasn't snowing. Until this afternoon. The wind is still howling and it is snowing again. We could get 8 inches. Good grief. Enough already!

Here's our yard at 10am Thursday and again at 1:30pm. It fell hard and fast. And so did my hopes of Spring.

{I fell asleep before I finished this post last night... Our kids got a bonus day of spring break as the closed school today due to the snow and poor road conditions. My son put on shorts and kept them on when he put his snow pants on and went out to play! Way to protest winter, kiddo!}

 

With the unexpected snow days it has meant some time around the sewing machine. I pulled out a pile of random blocks and other UFOs that I've made over the years and decided it was time to take inventory. And what a better way to hold myself accountable and get stuff done by signing up for Quarter 2 of the Finish-A-Long!

 

Here's what I want off the shelf and into use:

 

Random blocks using Tufted Tweets

A baby blanket

 

A baby blanket that was one of my first projects after discovering modern fabric. Look at those fold lines!

 

A voile plus quilt that I started on New Years Day 2012

Plus there's a low volume quilt that I have squares it for, and some of Sarah Watts' Timber and Leaf mixed with some other stuff that I'm not quite sure what it will become!

So that is 6 quilts... Hmmmm... Wonder how many I can knock out this quarter. A few more snow days and I might have them done!

 

 

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Some random stuff

Random Thing #1:  First off, I've been trying out Feedly and Bloglovin to replace Google Reader (RIP).  I think I'm going to land with Bloglovin (just wish they had a dedicated app for the iPad - hopefully soon!)

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Random Thing #2:  On Sunday morning I decided to make myself a necklace for Easter.  I had absolutely *nothing* else to do that morning before church.  Just an Easter breakfast the youth group kids were serving.  And a children's sermon to finish up.  And a son to get ready (and to keep out of his new found chocolate).  So I made a necklace out of some beads I had laying around, a brooch I found at a rummage sale, and some ribbon in my stash.  And lived in denial of the busy day that was ahead.

Necklace:  Check.

Son dressed for church:  Check.

Congregation served breakfast:  Check.

Keeping son out of chocolate:  Not so much.

Random #3:  Got my March Stitch that Stash Block done and mailed out:

Amanda picked this fun block and our bee mates made a variety of colors.
Can't wait to see it all come together!

Random #4:  Yesterday I finished up another project, a table runner for our dining room table.

FYI:  the candle will not be lit when the dried up palm branches are above them.  Safety, safety.

I love how the triangles turned out with the Oakshott, solid whites and off-whites, and some random black and white prints thrown in.  Any bets on how long until spaghetti sauce ends up on it?  I'm guessing the next time we have spaghetti.... :)

Random # 5:  Using my scraps from the above table runner, I made a little mug rug for my desk at work.

Makes me happy, especially with the cute mug my coworker got me for Christmas sitting on top of it! 

 Now to try not losing it under all the piles of papers...

And there's some random finishes!

Stitch that Stash

It's April 1. Anybody else reading the news and Facebook through a skeptical lens today?!

Since it is now April, it is my month for the Stitch that Stash bee!

Here's the block I'm asking my bee mates to make!

I stumbled across this block on Pinterest. Rachel (woodenspoon on Flickr) posted this picture with the cutting dimensions

After doing some pretty "loud" quilts lately, I've found myself drawn to some quieter fabrics. Add my love of texty prints that are often low volume, this block drew me write in! (Didn't hurt that I participated in a Flickr swap for text charms and they came in the mail the day I saw this block!)

Here are some of the 8 blocks I've already made!

 

Can't wait to see what my bee mates come up with!

 

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