Once Upon a Winter

Though there still are small hills of gray to blackened snow to be found in strip mall parking lots around town, as well as huge mounds in heavily shaded areas, sadly, our own remaining snow that first fell upon our patio nearly a month and a half ago bid us farewell this afternoon. What a sharp contrast from the sum of two huge snowfalls, not to mention the added drift resulting from two blizzards! I am thankful to have been able both to witness and enjoy the storybook winter of a lifetime.

Two brothers are on the same page.

Two brothers are still on the same page; however, one is rereading previous pages while the other, impatient to know the story's outcome, is moving as quickly as possible in the other direction.

I hope everyone enjoyed a good weekend, and I wish you a wonderful week.

Nighty night, all.

Food Photography

Upon returning home after an event we do once a year, I played with Deutsch and Scout, then ran upstairs and changed from glam to sweats. Squidley got busy with a project in the kitchen, and the next thing I knew, I was told to sit at the table and close my eyes. The above is a photo of what appeared before me when I was told I could look. French Toast. Yippee!

So, we are tired and are ready for the beddy bye.

Nighty night, everyone.

Snow Slow Going

Tonight's pictures are the ones I'd intended posting on yesterday's entry. I still don't know what the technical problem was. At any rate, here they are, and with little commentary as I am en route to the beddy bye just as soon as I publish this post.

Here are the fabric squares I cut for my newest project.

Here the five and a half squares are laid out in my planned pattern.

Looking at things from another angle.

The squares have been sewn into rows.

I'm posting what is seemingly a zillion photos of Deutsch and Scout.

The above three pictures show the last of the snow on our patio. The are still big piles of the now gray stuff in strip mall parking lots. They are not so big now, as the sun and higher temps have been making molehills out of the mountains they once were.

Well, today has been very busy with all sorts of errands, and we are all very tired and quite sleepy. A good weekend to everyone.

Nighty night.

Not Keeping Me in Stitches

There are quite a few pictures I want to post tonight, but something is just not allowing me to load them to this page. I'm thinking it could be the server because my email is acting odd. Some of my mail has seemingly vanished. And Squidley is unable to send emails.

All that is pretty much par for the course; equipment malfunction seems to have been the order of the day. First, my iron would not work. Sometimes I unplug it, then plug it in again. When that didn't work, I tried it again. I "pretend" ironed, thinking that would get it started. Nada. I pressed the steamer button repeatedly, only to cover part of the ironing board with little water puddles. I even tried baby talking to the iron, doing my best to coerce it in to getting with the program.. Eventually, it magically began to huff and puff. (Deutsch and Scout think, because I've told them so, that the iron is a baby dragon. I hold it up, so that it is facing them, and over and over press the steam button until steam is emitted and the iron begins making little hissing sounds.)

So next I begin sewing. I sew six rows, each consisting of six squares. I then begin ironing the seams in each row. The iron once again quit on me. After a while, it once again came to life, and I was able to finish ironing all six rows.

Next, I began sewing the rows together. Well, when I'd nearly finished sewing the second and third rows together, suddenly the machine's needle broke into two pieces and popped up into the air. I replaced the needle but noticed that it would not hit the tiny opening in the center of the quarter inch guide. Hmmm. I rethreaded and checked the bobbin. At last I realized that the stitch number "box" read "8" rather than "1" as it should have. So, somehow I'd mistakenly changed the stitch setting. Anyway, I began sewing again, but something was amiss because, while there were well executed stitches, the needle was at other times skipping sitches.

I have been so excited about this project, which is sorta being invented as I go along. Having to put it aside just as I had found my groove was disappointing. And now I'll have to ask Squidley to have a look see, and if he cant't correct the problem, into the shop it will not so merrily go.

Hope everything is working for you.

Nighty night, everyone.

That's Not Helping My Headache

Lately at our house, we've been working on getting better at sharing. So far, there's not been much improvement. Ok. There has been no improvement. Basically, this pretty much boils down to one thing: dominance. So, likely the non-sharing thing is here to stay.

This afternoon I cut squares from five coordinating fat quarters. The process was fairly quick until I got to the fifth quarter. I had not realized, when I purchased the yardage, that the piece had a long/wide design repeat. So I carefully auditioned "square cuts," and I did the final cutting once I felt like I had a good cross section of the fabric design.

Well, I've had a headache invading my personal space for most of the afternoon and evening, and staying busy all the livelong day probably didn't help. I'm hoping a good night's sleep will be the cure all.

Nighty night, all.

Sew Surprised

Ta da! The project I started only days ago is now listed in the "Done" column. It's also listed in the "I'm Happy with How It Turned Out" column. Because I didn't start with a complete picture of the end result, I was cautiously optimistic.

All of the fabric is from my scrap stash, so that makes it that more special to me. I have made at least one item from each of the fabrics represented by the rectangle menagerie

The entire piece was machine quilted, and the process went exceedingly well. There are seventeen quilted lines, stretching lengthwise across the fabric. The black strips, also stretching lengthwise, are actually grosgrain that was pre-stitched along the edges in white. At the base of the piece is a modern bow made of the same white-stitched black ribbon. The edges were finished with red quilt binding, and the back side is a soft, pale yellow cotton.

A most content Scout sleeps on Squidley's lap.

Deutsch takes a power nap after a fun, active day.

A good evening to everyone.

Nighty night.

Seize the Sunshine

Both Scout and Deutsch rarely miss an opportunity to bask in the sunlight. Of the two, however, I'd have to say that Scout is the "bigger basker." He tends to take a sorta "carpe diem" approach.

I asked Deutsch to do something cute so I could get a good photo of him. This is what he came up with.

Scout knows a thing or two about nighty night.

Deutsch takes nighty night very seriously.

And so do I.

Nighty night.