Sewpocalypse Weekend Continues

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Unless I miss my guess, the Polar Vortex is hitting you folks on the eastern 2/3 of the United States just about now. And may I just say that the term "polar vortex" pretty much cracks me up. It's a little like taking a "Sharknado" and turning it into a "Snownado". Apparently, however, this is a technical term. I know because I just Googled it. (And I ask again, how did we live without the internet?) So, just take heed, America:

During the winter polar night, sunlight does not reach the south pole. A strong circumpolar wind develops in the middle to lower stratosphere. These strong winds are known as the 'polar vortex'. This has the effect of isolating the air over the polar region. Since there is no sunlight, the air within the polar vortex can get very cold. So cold that special clouds can form once the air temperature gets to below about -80C (fig.2). These clouds are called Polar Stratospheric Clouds (or PSCs for short) but they are not the clouds that you are used to seeing in the sky which are composed of water droplets. PSCs first form as nitric acid trihydrate. (source)

And if "nitric acid tihydrate" isn't enough to scare the spit out of you, here's an image for your nightmares:

Yeah, I don't know what it means either. I'm only posting it so that those folks who are just looking at the pictures and not reading my well-thought-out and cogent text (cough) will get the mistaken notion that I'm real smart. Just think of me as your friendly quilteorologist. (I just now made that word up. It's true that my creativity knows no bounds.)

So all of that intro to say that, in spirit, I'm staying inside with all of you and keeping warm next to my sewing machine. The faster I stitch, the warmer the machine gets.

Yesterday, the Cornflowers table runner got all of my attention. I cut all the applique pieces and fused them to the background.

This was a little bit scary. There was a template provided for the candy corn, but the stems and leaves were cut free form. (What?!!, my terrified self exclaimed in horror...No templates?!?) Yes, I actually had to color outside the lines for a change. It worked out okay. You couldn't tell, could you? It was actually kind of fun cutting those stems.

So once I had them fused to the background, I started top-stitching them. Except for the leaves, I got the two upward-facing flowers on the left and the middle finished and started on the stem for the one on the right. 

It took me a little bit to decide what color thread to use for the top-stitching. Yellow and orange came to mind first, but then, which color should I use for the three-colored candy corns? I briefly considered black for the whole thing, but then decided that would be too much black. Finally, I decided on orange for the candy corns and stems and yellow for the leaves. I think it was the right choice.

So I'll continue on with that today. I'm hoping to get them all finished. It takes about half an hour to do one flower, minus the leaves, and so there are several hours of work here. I can't sit for hours on end doing this because it makes my neck and shoulders hurt. I think my chair is too low, but it's as high as it will go. Today I'm going to try putting a pillow on the seat to boost myself up a little. I tried just now sitting on one of the bar stools I keep in my sewing room, and the height was more comfortable, but the seat is much too hard to sit for long. If the pillow works, I might consider getting a different bar-stool-type chair with wheels if such a thing exists. I have a plate in my neck from a surgery about eight years ago, and so my neck is especially sensitive to this sort of thing.

And I just love the new year when folks come up with the most clever ideas on their blogs for sew alongs and linky parties. Sharon over at Vrooman's Quilts has come up with a very fun idea for a monthly link-up called "Let's Book It". You can read all about it right here. The gist of it is that we all have tons of books on our bookshelves that we bought for one reason or another...I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the quilt on the cover enticed us. Then we put the book on our bookshelf and never looked at it again. And I'm also going out on a limb and saying most of us never made the quilt that enticed us to buy the book in the first place. Am I right about that?

So Sharon is encouraging us to actually make some of the quilts in some of these books, and I think that is a genius idea. When I read about her challenge this morning, I went straight to my bookshelf (after first fortifying my resolve with two more cups of coffee) and picked out this book:

2014 has me focusing on smaller projects, especially table runners, and so this seemed like a good choice. There were several cute quilts in this book, but I consulted my consultant (aka Mike), and we both decided we liked this one.

I have some perfect fabrics in my stash for this. The quilt finishes up at 18 x 54 inches, and it would be pretty on my table this fall.

It also involves a new technique, and so I could end up ripping the thing to shreds in a fit of frustration. Let me just elaborate by saying those leaves ain't no applique, honey.

Also this weekend I've been stitching away on the third of four stitcheries for the next section of the Gardener's Journal quilt. This is the largest of the four. I really dislike doing the lazy daisy stitch, and so getting all those leaves done at the top of the piece will mean the rest of it goes a lot faster from here on.

I finished this one earlier in the week:

And this one before that:

The fourth one is tiny, so I'll have these done probably before the week is up. Then I can move on to my next Quilted Snow Lady. And with that, I'm going to link up to Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.

Before I finish off here, I just want to say that tomorrow is your last day to link up to the December NewFO Linky Party. It's the last chance you have to link up under this banner:

After tomorrow...she's gone for good. And that's about all I know this morning. Time to get to it. Stay warm and dry, you "Polar Vortex" people. I'll turn up the heat in your honor.