11/12/14

Wild Weather

Those of you who live in the really cold parts of the world are going to laugh at the temperatures I'm about to give you. Trust me. We here in the Portland-metro area of Western Oregon think that 27°F. with a windchill of 21°F. is fricking cold. Smitty went out the sliding glass door long enough this morning to run approximately ten yards to the kitty door and come right back in. No frozen mousies for this cat. No siree.


He and Gracie have been camped out next to the fireplace during this weather. It's a gas fireplace, and so having it on means paying for the gas. Do Mike and I turn it on especially for the kitties? Yes. Yes, we do. They are spoiled cats. When I die, I would like to be reincarnated as my cat.

We're expecting some really crazy weather over the next couple of days. Mike read the forecast this morning and, while there was a weather alert, it was nothing to write in the blog about. That all changed this afternoon with this article in our local newspaper and this paragraph:

"Forecasters say their confidence is growing that a significant snow storm could dump up to a half-foot of snow in the Portland metropolitan area starting early Thursday morning and lasting well into the evening."

And again, really-cold-country people, a half foot of snow in the Portland metropolitan area will bring everything to a screeching halt. In fact, I can usually hear the screeching all the way up on our hill...screeching and crashing. I have a feeling the auto body folks must get together and have a party when something like this happens in our fair city. Anyway...

After I dried my tears about the wild weather, I resigned myself to spending the day inside sewing. Yes, you might need a hankie too.

The new machine is great, but I'm still giving it sort of a wide berth. It's a little intimidating to be doing what I'm doing, and I find myself with lots of ideas and only a little skill at putting them into practice. It's a little hard to know what to do with these sections that are comprised of a series of 1-inch x 3-inch patches. In this one, I tried quilting some grass and flower buds.


Sorry I can't do better with the photography than that. I tried messing with the lighting and contrast, but it still isn't easy to see. In that image above, the patches are lined up in a horizontal row. Below, they're stacked vertically. In this area, I just did a wiggle-waggle thingy...yes, I'm making up the names as I go along.


In this next embroidery motif, I quilted some grass where she's kneeling, and some branches into the rose bush on the right...and some loop-de-loops in that other bush. Not sure what those are, but that's how I quilted it. As I'm looking at this image, I'm thinking I'll quilt some cross-hatching onto her basket and onto her hat.


I've said before that I'm not fond of feathers. It's just personal preference, but I think they're overdone. If you love feathers, more power to you. Feather away, and don't let my comments hold you back. In any case, I try making more modern versions of them, and I started to do that in the border around this embroidered piece, only to realize that I'd not done it at all. There is no spine.


Oh well. You wouldn't know if I hadn't told you, right? So I did a better rendering of what I was attempting in this one below.


Only...I realized I hadn't gone all the way to the top when I was already back at the bottom again. Oops. Enter a stylized leaf to fill in that space. Just put a check mark in the "oh well" category for that.


And then I had this space...about 3 inches x 10 inches, which seemed like a veritable acreage. I quilted a tree there. Again, I'm sorry I can't improve the contrast, but I'm hoping you can see it okay.


Also today, I did a little housework and tackled Mt. Laundry. I'm going to try to get a little more quilting done on this before Mike comes home.

I asked Mike to pick up a couple of items for Ham Bone Soup on his way home. I have food for a couple of days. At the beginning of the season, I always pick up three ham bones at Honeybaked just for these odd winter storms that sometimes blow through and mess up the roads. If I have to, I can always make a big pot of soup to feed us if we get snowed in for a couple of days.

How's the weather where you're living? If you're in the Northern USA, I'm betting you're even colder than we are...and that your snow is deeper. I salute you.

18 comments:

Vroomans' Quilts said...

We got cold, windy and rainy today and snow is on it's way for the weekend. The crockpot and fixin's are ready for a long indoor scrapping and stitching few days.

Val's Quilting Studio said...

Hey your Eastern Oregon buddy here...and yes...as soon as the children came to school today they were exclaiming the arrival of snow tomorrow!!!! LOL!!!! My checks are cold as I type this!! LOL!!!

mogsinc said...

We have been in the USA for nearly 3 weeks and although we have been glad it hasn't been snowing as we could not have seen as much, we have been disappointed as it hasn't been as cold as we thought. We packed clothes for Antarctica which we haven't used. I guess there is no pleasing everybody

crazy quilter said...

Well I too heard your area was going to get snow. Sorry for the folks that have to try to drive in that. We are cold in North Texas but no snow! Thank you very much! I will take a pass always on frozen precipitation. Have fun with Eliza I think your quilting is wonderful! Keep on keeping on.

Marei said...

Weather advisory posted for tomorrow through Friday says up to 10 inches of snow. I'll believe it if I see it. I'm ready for whatever the weather brings...plenty of food, water and wood. Temps set record lows overnight and will do so again. Outside my thermometer is saying -1 right now. Don't expect it to drop too much more as the clouds are coming in. Great job playing with Eliza. That's the only way to do it....jump in with both feet and enjoy the splash!

Christine M said...

Hi Barbara, I'll send some of our warmth over to you. Today it is 34C (93F) here in Melbourne, Australia. I think it is a good excuse for you to stay inside and sew.

quiltzyx said...

My friends' daughter Emily JUST moved up to Portland (she the owner of Concrete Minerals makeup) & is a bit freaked out about the predicted snow! lol At least I lived in Idaho my first year of college & learned about snow, even though I didn't have a car while I was there.
I like what you're doing on the Gardener's quilt! The block where she's digging by the rose bushes reminded me of a humorous book I had once titled "Don't Bend Over in the Garden Granny, You Know them Taters Got Eyes" by Lewis Grizzard. I don't remember anything about it except the title, but that always makes me laugh!

Terri in BC said...

I live just north of the US/Canada border so my weather is much like Seattle's and yours. We get laughed at too, by our neighbours to the east, when we complain about the cold. Like you, we hit "cold" temps this week, though not quite as cold as you. Today it was 0C (32F) when I left for work this morning, when less than a week ago it was 20C (68F). Keep warm!

Quilting Babcia said...

Wow, at your altitude on the hill, the snow should be building up quickly. Poor Smitty! That huge cold blast from the Arctic is about to strike, after 69 degrees on Tuesday its now 33 with snow showers in the forecast for the next week ... then winter will set in. This time of year I always wish there were more bed quilts finished.

Kaelyn Angelfoot said...

Had flurries while driving to work this morning *not happy* I vastly prefer warm weather. Snow. Meh.

Wilma Lee said...

I like your quilting!!You did a great job filling in those spaces.

Diane Wild said...

Everyone is experiencing cold and snow no matter where they live, except Australia. I'm thankful for a furnace, hot water, electricity and food so I can sew and snack. The quilt is coming along beautifully. Sew on.

Ruth said...

We are at the Pensacola, FL airport waiting on a flight and hoping to get into Portland tonight. Wish us luck. Our DGS is at college in MN and was hoping for snow. I hope he's having fun! Enjoy your soup!

Dana Gaffney said...

I think you're doing a great job with the new machine, this quilt is like a sampler of FMQ, it was a really good choice to start with. It's beautiful here, sorry.

MOMCAT14C said...

I like your quilting! I'm just beginning to start machine quilting, but I'm still just using practice pieces that I just bind and give to the cats as sleeping mats. I think you're doing pretty well.

Weather wise, it hasn't been too bad here. We seem to be alternating between warm days and very cold days. Yesterday and the day before it was in the 60's = I had all the windows open! Today, snow flurries. Last week, very cold with thick frost all over everything. I had to scrape my truck windows when I got out of work at 7:30 am!

Brown Family said...

have you tried the ME motif? it looks like an upright m and a sideways m connected. It is easy after you practice some.

Lynda Halliger Otvos (Lynda M O) said...

Barb, your FMQ gets better each time you post pics of it. Not so cold here as where you are, not even frost yet. I'm hand-stitching the fold-over backing-into-binding on Ormond's quilt. I was able to pin baste it on the kitchen floor after we brought in the thick wool carpet and moved aside the table. Worked great, so i tied it and am now binding.

Kate said...

You've done a great job with the FMQ. Now that you've got such a nice machine, you'll learn fast.

We got 3 inches of snow on Sunday. It was 9 F this morning. It's not winter yet, which is just plain scary.