12/28/15

Snow Sewing

It was delightful to receive our first significant snowfall in three winters here on the hill yesterday. It was raining in the valley when we trekked down later in the day, but there is still snow here on high. The temperatures are warming, and so it's wet and slushy at this point, but there's still enough accumulation to make it nice to look out.

Keeping in mind that most of my sewing is done in a windowless basement sewing room, how much fun is this?


Eliza is set up in my upstairs office, right next to the window. When Eliza came home with us, I had a choice of putting her either place, and so I opted to put her right next to this window. The extra light and the view are great. This is what I saw when I looked out yesterday...big fat flakes fell most of the day.


It was this youngster's first snowfall. He'd been downstairs sleeping, but we woke him up to give him a look. Whoa...what's that?


He took exactly two steps out before heading back into the warmth of indoors.


In general, cats are not fond of snow, although one of our cats from the past absolutely loved it.

So what was I sewing? It was a perfect day to be quilting the Icy Blues table runner. I stuck with this swirly loopy design for all of the trees.


These table runners are functional, but they're also good pieces for practicing. I took the opportunity to try quilting straight lines with this new ruler template. My first lines weren't as evenly spaced as I would have liked, and so I tried marking each end with a hash mark where I could line up my ruler. They were slightly better, but I need more practice before trying this on my Quilting Snowladies.


I tried quilting some snowdrifts below the trees, but I think they need to be a bit lumpier and less level.


For the area below the smaller trees, I did some pebbling and I gave their trunks a little squarely-que...that's different from a curly-que, don't you know.


The little trees were quilted like the larger ones.



Also, I quilted some snowflakes along their sides and also into the outer border.


After quilting most of the day, I was getting tired, but I wanted to finish up with the white thread on top so that I could switch to this blue Glitter thread and quilt snowflakes next to the larger trees.


It seemed like a good time to give this blue Glitter thread a try.


And there it is...so pretty!


There will be 12 snowflakes quilted before I'm finished, but I was tired of sewing by the time I did this first one. I'll pick it up there today.


It was another early morning wake-up followed by a morning nap after Mike left for work. It's time to get going on some other things if I'm to get any time for sewing today.

The countdown to the end of the year is coming. If I can finish up the Icy Blues by New Year's Eve, it will be my 30th finished quilt in 2015.

16 comments:

Quilting Babcia said...

Seems like you're loving this glitter thread - will have to try it one day soon. Your view from the Eliza work station is beautiful. Only a dusting of snow, and light at that, on part of the deck. Sleet and freezing rain tonight - wonderful. Maybe Smitty needs little quilted booties for adventuring out into the snow with you.

gpc said...

Wow, 30 quilts! QUITE an accomplishment! I love this icy blues one. We are getting some very overdue snow as I write this. It is good to see. :)

beaquilter said...

Love how you quilted this one. We're in shorts and t shirts here in NC, though tonight or later it will be 52.... in a few days it'll get to freeze, but this heat sure isn't making you feel like Christmas..

Christine M said...

The snow looks so pretty. It's hard to imagine as we've been having very hot temperatures here (38oC) etc and it's heading back up again. Your quilting is looking great, Barbara.

Debbie said...

Beautiful snow scene! I love how you quilted the loopy parts. I can't do straight lines at all...lol.

Dana Gaffney said...

I would probably just sit and stare at that beautiful scene, or more likely, I'd be out in it. That glitter thread is gorgeous.

Lyndsey said...

I love the view from your office and I'd love some snow. The weather in London is well above the seasonal normal. Fortunately we haven't had the torrential rain of the north of the UK.

That glittery thread looks fabulous. I shall be trying it soon on my machine. I'm hoping it will work as well as yours has.

Val's Quilting Studio said...

I'[m starting my second week of "snow sewing" and it's sooo lovely!! Love that glitter thread!!

Frog Quilter said...

Lovely quilting. The more you do the better you get.

Marlene said...

What a picture perfect view out your office window. Love how the quilting is looking on the tablerunner and the snowflake with the glittery thread is amazing. Don't blame Smitty for not wanting to put his paws into the snow!

Kate said...

We got snow today too, but my view's not near as pretty as yours. Icy Blues is looking gorgeous. Beautiful quilting. Hopefully you had some time to do some more stitching on it today.

SJSM said...

What a productive shop you have! 30 quilts! If you keep this up you will have a business at a craft fair.

Lovely work and lovely snow. We will visit Yosemite in January and hope to see snow at that time. Smitty is a smart cat. One try and he knew that a warm home was the way to go. :)

Susan said...

I love the view from your office. We had snow yesterday morning, but it quickly turned to freezing rain and sleet. Our driveway and sidewalks are covered with a 2" thick slab of snow and ice that we can budge. Temps are supposed to get above freezing today, so hopefully it will all melt. Roads are clear as the salt and sand trucks were out all night.

I enjoyed the reruns of Gracie and Smitty.

Vroomans' Quilts said...

We had our first real snow in the Valley - 3" of ice, 3" of snow, topped with another layer of ice. I'm not going anywhere. Moe got brave and went out - Bella, NO WAY.

Sarah said...

Your blue glitter snowflakes look fantastic!! We had some snow Monday which has now melted but we were forwarned of more lake effect snow starting tomorrow through Saturday. Maybe winter is finally on it's way...

Unknown said...

What a view from Eliza's window! The trees look very Winter-y indeed, and I don't blame Smitty for only taking 2 steps into the snow.
The blue glitter snowflakes are my new favorites.