Fried on Friday

Lately, Friday has been my day to be a lazy slug. It was wet and cold for my walk with Sue yesterday, and on those days, I get chilled to the bone. When I get home, I first have to ice my knee, and that only serves to make me colder than ever. And so I get my heating pad (which I think of as my portable electric blanket), and snuggle up under the quilts, never to be heard from again for at least a couple of hours. And then, I'm so warm and toasty that I've turned into a big puddle of nothing. And that means nothing gets done.

But you can bet I didn't waste a minute switching out the Valentine's Day table toppers for the St. Patrick's Day decor.

I'm feeling pretty smug since neither of these existed before last month.

That one makes a nice place for the tulips to land.

So, I did a little slow stitching. First, I wanted to catch up on Friday's inchy.

This next one is this morning's inchy. The pistil stitches are a little challenging. I'm having trouble holding the "neck" thread taut as I pull those French knots closed.

And that completes another row. These are so much fun. I have an idea what I'm going to do with this when I'm finished, but I want to see what Meg Hawkey has in mind first.

Also yesterday, I decided to make some blocks in lieu of quilting on Hocuspocusville. This first one is this week's Tiny Tuesday block. We had a couple of choices, but the Friendship Star is one of my favorites, and so I did that.

This week's block is straight-set.

This morning, I'll be linking up my Tiny Tuesday block to:

Also, I worked on the next block for the Countdown to Christmas blocks. These were originally published all in red and white on the Moda Bakeshop website. I'm trying to prevent my greens and blues from world domination, and so my blocks are all going to be from those bins. They can be made either 6-inch or 12-inch, and mine are going to be of the 12-inch variety. The one I worked on yesterday is called Regent Street Star. So far, I have only the portion required for the 6-inch block.

The pieces are cut to finish it up, and I'll work on that today.

These blocks are for a sew-along going on in Blogland, but the hostess hasn't mentioned it at all this month. It makes me wonder if she decided not to continue after January. Either way, I'm committed to working on it until the bitter end. I'll try to get 2-3 blocks finished in February, and then link-up if the sew-along continues.

This morning, we had a brief moment of sunshine. When I looked out, I noticed the raindrops glistening on the dwarf maple tree outside our window. This tree was replaced last spring after a falling tree branch smashed its predecessor.

Now the tree is gone, and so this one should have a less-fearful life in the same spot. The tree is umbrella shaped when it has all its leaves, and the kitties like to use it for a fort.

Today's plan is to finish up the Countdown to Christmas block(s), and then get back to quilting Hocuspocusville. We're expecting rain for most of the day, but Sunday and Monday should be an improvement.