Weather Watching

It was kind of a lazy, do-nothing day yesterday. A big snowfall does that to us. We spent the day watching the weather...mostly from inside...and we were so enthralled by the whole thing that we sat around in gape mouthed wonder. It's not the best look for either of us. Someone wandering in might think we're both ready for the "home."

Right after finishing yesterday's post, I went outside to fill the bird feeders and take some pictures. I was glad I did because the sun came out while I was there, and it didn't take long for snow to start falling from things. Follow me, and I'll take you on a little tour. It's not like every blooming thing, but it's something. Here's the front door. You can't really see it there, but we still have our wreath from Christmas up. I usually leave it up until Valentine's Day.

Glancing to the right, I noticed the birds pecking the seed from the ground. Several birds can eat from the feeders at once, but only when they're full.

Quilt taking pictures and fill the feeders, wouldja?

Here's our driveway. You can see where Mike tromped down to the shop to put chains on the tractor.

The snow was deeper than I thought, and I didn't really have appropriate foot ware.

Turning around, there's the front of the house. Looks like the little house on the prairie, doesn't it?

Turning directly around is our field. The first snow to go after the sun came out was that on the fence rails off in the distance.

Here's Sue's and my bench. Don't think I'll sit today.

Worried birds.

Honestly, wouldja fill those feeders already?

I like the way the snow collected on the needles of this pine tree.

After Mike had the tractor chained up, he made Spanish coffees. It's a tradition around here on snow days.

Edited to say I'm linking up to the Wandering Camera today:

While he was doing that, I went outside to measure.

We had some lunch and we both took naps. It was fairly late in the day before I did anything quilting related. Mainly, I just got the machine set up, tension adjusted, and a few practice rounds of sewing. I'm using this YLI machine quilting thread in both top and bottom.

I like this thread, and I've used it on quite a few of my quilts. I like the "natural" color, which isn't quite white, but it's also too light to be off-white. It's kind of a gray-white.

Then I flipped the extra edges of the quilt back to the front and did a little practice stitching there. Here's my first attempt at a bat. Not quite there, but not bad for a first try.

Also, this little ghost. I think he needs some arms.

And the one thing I'm sure about is that these open blocks will be quilted with spider webs, and so that's where I started. It was tempting to use a ruler to make the straight lines, but spiders don't use rulers, and so I didn't either.

I've been a little worried how the busy fabric on the quilt back is going to look. As it turns out, I think it's going to be just fine. There's enough going on that the quilting (even in a light thread) isn't going to show much.

That was as far as I got with the quilting. Today I'll get to work filling in the rest of those blocks with spider webs. Also, I need to make up a practice piece. I have an idea what to quilt in the nine-patches, but I need to practice before committing it to the quilt.

The only other thing I did yesterday was to bake another loaf of bread from the dough I made earlier in the week. It was stiffer and less floppy when it came from the refrigerator, and that made it easier to shape.

I let it rise in my proofing box for a couple of hours. As the recipe states, this dough doesn't really rise, but it increases in volume and spreads out. It still didn't make a beautiful loaf when it came from the oven, but it was so tasty.

I've been curious to see how it bakes up after several days in the refrigerator. It can be left for up to seven days, and I'm on about day 5 here. Inside, you can see that this loaf developed the airy texture of sourdough, and wow! It had that characteristic sourdough tang. It was really chewy and yummy. We liked it a lot.

I'm thinking I might bake the last loaf in a loaf pan and see if I can get a better shape to it. I'll bake the last loaf tomorrow or the next day (whichever is day 7...have to check my notes). It had such a strong sourdough flavor and texture, now I'm curious to see how it will be in a few more days.

As the sun set last night, the light outside was dramatic.

This morning, we have beautiful blue skies and sunshine. As the sun rose, there was a ribbon of pink clouds.

And now that the sun is up, the snow is absolutely dazzling.

So far, I've only stitched my inchy for the day.

Now I'm ready to get at the last of the Snow Globes block. I might be overly-optimistic, but I think I can finish it this morning. Time will tell.

Edited to say I almost forgot! Matthew made it to Guatemala City yesterday. It seems his flight was delayed out of Portland, but his connecting flight in Houston was also delayed, so no harm done. Here's our little What's App conversation from yesterday: