There's No Sewing like Snow Sewing

One might think we're living in Michigan's Upper Peninsula with the snow piled up outside. Our new metal roof is no more noisy in the rain than our old composite roof was. On the other hand, accumulated snow slides right off, and it sounds like thunder when it does. It startled us the first time, and the kitties don't like it at all. Here's a picture of what's landed in our breezeway, on top of our air-conditioner, which kind of adds insult to the injury. There's also melting snow dripping like a hose has been left on.

Smitty thought he'd venture out boldly yesterday. On second thought...

Maybe helping out in the sewing room is a better plan. He tried to coax Sadie out of the clubhouse to help out, but nothing doing. It's warm in the clubhouse because of air ducts and heating, and she was staying put.

Guess he'll have to do all the work himself. Again.

There wasn't a lot he could do yesterday. My day was spent top-stitching. These blocks take about two full days to make. When I had it this far, I needed to stop for a while, straighten out my body, and get a few housekeeping chores done.

Eventually, I came back and finished off the top-stitching.

Then I added two borders, and the 10th of 12 blocks was finished.

Here are all the blocks I have for this quilt so far:

These were kind of fun to make in the beginning, but I'm more than ready to be finished with them. Two more go-rounds and I'll have them all done. I'm looking forward to sewing them into a finished quilt top.

We needed to drive into town to pick up Mike's truck. It's been in the shop for nearly two weeks. You might recall it had an oil leak. We took it in last December, but then had to call a halt before the work even got started. Snow was to blame back then too, and we needed to skedaddle out of here if we were to head south for our winter stay. I only mention this because along the way, I took a picture of some sheep I've been admiring from a gift store at the bottom of our hill. These are so cute, and I'm not gonna lie...I covet them.

Sorry about the fence wires running through the photo. We were stopped in the middle of the road so I could capture them. They're about the size of a small dog...made of metal, I believe. I'm sure they're prohibitively expensive, but I still yearn to look out my living room window and see them there. I have a birthday coming up. One can only hope.

When we got home, I found some happy mail from my friend Darlene. Is this adorable or what?

Thank you, Darlene. I love it. Too cute for words.

There was a new recipe on last night's menu, and I already knew it was going to take some time to prepare it. These are French Onion Stuffed Peppers as they looked when I took them from the oven. The onions were first caramelized, and that process takes a good half hour to 45 minutes. When I realized how much time they were going to take, I almost decided not to make them. I'm glad I did though, because these are delicious. They take some time, but they are not difficult to make.

I sliced and cooked the onions while I was collecting, measuring, and preparing the other ingredients. When I had everything collected...my mise en place, if you will...the onions were ready. Altogether, prep time was about an hour, and then they still needed another hour in the oven. If you want to make this, just know that you need to start early. We enjoyed a pepper each, and so there is another night's dinner already prepared.

Okay, and we got another two inches of snow overnight. Smitty is more than fed up with this weather, as are we all.

Mainly, I'm worried about some of the new plants in the landscaping. There isn't much can be done about it other than to hope for the best. 

So, as you might guess, it's going to be another sewing day. I'll be making the last five French Roses blocks. I'm looking forward to getting those sewn into a finished quilt top.