Snowy Landscape

Good morning, my friends. So, we're sitting in bed reading last night when we hear the unmistakable sound of snow sliding off our metal roof. There was a chance of snow in the forecast, but the stars were going to have to align perfectly. We weren't really expecting anything. Looking outside...HOLY SMOKES! Look what can happen when you turn your back for just a second.

Well, of course I needed to see the measuring thingy we bought recently. So I looked outside with a flashlight shining through the window, but it was too dark to see clearly. And, of course, things like this must be fully documented with the camera on my phone, and so I took this picture while Mike held the flashlight against the window. And Mike said, "You won't be able to get that." And I said, "Well, I won't if I don't try." So, yeah...checkmate. I can see it. Can't you?

Okay, yeah, well...men. Such naysayers. So anyway...I was excited to see it this morning when I got up. Looks like a little more fell overnight.

Out there in the field, our bird feeder finally fell all the way over. As I've been writing this, Mike went outside to straighten it again, filled the feeders, and it is mobbed by birds. They're hungry!

And lookie there! It works! Two inches!

Okay. Well, that was so exciting, I might need a nap already. Maybe after I finish here...

We started taking things apart yesterday for our carpet installation. We're creating chaos. Thankfully, all the bags headed for Goodwill are downstairs and loaded in the car now. We'll drop those off before heading to the grocery store. Do we know how to have a good time, or what? Grocery shopping and Goodwill all in the same trip. For sure, I'm going to need a nap after all that. 

I'm happy the purging is officially finished. Now, we'll start emptying things into boxes in preparation for moving furniture around. Mike took the shelving in his closet apart yesterday, and he'll take it apart in my closet today. My task for the day will be to empty out my desk. He'll be disconnecting my computer and taking the desk apart. It's one of those L-shaped jobs with a hutch. I'll set up my laptop on the kitchen counter downstairs, and we'll continue to be in touch for at least a few more days.

As I said yesterday, I was determined to finish off another bird house for Project Quilting. This one took several hours, as they all have. There were a couple of new stitches in this one. At the roof is a "closed blanket stitch." I watched several videos of this stitch, read and reread the suggested stitch on the instructions. Hers looks different from mine, but I'm sticking with what I've done. Sorry about the wrinkles. I can't iron it until I've washed the Sticky Fabri-Solvy out of it. 

Around the door opening is a "Palestrina stitch." The flowers around the outer edge were done in "detached chain stitch," what I've always called a "lazy daisy."

Here are the four bird houses I have so far. Just one more to go. I spent some time working on it last night, and I should easily finish it today.

This turned out to be more time-consuming than expected, and so I'll be glad to get back to "regular" sewing.

The second video for the Dot-to-Dot Free Motion Quilting Challenge was released yesterday. My mid-arm machine will be removed from its table soon in preparation for the carpet, and so I wanted to get this done right away. There were some more ideas generated from yesterday's video. I tried each one she showed us, and then tried some things conjured up in my own imagination. The first one was "filled diamonds."

This one is called Zig Zag. I didn't take my to points deep enough into the block, and so the effect was lost a little bit.

Then, I felt I needed to fill in a little more, and so I did some triangles in the middle.

And then, a little flourish in the open areas.

This next one is called "Double Diamonds."

This next one should really have filled the whole square, but I'd already used the other square shape on my panel, and so I filled it in the center. The center design is called "Quatro."

This one is called "Procrastination."

From there, I just tried some things on my own.

The one below was a small area with not much room to get too fancy. I really prefer straighter lines, but I tried this one free-hand.

On the other side, this diamond was the same size as the one above, also stitched free-hand.

In one of the larger diamonds, I tried the Zig Zag again. This one turned out a little better.

She encouraged us to fill in some of the designs, and so I did this in one of the larger diamonds.

Finally, these two diamonds...I was just quilting lines from point to point to see what I'd come up with.

Here's the whole section quilted in the second video.

And here's all the quilting I've done on the panel so far. We've done the outer areas of the red and purple sections.

Okay, so today I want to finish off the fifth of the bird houses. We're going grocery shopping, and I have to empty out my desk and clear things off the surfaces. I'm still hopeful I'll have some time to sew the bird house challenge quilt into a finished quilt top. We'll see. I'm antsy to get back to my list of WIP's, and I need to get started tying the French Roses quilt, which is January's OMG project.

There's always plenty to do around here. Time to get going on it. I'm watching the storms you folks back east are experiencing. Stay safe and warm, my friends.