S(n)ew Day

Sometimes, posting to my blog is like paddling a canoe into the wind, against the tide, and uphill! Right now I"m typing this one-handed while supporting two post-breakfast cats on my lap, but that's nothing compared to finding time away from work these days. The precious little time I have is divided between loved ones and my sewing machine - no, my sewing machine is not a loved one.


Fresh snow Monday afternoon on our street


"Our snow was not only shaken from white wash buckets down the sky, it came shawling out of the ground and swam and drifted out of the arms and hands and bodies of the trees; snow grew overnight on the roofs of the houses like a pure and grandfather moss, minutely -ivied the walls and settled on the postman, opening the gate, like a dumb, numb thunder-storm of white, torn Christmas cards." - Dylan Thomas, A Child's Christmas in Wales

And that's what happens when you have cats on your lap. They wake up, step on the keyboard and delete the entire paragraph you just finished writing. But I was just whining about the four and a half inches of snow we got on Sunday/Monday, so I suppose you really aren't missing anything. At least the sun came out afterwards and melted a little bit of it (so it could be nice and icy the next day).

I'm still working on my hearts wallhanging. I had a day off work on Monday, my s(n)ew day, so I spent it stitching together a bunch of small scraps and appliqued my name over top. I tried different ways of forming the letters. Finally, I just found a nice thick font and made it about 120 points and traced my name onto freezer paper, cut and stitched. In green, of course. Oddly, I realized at this point that I although I have lots of green fabric, I don't have much in the way of green scraps. Apparently my collection of greens is for admiring, not using! LOL!



One-quarter of a paper-pieced star

 On Tuesday nights I run next door, sewing machine in hand, to my neighbour's house and we quilt for a couple of hours. Sometimes I show her a trick or two, sometimes she shows me. Last night Judy showed me how to paper piece. We worked on a Carol Doak star pattern. Wow, did the time ever fly by! We had a great time, and I couldn't believe the results! It's such an odd experience, just sewing along a line on a piece of paper, trimming and adding more fabric to the back of it, wondering all along what it's going to look like once it's finished and if you'll like it or hate it. Well, I liked it. I can't wait to finish it and work on some more paper piecing projects.

And lastly, another gratuitious cat picture because I love them, despite their frequent faux paws.


Rusty says: "Get that camera out of my face!"


Until next time,