It Keeps Rolling On

This Winter sure is having a hay-day.  We had church canceled today because of the latest snow storm.  I was downloading pictures off my phone and came upon another picture from the last ice storm.  This is the bush in front of our home the night of last month's Book Club.

Speaking of Book Club, we recently discussed John Kralik's  365 Thank Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life

"One recent December, at age 53, John Kralik found his life at a terrible, frightening low: his small law firm was failing; he was struggling through a painful second divorce; he had grown distant from his two older children and was afraid he might lose contact with his young daughter; he was living in a tiny apartment where he froze in the winter and baked in the summer; he was 40 pounds overweight; his girlfriend had just broken up with him; and overall, his dearest life dreams--including hopes of upholding idealistic legal principles and of becoming a judge--seemed to have slipped beyond his reach. Then, during a desperate walk in the hills on New Year's Day, John was struck by the belief that his life might become at least tolerable if, instead of focusing on what he didn't have, he could find some way to be grateful for what he had. Inspired by a beautiful, simple note his ex-girlfriend had sent to thank him for his Christmas gift, John imagined that he might find a way to feel grateful by writing thank-you notes. To keep himself going, he set himself a goal--come what may--of writing 365 thank-you notes in the coming year. One by one, day after day, he began to handwrite thank yous--for gifts or kindnesses he'd received from loved ones and coworkers, from past business associates and current foes, from college friends and doctors and store clerks and handymen and neighbors, and anyone, really, absolutely anyone, who'd done him a good turn, however large or small. Immediately after he'd sent his very first notes, significant and surprising benefits began to come John's way--from financial gain to true friendship, from weight loss to inner peace. While John wrote his notes, the economy collapsed, the bank across the street from his office failed, but thank-you note by thank-you note, John's whole life turned around. 365 Thank Yous is a rare memoir: its touching, immediately accessible message--and benefits--come to readers from the plainspoken storytelling of an ordinary man. Kralik sets a believable, doable example of how to live a miraculously good life." 

Kralik's attempt to turn around his life by completing 365 thank you notes in a year was a very intriguing concept to me.  I found the change in his perception of his life as he began to be grateful to be really interesting.  It makes me think about people I need to thank more often.  I really enjoyed this book.  Maybe I should be more grateful for the weather.  :)

Faux Daisies

I wish it was time to plant flowers, but alas, I am waiting out this ridiculously long Winter.  Since it is still frigid temperatures around here I'm going to have to content with quilted daisies. 

I chose to do one daisy for each block, but Leah does them as an entire chain here.  I always like using scraps and trying new quilting designs, so this quilt is a double win for me.  The back is a cuddly flannel.  Now I just need to box it up and send it off to my friend.  She's expecting her baby girl in a couple weeks. 

A Wrinkle in Plans

While I was adding sashing to my quilt top, my iron decided to up and die.  Technically speaking the light still comes on, but it no longer feels the need to be any other setting than cold, which pretty much defeats the purpose of having an iron in the first place.  I knew I wouldn't have any other time this week to work on it though, so I pressed open the rest of the seams with my fingers and a cold iron.  Good times.  The quilt top is done, but you can tell it doesn't exactly lay entirely flat and the fabric is a bit more wrinkled than usual, but it's not bad all things considered.

I'll have to get another iron and make sure the entire thing is flat before I layer it.  I don't actually use my iron for anything but quilting, but it's still a much needed object around here.

I used some of the blocks designs from the Marmalade Squares Quilt and a whole lot of scraps to form this quilt top.

Oh, Winter!

I thought I would share the view of my parent's home in Upstate New York (Syracuse was ranked the snowiest city in the country).  My dad sent me this picture with the following caption:

"Sometimes a man must simply conquer the elements and barbeque!"

Meh

Do you ever put something together and it was most definitely better in your mind than the actual product?  That's how I feel about my February blocks for do.Good Stitches.  It's mostly because I had really limited options for fabric in my stash.  She asked for Burnt Orange, Olive Green, Royal and Navy Blue with a tan or beige background.  It's meant for a boy, so it's not supposed to be super floral either.  This is the closest I could get without going out and buying more fabric.  I don't know - I may have to bite the bullet and go get different fabric.  I'm going to think on it for a bit, and see what I decide.

 

Blocks Unite

The one advantage of my husband's ridiculous working hours this weekend?  My sewing machine and I have gotten some quality time together.  I got caught up with the Building Basics 9 patches first.  Nothing fancy, but I like them.

Next came putting together all of the blocks from the January do.Good Stitches Wish Circle. It's kinda wild and crazy, but I think a little boy is going to really like it.

Next up - I need to make my February blocks for do.Good Stitches and get another baby girl quilt done quickly.  :)

Linkin' up to BOMs Away.

A Clumsy Coordination

I'm the person you most definitely don't want on your baseball team. When we did tennis and racket ball in gym class my partner made up new rules, so we could hit whatever we wanted whenever we wanted.  I'm pretty sure he did this to not make me feel bad about my ineptitude.  It's the whole eye-hand-foot-coordination thing.  I ran cross country in high school.  That was fine, but as soon as you put a basketball in my hands I suddenly forget how to move my legs appropriately.  I play the piano really well, but if you add the petals on an organ I play like a beginner.  I played soccer as a child, because if you did use your hands it was a penalty.  Now that I'm an adult it's easy to avoid the things I really can't do...most of the time.  Then comes along an issue that I would never have guessed would happen - I started to quilt.  Haha - Making quilts is not the actual problem.  The problem is that in order to Free Motion Quilt well you have to coordinate the movement of your hands on the quilt with the speed of the pedal controlled by your foot.  (A huge face palm feels appropriate at this particular place in the conversation).  My machine has a beautiful automatic feeder and I honestly rarely ever use the pedal, but as I've wanted to do more advanced quilting I've found that I need the ability to speed up and slow down for many of the designs to be done accurately.  The lack of coordination was coming back to haunt me, and then I saw Leah Day's Building Blocks Quilt Along.  I know how to do all the piecing already, but I thought I could use the experience to start back at the beginning of Free Motion Quilting and force myself to only use the pedal.  It's been a great experience already and it's only been a month.  I quilted one block a day this week and it feels good. 

Most of the issues I've had are unrelated to the pedal - I need to get a different marking pen, because it doesn't show up on the darker fabrics.  That made the wiggly U design done by freehand since I couldn't see the markings.  It still looks fine though, so at least it didn't hurt anything this round.  The Gridlines in Block 2 were fun for me, because I almost never free motion straight lines, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. 

The Spirals in Block 3 gave me the most trouble, but I was intentionally playing with speed, so I'm not all that upset by how it looks.  I'm making progress, so that's all that matters to me right now.

Of Great Worth

This little quilt is headed to a baby of a mom who's going through a rough time with her family and some pregnancy complications.  Her situation is a good reminder that although having a child is an exciting and wonderful thing, it also can be a difficult process and bring added stress.

It is so true that anything worthwhile takes great effort.  I would put pregnancy/child birth under that category.  I consider my husband and my children to be the things of greatest worth in my life, and I would definitely say it takes serious amounts of work to raise children well.  It also takes a lot of effort to have a happy and healthy marriage, and I don't think that's a bad thing.  It helps us realize how much they mean to us, but sometimes on the rougher days we need reminders of why it's worth the effort.  We need an encouraging word or a thoughtful gesture to get us smiling again.  I'm hoping this quilt cheers her up a bit even if it doesn't change her difficult situation.

The back is a cuddly flannel