Snow Day

Five and half inches of snow fell overnight

Imagine our surprise when we woke up to snow on the ground on Monday. There was a lot of snow--like almost six inches!  From the news reports, our little area was hit harder than other areas. Our daughter, A, reported that they had a couple inches.

The snow was wet and beautiful. Hubby took these photos. I noticed right away that Bailey, our dog, was enjoying the winter wonderland!

Snow topped branches

Bailey checking out the conditions as well as the "neighbors"

It was nice to be able to enjoy the beauty of the day at home. In my full time working days, I would have been out on the roads.

I spent the day working on my block for the guild challenge. The rules are that it has to be an 8 inch finished circle using a Moda Grunge fabric and only Kaffe fabrics. Appliqué should be minimal but only turned edge. No embellishments are allowed.

I thought that I had a great idea. I couldn't execute it. I played with my embroidery software as a drawing program is included.

I managed to draw the correct size circle; but, I was unable to place lines where I wanted so I resorted to using a compass and a pencil! (I will need to take a class to be able to use the drawing program.)

Another failed try

I next tried to stitch a wedge which was based on one of my designs. After piecing one wedge, I could tell that design wasn't going to work.  On my second practice, I constructed half square triangles. Then I cut out the circle.

A couple tries that didn't float my boat

Daffodil embroidery made from my photo

For a different approach, I purposely did not make a mirror image of the first half of the circle. This effort was okay; but, the design didn't seem interesting to me.

I remembered a Gail Garber episode on "The Quilt Show" where she shared how she makes her trademark flying geese. I reviewed the episode and drafted a pattern. (If you are a member, you too can watch the episode!) I picked some scraps and started paper piecing. Piecing the outer ring went okay. Machine stitching the center circle did not go well.

So I scraped that try and tried another approach. I managed to make a circle block. I'll share it after the quilt show as we aren't supposed to know who made what block. I feel comfortable now drafting flying geese to fit in odd shaped spaces. Working on the block challenge was a good way to spend a snow day!

This morning, we again are having a snow day. We have about four inches of snow on the ground. It is unusual to have snow days in February! In our neck of the woods, a winter storm might last a day or two. In any given year, there might be two or three weeks when this happens. Consequently, snow conditions don't last long enough for most of the population to build or maintain their winter driving skills. There also isn't enough equipment to clear/maintain more than the major streets which makes driving on the hilly side streets treacherous. I plan to enjoy the beauty of this day next to a warm wood stove! Perhaps, I'll work on a tote bag to use the embroidery I made of a daffodil from a photo I took of them blooming in our yard. This project is on my finish a long list which you can read here!