Saturday, December 26, 2020

Merry Christmas

I'm running behind times as usual but let me wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.  I hope you all are still safe and warm. 

We had a white Christmas here on the hill.  It's not unusual for us to get a bit of snow at some point during the winter but this is the first on Christmas since we've lived up here.  About 3 1/2 inches total.


Our neighbors walked up the hill past our house to see the view over town with the snow and took this picture near the end of our driveway.  


And this was the view from the porch.  Needless to say, with temps no higher than 20 degrees all day and a wind chill in single digits, I went no further  toward the outside.

The birds were really active today.  Lots and lots of them vying for space on the feeders.  They were all flummoxed by the snow blocking their places to light on the railings.  The snow will start melting tomorrow when the temps head up to the 40's and will likely finish off on Sunday.   It's really pretty to see it like this but I'm done with it now.  It can go away.  

I think all of us are looking forward to 2021 and the hope that it will be better than this year has been.  Please stay safe and warm.  We will get through it one of these days. 

Y'all take care


Saturday, December 12, 2020

Covid Woes and Log Cabins

 I am so far behind and downright ashamed of my lack of posting.  I love to read posts of other bloggers and it is just not right to  leave mine languishing. 

I have been pretty much staying at home.  Grocery store runs and doctor appointments but not many of those.  My little sewing group decided to resume our gatherings at the guest house of one of the group.  There's only five of us but with the holidays and increasing covid infection rates, I'm just not comfortable being there any more.  So, I've bowed out until such time as I feel things are safer.

It was my turn to host my siblings' gathering back in mid November and since I'm the youngest of the bunch, we're all getting up in age.  One brother recently had a mild heart attack.  Given that, and the fact that our May gathering was cancelled, I really wanted to go ahead.  We were all set and my husband and I actually drove down to NW Florida in preparation.  Upon arriving and overnight during conversations with my brother, the prevalence of covid in the area became quite obvious.  Even some extended family members had been exposed.  It just became too much for us and after much anguish, on Friday morning I decided to cancel the whole thing.  I made those difficult phone calls to my siblings.  Some were relieved, I think, and others didn't have much to say about it.  At any rate, less than 24 hours after getting there, we got back in the car and headed back home.  Even though I wanted to see my siblings, it just wasn't worth the risk to all of us to go ahead.  I truly hope that we will be able to resume next May.

I have been sewing and reading, as usual.  My most recent finish is my first log cabin style quilt.  These have been around forever and there almost endless ways to arrange the blocks.  Here is the one that inspired me. 


I pulled out fabrics that I liked and started cutting the "logs".  Since I was not cutting many of the same fabric, I actually wound up cutting most of them one at a time so that I could get multiple lengths from the same fabric. 


The old card table comes in really handy with my quilting.  It's a moveable extra space for sorting.  I also used Frog tape to mark the sizes and location numbers.  That's something else that quilters use frequently.   Anyway, there are 546 pieces to make up the blocks.  


Its easy stitching but you do have to pay attention to the order so that the finished design comes through.  And in the middle of this project my machine decided to be temperamental again.  Off to the spa for a good cleaning and examination by the technician who found nothing out of order.  It still was a bit difficult on return, but with some tweaking of threads it returned to good working order. 


And here is the finished top.  The colors do not show well here due to the lousy lighting.  I am pleased.  Now on to the next project, whatever that may turn out to be. 


Y'all stay safe out there.  We are all so tired of the restrictions but its not worth our health to throw caution to the winds now.  

Y'all take care