Loose Threads Inspiration

I'm in a small group of quilters; we named our group Loose Threads. Here are some projects that were inspired by some of our activities in that group.

(1) One member printed pictures for us, and we each used them in quilts in various ways. One person put her picture on the back of a quilt; another made a story book starring her granddaughter. This is mine: a tribute to my love of travel. It is about 19" x 26".

top left: Iceland, top right: France
middle: Czech Republic
bottom: New Zealand, and the little orange circle is a kangaroo depicting Australia
The baubles on the bottom are general travel icons and icons from France.

Here's the back. I used a piece of fabric that I bought in Colorado, a map of Rocky Mountain National Park, and the other fabric is Australian.

(2) Another Loose Threads project was a challenge to work in a series. I had already made the one on the left. It was going to be a gift for someone in another state, but that idea faded away, so I kept it and wanted to do more tree quilts. The series idea was perfect. I made the one on the left in 2016. I made the one on the right in 2017 (finished it today). I have an idea for a third one in my brain, but it has not yet "materialized." (Like that pun?) If I follow the slow pattern, I have a whole year in which to make the third one.

These are both small, about 10" x 12".

And in other news, we got our first snow of the season overnight. This is our woodsy back yard. We didn't even notice that a tree had fallen over until it seems emphasized by the snow on it. We're oblivious home-owners, I guess. We both think the snow is very pretty!

I'm a Snow Grump

Just let me complain for a bit, OK? It snowed today. It was really quite pretty! But, it snowed heavily right after Husband had gone into town on the bus, so he'd not had opportunity to shovel.

I had to leave the house later in the day. I chose not to attempt to shovel. I hate shoveling, anyway, and the snow was still coming down.

Finished my work and chores, started on my way home, and while sitting at a red light, someone rear-ended me... TWICE! Not sure how that happened. Miraculously, my car had very little damage, while his sustained most of the owies, so I said "forget it" and we went on our merry ways.

I arrived home to find six inches of snow in our driveway, and a MOUNTAIN of snowplow crap at the end of our driveway. We'd not been home or had time to shovel, so our mailbox was also still snowed in, and the letter carrier did not even stop at our mailbox. No mail delivery for us naughty not-yet-shoveled-out people.

I had to park in the street; first I galumphed through almost knee-deep snowplow crap to get into my driveway, then into the house. Why does all the snowplow residue get piled so high in our driveway?? Neighbors never get anywhere near the same amount in theirs! It really irks me. We're the Shovel Family, and they all have snow-blowers! Very annoying. I sat and stewed for a while, and decided I couldn't really leave ALL that shoveling for Husband when he would come home after dark.

So I ventured outside again and did some shoveling. Had an aerobic work-out and my back sort of hurt, so I quit. I had made a dent; at least Husband wouldn't have to do every inch of the driveway.

Husband came home after dark. He was cheerful! Maybe because he takes the city bus and didn't just drive through icky streets and get rear-ended out of the blue.

He went out and finished enough shoveling to at least get my car back in the garage, and hopefully tomorrow we'll get mail delivered.

I'm sick of winter. And feeling too old to pick up another shovel EVER.

Rant completed. Thank you for listening.

Spring Envy

I am so envious of the pretty spring pictures most Northern Hemisphere bloggers are posting. Some green would be a sight for sore eyes! We had yet another snowstorm yesterday, and they say more is coming today. It's beautiful, but ... would be easier to appreciate in December rather than late April. *sigh* Everyone here is just so tired of winter.

Nevertheless, feast your eyes.. photos taken from inside my house.

















I have no Friday Books report to give you this week. Keep reading!

You, Too, Could Have This Much Fun!

Hubby having a blast, shoveling. You could have this much fun, too. Just move to Minnesota, aka, MinneSNOWta.

I'm only being halfway facetious. As we get older, the shoveling and the hassle of snow are getting tougher to deal with. I now understand Snow Birds! However, I still love snow and love Minnesota. This morning on my way to work, even though roads were icy and driving speeds were slow, I just loved all the beauty of snow-draped trees against bright, blue sky. Usually after a snowstorm, the sun comes out, and it is so pretty! I do love living in Minnesota.

All this snow and the Christmas lights put me in the mood for Christmas. I decided that the above, at my house, is Santa's favorite chimney.

Il Neige!

Wow, we are getting tons of snow. Looks like we've had at least ten inches here at my house, and it's still coming down. Tomorrow I have to work... now I'm thinking nostalgically of those Snow Days we used to get back when I worked at a school. I wonder if they'll get one tomorrow. To comfort myself, I do remember they were FEW and FAR BETWEEN. I hope the roads are OK by tomorrow so I can get to work sans difficulties.

I will say, the snow is beautiful. Gorgeous! Too bad we have to ruin it by driving in it and trying to go out and about. Wouldn't it be great if we all could just hunker down and enjoy the beauty, and emerge when it gets a little warmer?

While it snows, I have been working on this:

It is based on a design by Amanda Jean Nyberg in her book, Sunday Morning Quilts.

An Old Fashioned Winter

This is a winter like you read about in pioneer stories, when storms raged for days, and they had to tie a rope from the house to the barn so they wouldn't get lost in the white-out conditions.


I'm happily snuggled into my warm house, watching the storm from a safe vantage point. This is a biggie! It has been snowing hard all day, and next will come the wind (to make big ol' snow drifts and snow packs that are impossible to drive through). And the temperatures are going to plunge.


This is a yard stick on my deck. That first number you see is 20, as in 20 inches! And it's still coming down!


view of our neighborhood

This bush is in our front yard... at first I had Christmas lights in these bushes, but the lights stopped working, so I pulled them off. If I'd left them on the bushes, they'd be totally buried.