{ The Great Blizzard of 2015 }

 

Holy crap, we got a lot of snow in Southold! In fact, the entire North Fork of Long Island got a lot of snow.

 

 

 

You really can't tell how much from this Waterlogue watercolor conversion. Here's a couple from the clean up yesterday.

 

 

 

The foot prints ( actually, entire lower leg prints) on the right are mine. I had to wade through the snow to get to the house and the snow shovel. Before the snowblower could be started up we had an hour of digging a path from the street to the garage.

 

After we finished shoveling, blowing and digging out, we pulled out two folding chairs and sat in the sun with a cup of coffee and tea.  It was 19 degrees but felt like 70 in the sun. Perfect.



{ A New Tropical Home }

The Sister's Choice Christmas quilt made it to sunny Florida on Friday. I got a call from my sister that night saying how much she loves her quilt. I asked for a photo of it when she had the chance. This is what she sent me on Saturday.

 

 

I guess it really doesn't matter that this quilt went to live in Florida. The temperature challenged can still appreciate a handmade quilt. Especially when it's made with love.

{ Sister's Choice for My Sister }

Well, she's washed, dried and folded. All ready to be boxed and shipped to her new home in Florida.

 

I'm so happy with the finished quilt. I enjoyed working with the pattern, Sister's Choice, which I though was an appropriate Christmas quilt design. With the stars and all. And the name,too.

 

It was a very user friendly pattern and it was free, which makes it even better. I used Moda Bella solids in Christmas Green, Burgundy and Snow. The backing, I can't remember the details. It does blend nicely with Snow and it has pretty Christmassy gold in the print. The quilting was done with a gold thread {love, love, love} in a swirly, ornament pattern. It finished at 54x66.

 

Photo overload to follow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little note about quilt labels. . . . . when I started quilting and I was looking for information on the internet nearly all resources mentioned being sure to label all quilts so that years down the road, maybe even generations later, there would be a history of who made the quilt, when, for whom and for what occasion Up until I made my niece's {Come Sail Away} quilt I had handwritten my labels and attached them using various styles and methods.

This is my second embroidered label and I love throwing in something extra special at the end of the project.

It's not perfect, but it's wrought by my hand.

 



{ Better Late Then Never They Say }

My Florida dwelling sister has been after me for a quilt and a pair of knit wool socks for more than a year. This is the girl who only wears flip flop type sandals, is allergic to wool and keeps her AC set at 65 degrees because she's always hot. Every knit sock photo I post on Instagram gets a comment such as...."are those mine?" ..." I'm still waiting for my socks". You get the idea.

 

Since wool socks would sit in her drawer, I decided to make her a Christmas quilt that could be brought out at the coolest time of the year, and used for 30 days before being tucked away until the next year.

 

I started early but got distracted with the new house excitement. Quilting was just completed two days before Christmas. She got an IOU for her gift. The label is embroidered and I started hand sewing the binding last night. I'm hoping to have it complete and shipped by next week. Fingers are crossed. Here's a few photos, peeky, peeky. More when she's done. I do hope there's snow when I photograph it.

 

 

{ Welcome 2015 }

It's going to be a great year, I know it! We've got a new house which we're slowly moving in to. A new grandchild will be coming in July. One daughter will be graduating from veterinary school, the first doctor in our family!

 

I know it will be a busy year but I'm determined to find more time for my crafts. I want to complete some quilts that have been on my list for some time and I want to get an early start on next year's Christmas gift knitting. If I start now, I should be ready in time.

 

I'm also continuing my Project 365 for 2015. One photo per day, every day. I was hoping to settle into some theme for this year but that didn't work out. I'll make it up as I go along, borrowing ideas from the Capture Your 365 community and other photo challenge lists that pop up online. I'm aiming to post at least one or two photos per week to their online gallery.

My first entry for 2015:

 

Taken at 8:15am New Year's Day on the front porch steps of our new home.