Finding Winter's Beauty #2

As previously stated, winter is not my favorite season.  Over my 20+ years of living in Minnesota I have made several attempts to get over that.  There was the"Operation Make Friends With Winter" campaign of 1999.  It had it's fantastic moments, but was deemed unsuccessful.  There have also been winter's that I have made no effort to make peace with piles of snow and frigid temps.  This year I plan to focus on the beauty instead of trying to force myself to actually enjoy winter activities.

Yesterday were were treated to a big dose of winter's beauty!

Over a foot of winter's beauty fell all day long.

And nothing is more beautiful to me than a couple of thrilled and satisfied girls.  They even talked me into a trip down the hill.  I'm not sure who was more entertained, me or the passerby who stopped to see the crazy lady shrieking all the way down the hill.

A few weeks before the snow fell I was able to finish this custom quilt with a variety of Monaluna fabric including a bit of busy city.  I'm so glad that I got it done before winter descended.  As we all snuggled up under our quilts after sledding yesterday, I stopped to think about the quilts that I have made that were hopefully being put to good use around town on a beautiful snowy day.

blogs are slogs

Every once in a while I receive newspaper clippings from my Dad that address a topic that he thinks I might be interested in (or that he thinks I should be interested in).   I love getting newspaper articles from my Dad!  

I got this one earlier this year and honestly didn't read it in it's entirety until recently.  The gist of the article is that large companies have started giving up on blogs because they just aren't working.  To that I say Hooray!!  I have never really enjoyed the "corporate blog".  You can usually tell that there is a staff person whose job it is to make the corporation seem more "human".  Over the years I have slowly weeded those blogs out of my blog reader.

I am happy to have a blog where nine real humans commented on my last post.  That may not seem like much, but it is fantastic to me.  I've never been one for big parties.  I really prefer the more intimate gatherings where people can actually get to know each other.  I truly enjoyed hearing the winter plans of those nine people.  Here's to all ten of us finding the beauty of this coming winter!  And congrats to lucky number seven (Chris C.) for winning the Constellations Charm Pack!

Finding Winter's Beauty: Part #1 of Hopefully Many

While walking around my neighborhood lake this morning, I spotted this sight.  My First thought was "F@#$%*#  Ice!!!"  My next thought was "it's kinda pretty".  I have always had a love-hate relationship with winter.  I love the beauty.  I hate the cold.

I plan to spend most of my time this winter in my cozy warm studio sewing up things to help keep us all warm and cozy.  But, I will set aside some time this year to focus on the beauty of winter and I hope to share it here.  Photography has always been an interest of mine and I am planning on taking a class or two this winter to finally learn how to use all of my fancy camera's "bells and whistles".

If all else fails and I can't find anything beautiful about winter to take photos of, I can just hang a quilt in front of the snow and snap a few of that instead...

...and thanks to the kind folks at Andover Fabrics I will have some fun fabrics to play with.   I came home yesterday to a box of goodies that included 2 lovely charm packs of Lizzy House's new collection called Constellations (and yes, it does include a couple of the new pearl bracelet colors).

I am being greedy and keeping one for myself, but am giving away the other one.  Just comment on this post with something you are looking forward to this winter (sewing related or not) for your chance to win.

Another guest post today...

I did a guest post for my friends Wendy and Nick on their handwriting blog Brown Ink.  

A little bit about my LOVE of lists!  

Guest Post: MMQG

I did a little guest post over at the Minneapolis Modern Quilt Guild blog today about digging into the "good stuff".  It's about fabric but can apply to whatever is "good stuff" to you!

On Wandering

I guess I didn't get the quote exactly right, but you get the idea.  I made this pillow a while ago and it has not found it's owner yet.  

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.

-J. R. R. Tolkien

Bits and Pieces

Well, that was fun!  

I made up a few blocks for our Bento Box swap with the MQG in Baltimore.

Here's how it works. Make a block...

and cut it into pieces.

I will keep these three and add the nine pieces that I get from the swap to complete a whole quilt.  If you look too-closely you will see that the seams don't all match up perfectly.  I hope those folks in Baltimore don't employ the quilt police!  

Some of my favorite words on the Walker Art Center