New Website

Boy, what a difference a month can make weather-wise. It was fairly warm through Thanksgiving but has gone downhill (way downhill) since. We've been in the deepfreeze for the past couple of weeks with temperatures barely getting above zero. Then yesterday we got whalloped with 10 inches of snow when we were predicted to only get 1-3 inches. The winds started blowing before dawn and haven't quit all day. I wonder how long before the plows are able to get out to move the drifts so I can return to my last two days of teaching before winter break begins on Dec. 23rd at 2 p.m.?

I bought a new Apple computer in September and have been learning to use it since. For a few dollars more per year I even got my own website which I finally got published and running yesterday. Check it out when you have the time!

http://web.me./bluebird47

Second project

This one went quite easily compared to the following Christmas quilt. I managed to finish it in about 3 days. Each month my quilt guild has a monthly mini quilt made by a guild member. All who attend the monthly meetings may choose to purchase raffle tickets for that month's quilt. The lucky person gets to take the wall hanging, table runner, etc. home with them that night. The monies raised go into the guild's special projects coffers.
My turn is for the January monthly mini. I'll plan to take it with me next week since one never knows what the weather can be like in January and since I live an hour's drive away I feel it best to get the wall hanging there early. I love watching birds and finally decided to make the quilt bird-related. The Cardinals in the corners were fussy cut from some fabric I already had. If you know anything about birds you'll also know that Cardinals won't go near a nest box but their coloring went well with what I'd chosen for the border fabric so I used that.

Fall Projects

Back at teaching and I don't have as much time to do much of anything. Second grade students have a lot more energy than I do and it takes a lot to keep up with them most days. With Christmas approaching they have only one thing on their minds and it's not much on learning so I have to try to make the lessons exciting enough to keep their attention. Phew!

My quilt guild did have a Christmas challenge for "Christmas Around the World" in which we were to choose a country and make a quilt to depict Christmas there. I chose Czechoslovakia for two reasons. The first was because my grandparents, although German, emigrated from there to the U.S. in the early 1900s. The second reason was that I felt no one else would choose this country.

But then came the challenge for me. The Czechs believe that on December 6th Svety Mikalas comes down from the heavens on a gold rope accompanied by an angel and a devil. He carries a book listing all the children's names as having been good or bad. Those who were good get a back of treats and those who were bad get a bag of coal. Nothing I found mentioned the devil or angel after that but I'm guessing that they passed out the bags to those children in the good or bad categories.

I had a hard time putting a devil on a Christmas quilt but in the end came up with a way to do this without hurting the image of the quilt. I chose to make the devil 2-sided using a very heavy Pellon batting. Then I simply pinned him onto the rope. He can easily be removed later and I plan then to replace him with another angel or just leave the quilt as is without him.