What a horrible winter we're having here in northeast Nebraska! After 2 major blizzards since just before Christmas and after dropping over 2 feet of snow coupled with the previous 9 inches, daily fog, cold, and an ice storm last week that has left people without power since last Wednesday everyone is hungry for some sunshine no matter how cold it is. Late yesterday the snow started to fall again. Although we only got 2-3 inches we're having 40-45 mph winds which has managed to fill in the roads with 3 foot drifts again and the seventh snow day from school. We'll be going all summer if this continues.
But I have gotten all my UFO's (unfinished quilts) done and started some more. One I even tossed after having it half completed for the last 5 years and decided it wasn't that good anyhow. The biggest quilt I finished was one I'd started in a class with Scott Murkin. I arranged the blocks in a dark to light format putting varied width strips from top to bottom and left to right of purple in-between the blocks. I quilted it in a wavy pattern to complement the wavy blocks. I finally took pictures of it this a.m. and hope to work out something with vining Morning Glory over the quilt to resemble it climbing on a trellis. If I don't get it done it will look fine as is, too.
I also belong to the on-line group, Fast Friday Fabric Challenge, in which we are challenged on the 4th Friday of the month to create a small quilt to fit the challenge in one week's time. Teaching doesn't always give me time to do these but the past two I've completed since I've been snowed in so much. December's was to choose a commercial package from our cupboards and use the colors on the product to create a still life quilt. I used a Jolly Time popcorn package and created the little orange and green 8" x 10" quilt using the package colors. This month's is to choose 3 colors, their shades, values, and tints, use a 'winged thing' as subject matter, and fracture or break up the design. 'Fairy Blues" is the result of this challenge.
Today I'm working on a commercial pattern that I bought several years ago. I've not used one of these for a long time. I'm so used to creating my own that following someone else's design is different. Good thing I have such a big stash of fabric so I don't have to worry about not having a particular color to use.
