Making something out of sawdust

 I have been happily working away at my Swoon blocks.  They are satisfying and frustrating all at the same time.  Here is the thing though when you make the flying geese blocks, you cut away these lovely triangles.  There are a lot of flying geese in this quilt so I have a lot of triangles.  Husband calls this kind of stuff sawdust and thinks it should just be tossed and I should not expend any energy on these little bits but I can't leave them be!  So I have been sewing them together and making squares.  Look at this lovely stack of them!

Oh so pretty!

Half square triangles are just so darn versatile that the sky is the limit.  Try "google image" searching half square triangle quilts!  It is really most inspiring.

Another snow day today and no school AGAIN!  Now we are dealing with freezing rain on top of all the snow.  Husband went out this morning and tromped around knocking snow out of the blueberries, the nut trees and the fruit trees before the heavy freezing rain could coat everything.  The trees were all sighing with relief as he whacked the snow out of everything.  This kind of weather can be so devastating for the trees and bushes.

Have a lovely rest of your day! I am going to go sew some more sawdust together!

Farmer's Wife Quilt Along...week 33

 The pile of these little blocks is growing!  I have no idea how many of them there are but I really should count them.  The obvious guess would be 66 since I do 2 a week and it is week 33 but some weeks I have done more than the scheduled 2 blocks.  Anyway, I have more than 66 blocks and I need about 110!

Block #75 Rosebud

Block #81 Snowball

So here we have this week's blocks.  I used scraps from one of my Swoon blocks for rosebud.  I thought there would have been more contrast but the floral print had a bit more green in it than I anticipated.  The snowball block was a no-brainer for this week considering we are overcome with snow.

I spent the day sewing.  Yep, another snow day for me!  Oh, man, I feel pretty spoiled.  I did, however, make 2 trips to school today to check on things.  Sadly, my school has some frozen and burst pipes that our trusty maintenance people are busy fixing as we speak.  Maybe I will have to make a giant quilt to wrap my whole school up in.  He he he!  It has just been too darn cold for us west coasties.

Have a super day.  Apparently, we have more nasty weather coming overnight.  Good grief!

Brrrrrrrrrr... It's at least a 2 quilt day!

Okay, seriously people.  It is sooooo cold outside.  We do not often have weather like this on the west coast.  Currently sitting at about -10 degrees Celsius.  That is about 14 degrees F.  Yoiks!  And then with the incredible strong wind gusts from something called Arctic Outflow winds, it apparently feels like -24 degrees Celsius.  The wind is so strong and cold that it takes your breath away.  And the snow is blowing and drifting everywhere.  Good grief!  Totally a day for sitting under at least 2 quilts , but I was at work.  I should have taken a quilt because the school was so cold it might have helped.

Enough whining.  I have not sewn a thing today.  But I did take a picture of 3 of my Swoon blocks yesterday to see if they were playing nicely.  Please do not look too closely at the purple block.  I am not happy with the points and I must fix it still.  Just keeping it real, folks.  I think it is going to work out.  I was just a tiny bit afraid that the purple would be too much but when I threw the blocks on the lovely (not) carpet in the downstairs living room, I was quite happy.  I am still getting used to the massive size of these blocks.  24.5"  of swoon-a-vision!!!!

Hope you are not freezing your behinds off like we are.

Knock me over with a feather or something!

Today was a FABULOUS day!  It started out with the magical, amazing phrase "snow day!" sung happily by Husband as he woke me up this morning. Because of the amazing dump of snow and general nasty weather, along with the fact that our town is situated on a hillside, all the schools were shut down.  Yippee!  It only got better from there.  Not only was I to have a full extra day of quilty fun but when I blog hopped over to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story I found my Wonky Scrappy Little Star Quilt  pictured among their favourites from last week.  Oh happy dance!  I think it makes me extra happy because I just love that quilt so much and I am just tickled that other people like it too!

I swooned today.  I have 3 blocks completed and another one ready to sew together.  I have spent some time with the old stitch ripper as I construct these, let me tell ya.  I thought block number 2 was going together so smoothly but I have now figured out that I should never cut up fabric when dealing with a migraine.  Ya, that was me on Sunday when I chopped up all the purple block stuff.  I should say, chopped it up badly because I had no end of issues sewing that sucker together.  I won't even show it today.  I will show you my red block.  It went together much better but I still put one corner in completely bonkers and had to rip it out.  Blah!

Hope your day was super awesome like mine!

Design Wall Monday on a Snow Day

Well!  It is snowing.  Really snowing.  So much so that the schools were shut down at about 10 am this morning and we were able to send everyone home safely and here I am.

Here is my first Swoon block!  I am using scraps, fabric samples and some stash so my blocks will be a little bit scrappy and not quite following the suggested layout.  I think it is going to work splendidly.

We are hunkering down now with a major snow warning so I may just get a little extra sewing time in this week.  He he he!

I am going to link up with Judy's design wall Monday!


Have a super lovely day!  Think of us shoveling.  This is fairly unusual for us on the southwest coast of Canada.  We don't typically get vast amounts of snow in the winter.

Caught the Swoon Bug

I caught the bug.  The Swoon bug.  I have been drooling over this pattern since it was released and this past week I went shopping at The Fat Quarter Shop and just seconds later there was the pattern in my in box.  It was  almost too easy! Katy over at I'm Ginger Monkey is hosting a casual Swoon-along.  I joined.  I couldn't not.  Who could resist these giant 24.5" blocks?

My plan is to turn this fabric mess into Swoon blocks.

These are mostly samples from the "buy/by the pound sale" last summer.  Some how with some solid white and some stash and scraps, it will become a quilt.  Stay posted.  I will have the first block up for a viewing tomorrow.  I have to say that blocks of this size are fabulous!

Daughter and her special someone are back with great sun tans and piles of stories.  Even though our baby is a grown up, it still feels so much better to have her back on Canadian soil in one piece.  Even better is seeing them snoozing under the wonky scrappy star quilt on the couch as we speak.   Have a super lovely day.  My fingers are crossed for a snow day tomorrow!

Flea Market Finds in the snow....

 This is what we woke up to this morning!  About a foot of snow!  Yep, winter arrived!  We have snow forecast for several more days so who knows how much will land before we are done with this weather system.  The snow and eye check ups put a serious crimp in the thrift store fun but eyes are just fine!

A few finds from a bit ago.  I have several pieces of this style of small but colourful Japanese ceramic thingies.  The salt and peppers are very small and are marked on the bottom with Marutomoware.  The birds are just pretty retro birdies and the glass is a treasure with all its lovely kitchen kitsch.

 Being a sucker for linens, these vintage "tea serviettes" were obviously brought back as a souvenir from Scotland.  I am going to leave them in the box because they look so happy there.

Thrifty finds are often just practical.  I picked up the big green enamelware roaster and baking pan for Daughter a few weeks ago at the thrift store.  Brand new!  I was most happy to bring them home for her.  I popped them on the downstairs wood cook stove for their photo. I had to shove over a bunch of vintage stuff that live on the stove.

So that's it!  Have a super lovely weekend.  I am back down to the sewing machine and will link up with Sophie's Flea Market Finds and Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday!