Blog Give-Away Winner!!

Here we are at the end of February already....and the date i chose for my first blog give-away.

I had 13 comments and asked my hubby for a number between 1 and 13....he chose 7.

So, #7 was Sharon and her comment was...

Anonymous said...



I am wondering when you will get back to the remodeling job. The book looks great.


Sharon


So, Sharon....send me an email with your name and address and i'll get this fabulous book right out to you. email is  brunerwoman@yahoo.com
 
For the rest of you....better luck next time. who knows when the next give-away might happen.
 
Thanks for reading my blog and thanks for the great comments.
 
p.s. ...  i'll have photos in a day or 2 of my day of demolition at the Duck.  it was fun
 

Want a new pet? perhaps a kitty cat??

My husband has a sport camera set up in our woods to track deer so he knows where to hunt. we have pics of some gorgeous bucks in our woods.

Well, this morning about 2:30 we got a different picture.

A bobcat!!

I have never heard of any this close. this is less than a quarter mile from our house. just up the hill. yikes!!

I am assuming they hide out in the daytime. at least that is what i am telling myself. and you won't be finding me in our woods any time soon picking persimmons and black walnuts, either.

I have heard some screaming late at night and the dog gets all excited and wants to go out and chase something. i am thinking now that this was the reason.

Lock the doors. LOL

The box is empty!

Yea!!  the box is empty....

That is the box that held 195  6 inch string blocks. it was the #10 challenge box for Judy L's 2011 challenge. it took me 2 weeks to get it all put together.

There were days i didn't think i was going to make it. but once i got down to only 5 more rows to go...then i was on a mission and worked on it late into the night.

It is 14 blocks x 14 blocks ( i had to make one more to have 196). it was a bear to wrestle around and get those 'sashings' on to tie it all together. and this one doesn't have a selvage in it....all string blocks.

I thought i had worn out my little Janome...the feed dogs just wouldn't pull anymore. it was going through 8 layers of fabric at times and batting.

But i figured out this morning that the machine is fine....it just needed major cleaning from all that crud.

Here is the back

And you know it took me most of the quilt (9 rows) to figure out how to do the sashings easier. I was adding the sashings to the big part of the quilt after i added each row. finally figured out it was much simpler to add the sashing to the row itself before adding that row to the large part of the quilt. much easier to handle.

And i figured out the reason i had 195 blocks was that i ran out of that backing fabric. i needed to make 1 more block to get the last row to work out. i was in the studio late last night...in my pj's....searching for another 6" piece of that fabric. i found a few scraps that i seamed together...about 5" worth. so the last block has other fabric in it to make it 6".

So that monster is finished and i figured it cleared 11 yards of fabric from my stash to do it all. and i still have enough strings in a HUGE tub to do another couple dozen string quilts.

So, come on Judy....i'm ready for March....Bring it ON!!!!

hahahahahahahahaha

I need one-stop shopping!

I need a Quilt Walmart....a place you can go and find whatever you need that is quilt related. one stop shopping. no running all over town. no spending hours on the internet. why hasn't someone done this yet?

I need 2 things......Steam-a-Seam 2 and some Clover fusible red bias tape. doesn't sound like anything earth shattering or exotic, does it?

I have been wanting to try the SS2 for a while. currently i use the crap with wax paper on the back of it that falls off when you try to cut it or iron it and then gets all over your iron. i am so done with that stuff. So the last time i was at Joann's i looked for SS2...i only found it in a package....5  9x12 sheets for about $9. Dang....it can't be THAT good...can it?  why is that so expensive.

So i go online and google it....lots of places come up. if you want to buy a bolt of it you better go to the bank first and take out a loan....$200....seriously....$200 for i think 25 yards. whew!!  and be careful looking because there is SS2 in rolls of thin stuff...like tape....1/2"...i was almost fooled.

Finally found someone who sells it for $3 for the package of 5 pieces....ok, so i'll get 3 packages and give it a try. i better LOVE it. LOL   i found this person on Amazon of all places....i guess they have shops now like eBay. but the shipping on these 3 packages was more than the price of the SS2. that is just crazy.

Then i tried to find the red bias tape. there was NOWHERE where i could buy both my items from the same place. that is just ridiculous. but i did find another vendor...on Amazon again...and got some tape. there are larger packages....11 yards....and it is like $20. this stuff is high, too. but i found a 5.5 yard package for $8....still high. but, i got it....i need about a yard or a bit more. and the shipping on that was like $6. for pete's sake....you could stick it in an envelope and put 2 stamps on it to mail it.

This stuff better come delivered by armor truck with 2 guards. and i want it wrapped it gold foiled paper, too.

Sometimes i hate online shopping. i need a Quilting Walmart....if you know of one...let me know, ok? i spent way too much money. i might need to get a cheaper hobby.   think i'll take up carving pine cones or something.

I'm gonna go sit in my chair and read and chill out.

It's time for a giveaway!

I decided it's time for a giveaway. that's more fun that listening to me blabber on now isn't it?

I have this terrific book for you. over 45 projects to be made with fat quarters.

It has a wonderful spiral spine so the book lays flat while you are trying to cut out your pieces....no more weighing down the corners of the pages. there are lots of pretties in here....

Quilts...lots of them

Bags...

Table Toppers....oops...fuzzy picture....sorry....yours will look better. LOL

Lots of things to make in a day or a weekend....pillows, a dog coat, baby bibs, tree skirt, stemware coasters (cool), eyeglasses case, tote and more. the book is from House of White Birches from 2010.

Just leave me a comment and i'll put your name in the drawing. you can tell me why you would like the book or what you would like to make or anything. i like comments.  i will draw one name at the end of the month...Feb. 28...then announce the winner here on my blog. then you just have to contact me with your address and your book is on it's way to you.

Couldn't be easier.  go on...leave a comment now.  don't want you to forget.

How i spend my mornings

I like mornings. i especially like mornings if i get up earlier than hubby and have a nice quiet house all to myself for a bit.

First i gotta climb onto that dreaded treadmill and do my mile to get the blood flowing and the sweat to dripping. yeah, just a mile.....but i come back a couple more times during the day and do more. i just don't want to do 3 miles all at once...that usually takes an hour and seems like too much time wasted.

Once i can crawl off the treadmill then me and my water bottle head for the computer. i HAVE to check with my blog friends to see if there is any excitement i might be missing. LOL  just a bit of vicarious living.

My very favorite blog is Judy Laquidara...she is a hoot. she blogs about quilts....she has written 2 quilt books...go check her out on Amazon. she gives super great recipes and talks about her family. Sometimes i check on her twice a day.    www.patchworktimes.com

Then i go check on Dawn Meehan. bless her heart...she has 6 children and a life full of ups and downs. she is an author, too. go check it out and get her books...there are 2 of them so far. she is very funny www.mom2my6pack.blogspot.com 

Then there is Spuds..his name is Vic but everyone calls him Spuds. He is hilarious....he has 6 kids also.   sometimes he has some thought provoking moments on his blog and sometimes you just laugh till you cry. his young twins would give a lesser person heart attacks.  www.blirred-reality.blogspot.com

Since i am into demolition these days i have to check in with  www.diydiva.net    she is building a house and doing the work herself. along with a fulltime day job. there are lots of pictures and you learn a lot there. i am impressed.

And since i love thrift stores and yard sales i HAVE to check in with Sharon Henegar. she lives in California and shops garage sales on Saturdays and blogs about what she finds on Sunday. She always meets the cutest dogs and shows their pics and talks to some interesting people, too. mostly she blogs on Sundays but sometimes there is news during the week, also. but she is my regular Sunday stop....and she is an author, too...i have read her first book...it's a mystery...cool book. check her out.  www.queenoffiftycents.blogspot.com

I'm a quilter so i have to check out various quilting blogs....here are some good ones.

www.blog.maryquilts.com  a Heart Strings quilter...she is one busy lady
www.selvageblog.blogspot.com    you know i have to check out the selvages
www.pintangle.com   Sharon Boggon...cool embroidery blog
www.ohfransson.com   Elizabeth Hartman   great BOM going on right now
www.erinrussek.typepad.com   BOM  My Tweets

I am a member of MQR...a longarm quilters group...and i check on some of their bloggers daily, too. like...
www.suzanneearley.net    the owner of MQR
www.blog.deborahlevyart.net   terrific quilt teacher
www.vickiwelsh.typepad.com   fabulous hand dyed fabrics, great quilts, lots of patterns
www.gaylemckay.wordpress.com   Gayle is so much fun...she is hilarious. she talks about her quilts, her man and sometimes their cows.

Of course, there are many more blogs that i read....but not all of them on a daily basis. the folks that i have listed almost always have something to say every day. if i spent less time on this computer i would sure get a lot more done. 

Tell me...what is your favorite blog that you HAVE to check out every day.

Violet monochromatic challenge finished

I have my February Violet monochromatic challenge quilt finished. not quite as quick as last month. and it isn't the prettiest quilt i have ever done. but there is lots of violet/purple fabric gone off the shelves and lots of purple selvages gone....and that is the idea.

Here is an overall.

And a closeup of a dark and light block.

It's kind of hard to tell the selvages since i used the same selvage where i could for the whole block. but all the corners are selvages.  i used a panto on this one....it's called Blooming Feathers by Anne Bright. although some of it looks like a drunk quilted it....it is no reflection on Anne....i just haven't followed a panto in some time and i went off the lines...a LOT. LOL  pantos take practice too and if you don't do them regularly your brain doesn't want to cooperate.

Here's a shot of the back.

And a closeup

On the back i used some Aunt Sophie yardage. just when i think i have used up all of my inheritance....i find more. this was a 6.5 yard piece...plenty large enough to piece together and use. and i have a bit over half a yard left....after cutting off the selvages of course.

I tell myself that i have enough selvages and should just toss them....but i just can't. the other day i managed to throw some in the trash.....and went back a bit later and retrieved them. is that sad or what? but i just know they can be something lovely and i HAVE TO use them.

Now i have to concentrate on #10...the rest of this month's challenge from JudyL. i have 3 of 14 rows put together. i know i will be gone 3 or 4 days this month so i have to do 2 rows a day if i hope to finish by the end of the month. i did a row this morning....so think i'll go back up to the house and get the next row done.

I've been walking to the studio in the hopes that that bit of walking will help joggle some fat off. i have been doing a couple miles on the threadmill daily too. Ugh!!  it sucks.....but my sis and i have made a pact to each lose 20 pounds before we go to Texas the first of May. (that's the first of May....THIS YEAR). LOL

Hubby has been trying to feed me better....less fried food....and tonight is bbq pork steaks. i swear i can smell them all the way over here. i love bbq.

OK...off to manage the second shift for today at the house.
Talk to you soon.

Helen gave me an award!

My online friend, Helen, gave me a Liebster Blog Award today. wow....i've never gotten a blog award before. and i don't even have a speech prepared. LOL  i hadn't heard of it before and didn't know what it was all about. so i checked it out. it looks kind of like a pay it forward kind of thing. Helen gave me an award....someone else gave Helen an award....someone else gave HER an award....etc.  very cool.

The award is for bloggers who have less than 300 followers....yep, that's me.....i THINK (i hope) there are more than 20 people who read my blog....but, alas, i only have 20 followers. apparantly i am not a good Pied Piper. tell me people......what do i have to do.....i feel dejected. maybe i need to give away stuff. maybe i need to blog more. but i don't think my everyday life is blog worthy...i'm basically a pretty boring person. LOL  i get up...go to the studio....come back home....check the computer....read some....go to bed....get up...start all over again. see.....perhaps i need a life.

Anyway...now i need to bestow this award on more bloggers that i read that have fewer followers, too. so there are more people in this train with me....but i am trailing back in the caboose. does that make me a loser?  come on.....become a follower so i can build up my self esteem.

I hereby bestow the Liebster Blog Award to:

1.  Kay in Scotland.... www.borderlinequilter.blogspot.com    
    i think Kay is awesome. she makes lovely quilts and shows the most beautiful pictures of Scotland that it just makes you want to go and visit her.

2.  Riel Nason in Quispamsis, New Brunswick, Canada   www.quispamsisquilter.blogspot.com
   she has beautiful quilts and she is a girl after my own heart and does selvage quilting. check out her selvage snowman quilt and her selvage sampler quilt.

3.  Lynne in New England   www.patcherymenagerie.blogspot.com
   she has lots of quilt pictures and they are all great. and she works on word quilts...i really like those.

I read many blogs on a daily basis....so keep on writing people.

I just had a brain fart.....i don't sign up to be a follower on people's blogs myself......i better go do that....duh!

I'll do better...promise.

Weekend excitement

Well, i made it to the city on Friday....stopped by and picked up my camera that was in for repair....glad to have it back. i took pictures with it at the Duck but when i got home to download them...it said there were no pics there. i don't know what i did wrong. i am not tech savvy. i forgot to bring my memory card and it only let me take about 8 or 10 pics but i really don't know what happened to them. i could see them when i took them. it is a mystery to me. so, i have no pics for you today. my bad! i am guessing cameras have black holes like computers do.

We did a bit of thrift store shopping. i came away with an unusual side table. i have never seen one like it before. i like the unusual. the flat thin legs were set into the table corners at a 45 degree angle. two legs were a little bit wobbly but i shall figure out how to fix that. it is just stained a light brown....that will be changed, also...to something bright and bubbly.

And in another thrift store i found a tiny table...large enough to hold a small lamp for $2.  it is just about 12" square .... has a little drawer and open space underneath. it is stained a dark brown. but it is made of real wood and was heavy...so i gave it a home.

My sis found a great stuffed armchair in pink for $19. it is a heavy thing. we struggled to get it into the Beast. Plan A was to take it upstairs...but it now lives downstairs. there are 2 turns in her stairs and we didn't think we could get the chair and us up there in one piece. perhaps another day.

We spent part of Saturday at the Duck. took 2 panels of paneling off an enclosed front porch...as suspected it was formerly an open porch. here it is before i tore into it..and we actually got 2 sheets of paneling off without breaking the light in the ceiling...note for next week...take down that light...or busting out any windows. LOL

we found the asbestos shingles under the paneling. since the rest of the outside of the house has siding...this was closed in prior to that. not sure what i will do with that wall....but we found yet another window that was closed up under there, too. the window will be restored. Whoever did that porch remodel used some sort of clear, heavy plasticy caulk-like stuff around the windows. you can see the edge of the window in the very right hand side of the pic above.  in trying to take off the trim...to get the paneling down.....the wood trim on the windows broke before the plasticy stuff let go. that was some GOOD stuff let me tell you. the wood trim was rounded at the corners for about an inch and wrapped around the window....never seen anything like it. kind of cool....but i couldn't get it off without breaking it.

My sis tore part of a wall out in another room....the plaster part....it was falling down anyway and it all has to come down so i can get wiring in there and insulation.

it is a dirty, dusty job. i have dust masks on the list to bring back for next week. and some trash cans and a flat shovel to pick up all the pieces. and contractor thick trash bags to haul it all out. the trash men are NOT going to like me.

I measured the bathroom and the office next to it. came home and drew out plans to make the bathroom larger so i can do what i want. here is what i have now...

Yuck.....right now it is 5'8" x 7'10"...i think it will be 7'8" x 11' when i am done. i have to made sure the wall between the bath and office is not load bearing....i want to move it over 2 feet.  we don't think it is. and i am using some space from a little hall-like area that has absolutely no use now. it will be put to better use in the new bathroom. i have big plans for a cool shower....and a larger window...and a pretty sink....and....sigh!!!

My plan for next week's venture at the Duck includes picking up the demolition we left laying all around and bagging it for the trash. And taking nails out of the trim i took down. if it is not broken i plan on keeping it to see if perhaps it can be used later. i want to demo one room completely so i can stack my 'maybe reuseable' items in there.

On Sunday we stayed at the Beast and gave it some love. We have to fix up the upstairs bathroom so it can be used...then finish tearing out the downstairs bathroom so it can turn into the room for the furnace and water heater. then she can have some heat and water....which will help tremendously. carrying in jugs of water is not really all that much fun.

So we took out the lovely mauve colored toilet and the lovely matching mauve colored sink. luckily they came out rather easily. we attempted some tile removal. i say attempted because it wasn't all that easy. those tile were under some carpet for lots of years and the glue from back then still sticks really well. oh...and the wallpaper on the ceiling....LOL....it was pretty old...had the strings in it. at least it peeled off in strips quite easily....it had been painted over at least twice.  and i scraped some ...i think...contact paper off the door and part of a cabinet. picture this.....these mauve colored pieces were in a bathroom with lime green walls....paper was lime green with large flowers. not conducive to spending a lot of time in there.

Here's an old pic..before we got in there and tore it up...pretend the lid is down...LOL

So, we got a little bit done....every little bit counts. i am anxiously awaiting warmer weather so i can spend about 3 days at the Duck and really get into it. LOL

But right now....reality calls.....today's duties include finishing the quilt on the frame and get it delivered and quilt up my violet monochromatic challenge quilt.

Talk to you soon.

Off to the city finally

I think i am finally off to my sister's in the morning. i have a bunch of stuff to take to her and we'll mess around for a couple days celebrating her birthday. probably some thrifting in there and some eating.

Hopefully we will get out to the duck .... i want to get my front door measured and ordered. and maybe tear out some more paneling.

My camera has been repaired and i can pick that up, too. yea!!! perhaps i'll have some destruction pics to show you when i get back on monday.

In the meantime, keep safe, keep warm and keep having fun.

2 more days of piecing

Here are the results of 2 days of piecing at the house. i HAD to come over to the studio today...cold or not....my 'to be quilted' pile is getting out of control with all this piecing. LOL

When i was at quilt class on Monday Mary showed us this cute block. quick and easy.

I made 8 in this colorway and 8 more like this.

Throw in some sashings and a few borders and i got this.

Of course, Mary's looked better because she used all tone on tone fabrics that were all the same values mainly and hers just flowed together well. in mine, as usual, i used up what was in my stash. it came out about 76" square. will be a donation quilt once it makes its way through the 'to be quilted' pile.

It would work really well with a jelly roll since those are 2.5" pieces...except for the center which is 4.5". i was chain piecing like mad and it was really fast. i used 9 fabrics.

Sometimes it's best not to count

I have spent all day today....8 hours.....off and on....here and there....making 67 5" crumb blocks...just chain stitiching up a storm.

Tomorrow i will iron and trim them. 

I already have 157 of them done....so after tomorrow's ironing and trimming session i will have 224 of them ready to go.

If i want to make a queen size quilt and set them 20x25....i will need 500 of them. so i am not even half way there.




Sometimes it's best not to count

It started out as Violet...

JudyL's pick for the monochromatic challenge for February was Violet. uummmmm....i don't have a lot of violet. sorry, Judy, it STARTED out as violet but didn't get very far so we just moved on to shades of purple....and lots of purple selvages.

At least the top is done and i have 2 weeks to get it quilted.  i think i can...i think i can

Here is a close up of a light block....yep, those are all selvages on the corners.

And here is a darker block.

I wanted to use only the selvages without the white part on them. except in this block they were really narrow...so that was ok. but in the last 10 dark blocks i had to get creative and fold the white under. that was a bit time consuming.

And i have no excuse for the wild sashing....i just like it. and it DOES have purple in it...honest....look again...........look harder.  it DOES.

Might need to slow the clock down some for this month....i have a lot on my plate and the weather is not helping.

Back soon....i hope.

The end of the train is now in the station.

The last blocks of the Snowman Train are now finished. i was to go to my sisters last Thursday to help her celebrate her birthday on Friday but snow and ice prevented that....so she doesn't have her train yet. perhaps next weekend i will make it.

There were several cars with ornaments....i guess those trees need lots of ornaments. there are these...

And these...i love this little guy peeking out the top of the car.

And we had some buttons. these snowman didn't use buttons but i guess you could for eyes ... or if they were wearing jackets. this little guy is having lots of fun playing with buttons.

And someone straightened me out on the coal car...that follows the engine. i think i knew that...somewhere in my brain...but didn't remember. thank you for enlightening me. i like his dirty face. LOL



And finally we have the caboose.

I love the wheels...very clever. and that they had so many different cars. each design took 1.5 to 2 hours to stitch out so this was quite the large project. but can't wait to see how my sis puts them all together in a quilt...she is so clever at that.

I have more things to stitch out for her....cats and polar bears....but i think i will do some Japanese blocks for me next...very cool with some background stitching. coming up soon.

I escaped!!

By the way...we did manage to get to town yesterday after all. the hardest part was sliding my truck out of the barn and negotiating the turn and slope of the top of the driveway...sliding out the gate and onto the road...and then the 3 miles down our blacktop road to a better road. whew!!....made it. i was so proud of myself. LOL  and i only slid twice. good thing there was no traffic coming...i was traveling slowly down the middle of the road. coming back IN the driveway and up to the barn was another story...that entailed spinning wheels...backing up and getting another run at it...and finally, finally making it to the barn. i gave my truck a pat and told her she could stay dry in the barn till spring...poor thing.

And today i made it to the studio....walked...simpler...so i could show you pictures of what i did while i was housebound for a week. please pray that the snow that is to come tonight will miss me. if you love snow...you can have my share...ok? but when we went to town i stocked up on chocolate so i can last another week or so.

On Monday afternoon i started with the Playful Puppies. i had emboridered these blocks back in 2008. i cut out all the parts and tried to sell them as a kit on eBay but no one was interested. so they went into a box and now they are a top. it wound up being 54x68".

Here is a closer pic of one of the blocks.

And here is the block that will be incorporated into the back. i finished this top on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday afternoon i searched around that same 'eBay' box and found these tumbler blocks that had some Laurel Burch fabrics in it. same story...cut out...didn't sell...back in the box.

Wednesday morning i finished putting them together. it is 46x74...weird size. of course, i don't even like them now but i will add different size borders to even out the proportions some and it will become a donation.

Wednesday afternoon (you see how this is working...right?) i was nosing around the internet. that was my break time from piecing. and i saw on a blog that i read that someone (i forget now who..sorry) made a small zentangle wallhanging. it was adorable. so i had to try it. she just drew lines on a background fabric and cut out black and white fabrics and filled the holes. ok...it's a bit more complicated than that...but you get the idea. wish i could show you hers but i can't find her from my computer here at the studio. but here is mine. i used a yard of background that i found at the house and fused my pieces onto it.

I am going to put black 'caning' fabric around the seams...like they do in a stained glass picture. but put red around the heart. will hang it in my studio, i think.

Thursday night i took a break from piecing and worked a jigsaw puzzle...only 500 pieces so it went quick. i finished it up Friday morning. after all...i needed the table for more piecing.

Friday i dug into the same box....there are still 3 or 4 projects in there...and took out the Take 5 pattern cut out of African fabrics. i suppose in 2008 i thought it looked good. hahahahaha now i think it is hideous. but it was cut out and i pieced it together anyway. it was my biggest project of the week...82x92".

Here is a closer look see... it will be a donation quilt some day when it is quilted.

In that some box....there were 6" hexagons and 3" triangles that i cut out with my AccuQuilt cutter. i played with them for a bit. but got bored...back in the box. then played with them some more...different pattern....nah...back in the box. there was too much 'thinking' with those. they'll probably still be in that box in 2013. LOL

Saturday morning i started on JudyL's violet monochromatic challenge for February. you know there are selvages involved, right? i didn't think i had too much violet/purple selvages but i had enough to do the job. i cut out 9" blocks from a light and dark purple and did my thing with the selvages. i didn't want to use the white part of the selvages. the last 10 blocks i had run out of any selvages without the white so had to double stitch them to fold the white part over. glad there were only 10 of those.

Here is a sneak peek at a light colored one...there are darker ones, too.

I made 48 individual blocks and then put them together in a set of 4. now i will add sashing and a border and see what i come up with. and i didn't even use all the purple selvages...dang it!

I also finished the last blocks on the Snowman Train before the blizzard of sleet and snow started. Check back later to see those.

I just want to cry!!

I was so looking forward to going to town today....have a list....bank, grocery store, post office, pharmacy, dollar store, lunch, etc. BUT....

It is freakin snowing AGAIN.  damn it....they had the roads all cleared off nicely finally. we have been stuck in this house for days....this is day 6.  i NEED chocolate. i found a half bag of mini chocolate chips in the freezer last night.....they are gone now. LOL

Big fat flakes are still coming down...we got a couple inches last night. i have quilt class on monday....probably won't get there.  hubby has an appointment to take his truck in on monday to get a new water pump....probably won't get there.  i have a doctor appointment (rescheduled from last week) on tuesday....probably won't get there.

Where is spring? usually i don't mind snow.....i need to get out and at least go across the road to the studio. but the propane tank is low over there and i don't want to use it all up to heat the building.

Arrrggghhh!!!

I just want to cry!

I made cookies----there's snow outside---cookies helped

Well, i haven't been outside the house since Monday afternoon 2pm. that's the time it started raining....and then sleeting.....and sleeting.....and sleeting mostly through Tuesday. it was tiny, almost just misty....but sleet just the same. we have about an inch of sleet or perhaps a bit more. the only tracks at our house involve going out the back door, across the covered porch and around the corner for about 6 feet to the wood stove.

I tried sweeping sleet but it doesn't sweep. i tried scraping with the snow shovel but that doesn't work either. we had about half a little bag of salt that i tried to put out. somehow it had frozen into a huge hunk of salt that i couldn't break up. how can it do that if it is supposed to melt the ice. i put the hunk of salt on the ice...nothing. it just sits there looking stupid. and i feel even stupider for trying it. dh says stupider isn't a word.....i say it is.

Last night it started snowing a bit....tiny flakes all blowing around. i went to sleep about 1am and it was still going. but this morning...thankfully, there isn't much snow. you can still see weeds out in the pasture up the hill...that's my measure for how deep it is. LOL  and the front deck only has a couple inches.

All day yesterday i was at my sewing machine. i cut out some very graphic black and white fabrics and made a zentangle quilt top. very cute. then i dug into the box of projects that i brought over. there were large tumbler blocks of Laurel Burch fabrics and all the colors to match. i put that top together, too.

Then last night i started piecing something else. i drew it in EQ sometime in 2008, cut out hundreds of pieces and then put it in the box. there are 6" hexagons and 3" triangles that were cut with my AccuCut machine. no instructions. i had a picture....looked easy enough. figured out i have to stitch 4 triangles to each hexagon and then cut them off to square the edges. picture had 99 or so blocks. i only had enough triangles for 54 blocks. bad word...bad word..  apparantly my brain didn't figure out how many triangles to cut. and that fabric is long gone by now. so plan B goes into effect for a much smaller quilt. then...i still have all the rest of those hexs to do something with. it's never easy....is it?

In between all that.....i made cookies. i had to...the snow demanded it. when you can't get out of the house ....for amusement i make cookies. you've seen those recipes where you put the stuff in a jar, label it for someone to add butter, an egg and vanilla...and then make wonderful cookies. i sold lots of those jars at craft shows. i still had about 4 jars left from last year. when i had made them before they seemed a bit dry and hard to mix with just one stick of melted butter and 1 egg. so i increased it to 2 eggs and added about a 1/4 cup oil. much easier to mix and they tasted much better, too. made about 3.5 dozen. half of those are gone this morning....we are a cookie house. LOL

Thankfully we didn't get the huge amounts of snow that other places in missouri and illinois got. but hubby is bummed....he wanted to make more snow ice cream. he got a few gallons out of the last snow. i think he was going to stock up for summer....there goes my tupperware containers. LOL    but there is no recipe for sleet ice cream and that is mainly what we have....sleet.  i just get my ice cream from the grocery store.....nobody peed on it....at least i like to think that they didn't.

Although i have a camera at the house it is not doing me any good since my software to get the pics out of the camera and into the computer is at the studio and i can't get there. i can see the studio from the house.....it's just across the road....well, down a looong driveway....500 feet....and across the road. but i can't get there. our house sits on a hill....the driveway is downhill...a hill full of sleet....(maybe if i had a sled)....nah, that won't help. the driveway has a curve and my luck i wouldn't make the curve and would wind up in the trees in the ditch. i don't think these old bones would handle that so well. i am always leary of falling and breaking a hip or something. i've lived 60 something years so far without a broken bone and want to keep it that way. so, no pictures till i can get out.....hopefully tomorrow. i'll definitely be ready by then. i tried a nap twice yesterday and it didn't work either time. the first time i just couldn't fall asleep...the second time the phone rang just as i got comfy. no rest for the wicked.

So, all you get today are words....just picture it all in your head...you can do it. and picture a cookie or two, also....i'll share. now i'm gonna go back to the sewing machine and see what else i can get into. i saw a take 5 pattern all cut out in that box yesterday...think i'll work on that. oh....that hexagon top you ask...??    well, it can go back into the box for a while till it germinates some more. i don't want to think too much today.

Stay warm. i'm certainly happy that i don't have school age children at home that are having a snow day from school. if you do.....i feel for you....better you than me. sorry...LOL