Pens in Snow

Someone dropped all these colorful pens in the street.  I don't know if the pens simply dropped out of a backpack, he or she simply fell, or if this is evidence of a bullying incident. 

Rescue Rooter

A truck owned by a plumbing company, Rescue Rooter.  Don't worry, it isn't at my house.  Sometimes when I look at old newspapers looking for genealogical information, I get sidetracked by the advertising.  I figure years from now, I will want to know what kinds of advertising I saw, and what trucks looked like.

And what cars looked like.  Here are two red cars parked across the street from each other.  Most of the cars that are being sold are muted, calm colors, like champagne, silver, black, white, and pewter. Even the blue and the green are very calm colors.  The bright blue car I showed the other day is an exception. But lately, there has been a surge of red cars.  It seems that it is a catching trend - that people who buy red cars tend to live really close to other people who have red cars.  It's like people need a leader to say, yes, it is okay to buy a red car.  Yes, my own car is red, but it is not in the picture.

Happy Superbowl Sunday

Hope you are having a wonderful day, whether you are watching the game, or enjoying some leisure time.  I have finished piecing the improv quilt.  I have also added tucks / darts so that it  now lays flat.  I repeated the process several times to make sure that the quilt would be truly flat.  After a few runs, I decided any remainder will have to quilt out.

 Since I was using blocks, it is squarish. I debated whether to trim it straight and have a real rectangle, or to leave it wonky.  I decided that I did want to use a ruler to trim it straight.  Since I didn't want to chop off any of the blocks in the straightening process, I added some more fabric to the edges that would have required the other side to be chopped off.  I kept adding bits and pieces to both sides.  Then I finally decided to bite the bullet and trim the thing already.  This was difficult, since there were several large pieces that had to be chopped off.

I wish I could show you the photos, but I have promised confidentiality.

Yesterday, I pieced several leftover fabrics to make the backing.  I though about making the back improv as well, but decided that I needed straight of grain to help support the bias edges on the front.

Today, I will be piecing the batting (only two pieces), and sandwiching.

Women's Winter Wellness Warmer

I went to the Women's Winter Wellness Warmer hosted by Natural Awakenings of Central Ohio.  They had all sorts of booths from various vendors such as  health food, essential oils, yoga, chiropractor, etc.  They had a lot of demonstrations running as well, such as personal meditation, Pilates, ballroom dancing, and personal bra fittings.

Pictured is Saira Priest who was selling her book Seek Joy Find Beauty, Share Love. The book is filled with beautiful nature photos and calming words and inspirational essays.

Clothes Horse

When I was taking a shower the other day, I noticed that I was sharing the bathroom with a horse, dog, cow, or some combination thereof.   These are just my clothes hanging off the towel rack. 

Snow on Steps

Improv Quilt Continued

This photo was taken on the same day as the previous post, so it is somewhat cheating.  It is also a lie since we had lots of snow last night so the tree doesn't look like that today.  It has been extremely cold outside - below zero, and the streets are slippery.  Between making sure I don't fall and the dog doesn't get frostbite, the goal is to go outside and come back in as quickly as possible, leaving no time to stop and take pictures.  I am reminded of 1977 when we had the Schools Without Schools.  It was below zero for a long time, and there was an energy crisis.  In an effort to conserve energy, schools were closed, and classes were held in other places like bars, Governor's Mansions, and office buildings.

The following year 1978 was the great blizzard.  This year we have cold and snow, so it is somewhat of a combination.  Not as bad as either year, but I think it is pretty bad all of its own. We can be grateful that we have energy now.

I have been working on my Improv Quilt. The blocks are done and I am putting the rows together. Since they aren't straight, it does require some finagling on my part to get the blocks and rows to cooperate. Having never done this before, it is challenging my brain.

I hate that I can't show you what I am doing, because I think it looks great. Also, since it takes me a long time to make a quilt, showing the process along the way is what gives me something to write about.

Now, I can simply keep complaining about the dog who constantly wants to go outside, but has to keep coming back in because his poor paws are cold.  He has cabin fever and inspecting my progress on my quilt isn't giving him enough to do. Either that, or he hates the quilt so much that he wants to get as far away from it as possible!