Moving on!

Now that the guild party is over and done with, I can move on to other quilting projects I've got in the works.  Wednesday, I tackled finishing the embroidered "Snow Happens."  And what a mess it turned into!  I had no trouble with the first, navy blue, border or with the second off-white border. It's the pieced diamonds in the 3rd border that had me tearing my hair out!  I began by making the short end borders, and I'm glad I did since the errors happened very quickly after I'd done the cutting.  I decided that I'll begin again on the short ends and see if I can get it to come out the right length.

The problem is that the ends are too short for the embroidered piece, and I don't know how that happened.  Maybe I need to just sit down and read all the directions through at one time instead of step by step as I did yesterday. I realized that some directions were hidden in a lot of text when I'm used to having them up front with the cutting instructions.  It also occurred to me that I don't have to stick with the directions for making a diamond pieced border.  I can make any kind of border I choose!  And I have sufficient fabric to do just that if I please!

I wrote the above yesterday morning but never finished the post so today, I can update you on my progress with Snow Happens. I had every intention of starting over again on those pieced borders, but when I sat and looked at what I'd already done, I decided to just see if those short borders could be stretched just a bit to fit. And they did!  Ta Dah!  So I proceeded to make the long borders and when they were assembled, they fit as well!  #2 Ta Dah!  This is how I left the project when it was time to come up for dinner. all pinned and ready to be quilted.  Actually, after I took this picture, I did sit down and do all the stitching in the ditch, so I'm ready to go on the FMQ when I hit the sewing room later today.

Yesterday, I searched the internet to find a toy collection site here in town, and came up empty handed. I don't want to take the time to make more doll clothes if I can't find a place to donate them. I think I'll call the neighborhood school to see if they know of any place.

We're going to Eau Claire to meet up with some friends for lunch and I think I'll go ahead and get the 18"doll while I'm near the Target store so I don't have to make a separate trip when I locate the toy collection site.  Then, it's only a matter of a few hours making up a couple of outfits and the present will be ready to go.

And, this week it appears as though we're going to be experiencing a bit of the Polar Vortex.  The last time we had such bitter cold here in my part of WI was about 3 years ago and I was in Hawaii, which was very, very nice.  Now, the weather people are talking about how terribly cold it's going to be for the next week or so--high temps in the teens and 20's. WTH!  That's not so cold!  That sounds just about normal for winter in WI!  I think we've been spoiled with such a moderate and warm autumn that now we're whining about a bit of cold.

I remember the winter I moved to Duluth, MN in January, 1988, and had to park my car on the street with no shelter from the cold and snow.  I had my 2 girls with me--aged 2 and 7--and I would turn on the radio first thing in the morning, hoping that the temp would be at least 15 below zero. Fahrenheit.  Any colder and I wasn't sure the car would start and I'd be calling a cab to get up to daycare and work. That went on for about 10 days, and we made it through and never had to use the cab, thank goodness.  Ah, yes, The Good Old Days! Right.

So, I'm going to bundle up--layering is what we call it these days--and spend a few hours with good friends and later on will begin the quilting on the Snow Happens.  Stay warm, my friends.