Smile! It will help to melt the ice.

Yes, we have had lots of snow. Yep, it then condensed into a black hole of ice dams, driveway glaciers and snowbanks that will not finish melting until....maybe June.

But the snow as it falls has been beautiful! The cold has been sharp and clear! We have more sun time in our day and this too will pass! May as well be happy and enjoy the pleasure hacking at ice with a pick can bring.

DH is putting finishing touches on his workshop. The hockey table is set up and I am learning to play. It's exhausting! All that yelling at the goalie takes everything I've got! I keep forgetting I have to move him myself. You'd think he'd just know!

It's good weather for quilts. Here is my latest. I think it looks better in real life. I made it extra long so the top can tuck under and over the pillows. Just a whim! The top looked a bit blah until the Great P chose a wild variegated thread and a lovely loopy quilting pattern. She is truly one with the long arm quilter now! She did an amazing job and I love it!

The strip on the back was an experiment. Next time I won't centre it and I will have it go all the way to both ends. The strip was actually part of the quilt top, but it then wouldn't fit on the quilting frame. I did get a bit carried away.

 

So now I'm working on another embroidered appliqué quilt. This one is called Mixed Mutts. It's just fun!

So now I am working on pants - also known as "the impossible fit' challenge. Tonight's discovery is that perhaps I need to add fabric at the crotch to make it smaller and less wrinkly. I seem to have a frowny front crotch (note, the pants!). This 3D visualization is very difficult. My head hurts a little.

The pants are a Style Arc pattern (Wallis) I downloaded from Etsy. Easy, cheap and fit together perfectly! I had tried out the Barb free download and could not get them to fit me. They were huuuuge! This time, on a whim I measured that little square they tell you to measure for accuracy's sake. I almost always do - and I tell people to check it. The Wallis pattern had to be scaled down to 86% to get it accurate! Wow! I take back all those bad thoughts I had about Barb's pants. I personally know the Barb those pants were designed for, and felt terrible I couldn't get them to fit. I may just pop back and give them another go - if I can get that fitting frown to disappear, and not transition into the dreaded smiley alteration.

Wish me luck.