It Still Isn't Over!

Environment Canada warns us that our winter is not over yet.  Spring will be delayed.  Like I needed to hear that!  I took a photo of the front of my house yesterday.  I can't believe how much snow we still have and it is already the 5th of March.  

I want to see flowers!  I want my crocuses to bloom in front of my house and the snowdrops to show up in the backyard.  I wonder how long I will have to wait for that.  I need colour!  While surfing some blogs this morning, I came across one that showed some fabric flowers.  Can't remember where I saw them, but I saved the link to the tutorial and made a few of them.  I didn't have the right tools and I wasn't able to make any leaves, but I think they look pretty in a pot of jade.  You can find the tutorial on this blog.  It is on her sidebar.  They are called, Fleur de Marguerite.

Remember I promised you a photo of my hexie demonstration at our guild a couple of weeks ago. Well a kind member sent me this photo.  Those are all of my hexagon projects in the back.

My longarm quilter got the quilt. that I am putting into our quilt show. finished.  Gosh it looks great.
I would post a photo, but I think I will wait until after the show is over.  Now I just have to sew on the binding, make a hanging sleeve and a label.  But in order to do that, I will have to take another trip to the quilt shop to buy some fabric.  Ha!  Poor me.

My Soggy White World

We had a storm last night and it's not over yet.  First it rained about 10mm, which then changed to snow.  About 10cm of snow fell, but it packed down and has created a wet, swampy mess.  The guy on the radio cautioned folks to take it easy when clearing their driveways and walks.  It is being called, "heart attack snow".  Needless to say, I won't be going out there to shovel anything.

I took this photo from my back door.  I had to stick my head outside a bit to get this shot.  Water was dripping off the glass roof and onto my head, so I only took this one shot.  The storm came from the west, but the wind was from the east.  I don't understand it either!  LOL  You can see how the wet snow stuck to the east side of everything - the trees, bushes, my fence etc.  A moment after I closed the door, a gigantic chunk of ice slid off the roof and landed in front of the door, right where I had been standing to take the picture.  If I was a cat, that certainly would have been one of my nine lives. So much for winter.  I have had enough.

And now for what I really want to show you today.  I have completed the baby quilt to the flimsy stage.  It is called, "Jungle Path" and is a free pattern that can be found here.  This was really fun to make and I think there will be a few more in my future.  Lots of babies are being born this year.

SNOW!

I am sure everyone has heard about the snow storm that moved through our area over night.  It dumped about 10cm of the white stuff on us.  I know that is not a lot, but it is the most snow we have received since March 2011,  At least that is what the guy on the weather channel told me.

I love how clean and white everything looks outside.  It's very fluffy because it was -5C overnight.  And today it did not warm up much more than that.  The windchill was -11C.  Needless to say, I didn't go out today.  I took these from inside the house.

I especially love the way the snow sits on the Sedum pods.  There were lots of birds at my feeder, but the snow was so high that I couldn't see them or capture them with my camera.

The snow is not the only thing that is white around here.  A third stalk grew on my Amaryllis bulb.  I was really surprised because I have never had a third stalk on one of these plants,.  And it bloomed on Christmas Day, which was a bonus.

I have spent the day cleaning and organizing after the holiday.  I wanted to do a bit of sewing, but my mojo had gone missing.  So I made some fabric out of scraps.  That is always a great stress releaser for me.  It was a very gentle way to return to my sewing after so many days off.  Now I am going to make some more of the cartoon quilt blocks.

Winter!

It's the first day of March and I think winter has finally arrived.  There was snow on the ground this morning, even though the weatherman said it was going to rain.  And it is still snowing.  I think this is the worst weather we have had all winter.

Needless to say I will be staying indoors today.  I have to work on my 'The Queen and her Court' quilt.  I am way behind on that one.  My next class is on Saturday and I want to be caught up by then.

Snow on Sedum

What a difference a day makes!   Yesterday I took a photo of my little snow drops.

Then last night we had some snow.  Not much, but it is soft and fluffy.  This is how my garden looks today.  My snowdrops are under there somewhere.

It is very beautiful!  We haven't had much snow this year so this winter wonderland looks amazing.  I think we skipped a couple of seasons.  We went from spring directly into winter.  The temperature is above freezing, which means it is packing snow.  I hope to see some snowmen snowpeople (let's keep this politically correct) on front lawns today.  We are supposed to get another couple of centimeters of the white stuff today.  But this isn't going to last a long time.  It will get warmer over the next few days so everything should melt soon.

I love to see snow on trees and branches and especially on my dried sedum heads.  It's the reason why I don't do a lot of cutting back in the fall.   

Spring in Toronto

I thought it was spring, but look what my world looks like after the snow we got yesterday. My DH was in the process of clearing the driveway, but it was coming down faster than he could shovel it.

This is what my yellow crocuses look like - totally covered in snow!

The roads were treacherous. Traffic was at a standstill. There was one accident per minute across Toronto. We fought our way through the mess to take some books back to the library, help my DD buy a new car and order a dishwasher for my new kitchen. Speaking of my in-progress-kitchen, Home Depot still hasn't called us back about the cabinets. My nephew and DH are going back there this afternoon. I hope all goes well. The cabinets are actually very beautiful. It's just that I am worried whether the particle board will be strong enough to support the heavy counter top. I want to get a lovely granite one.

I am tired of kitchen renovations.
And I am tired of winter.

OH, NO! Hope This Wasn't My Fault!

I spent last evening working on this week's UFO project. I worked on it until well after midnight.
It's a wallhanging with the words, "Let it Snow!" on it. And then it snowed - all night! We woke up to about 3 inches of the white stuff.
It's really very pretty. I love the way it is all piled up on branches, trees and fences, But it is a little early. Don't you think? I mean, it isn't even December yet. And winter doesn't arrive for another month! I took a photo out my front door. That's as far as I was able to get. I don't dare take my scooter out until the ramp into my house is cleared of snow. Don't want to get stuck out there, ya know! It's cold! Cold, but beautiful!

More Snow!

Okay! Are you fed up with my snow photos yet? Here is one of our driveway. You can see how the snow piles are higher than our car. See how my DH has piled the snow from the driveway into just a small pile near the sidewalk? That is so that we can see pedestrians when we back out of the driveway. The pile on the other side of our driveway is even higher! That drives our neighbour crazy! He hates snow on his property! But there is nothing that can be done about that this year! This is the year of the big snow! I am sure we will set a record. I even think that we have set one already! We live near the Lake. Lake Ontario, that is. It is less than a kilometer from our place. And because of that we get more snow than the rest of Toronto. So we may have even surpassed that old 1939 record already! Oh, boy! I can hardly believe that I am hoping for more snow! This is crazy. Isn't this enough?

Are You Fed Up With the Snow Yet?

Another photo of our house with snow! This is the front lawn. Nothing has been piled up here, so you can see how deep the snow is. It is hard to believe that there is grass under all that white stuff! And that we will have to cut it in a couple of months - or maybe less!

More Photos

For some reason Blogger would not let me upload any more photos yesterday. When I tried again this morning, I still could not upload more than one at a time. So here they are, one at a time, especially for Winny! This is the front of our house. My DH has been trying to keep the snow piles around out driveway small, so that we can see when we back out onto the road. But it has not been easy. Luckily we life on a nice, quiet street with very little traffic and few children.

Is There an End to All of This?

I know it is already the first week of March. So where the heck is spring? The March Break began last Friday, just as we were getting another blast of winter! I don't ever remember so much snow on the ground at this time of year! My crocuses should be coming up by now, but they are nowhere in sight - even the ones close to the house are still buried in snow! Another 32cm of the white stuff fell on us this time. Since the beginning of this year's winter we have had 195cm. The record, set back in 1939, is 207.4cm. We could break that record this year, because more snow is on the way. It does look pretty though. Don't you think? Hopefully by July all this should be over!

An Early Winter Snow Storm!

We got dumped on! A storm blew over our area from Saturday evening through Sunday evening. The temperature dropped to -10C! The wind blew in gusts up to 70km/hr! Heavy snow fell, creating blizzard conditions! I could not even see the houses across the street from us! We even had a bit of thunder and lightening! The storm blew in from the south east, dropping 30cm of snow and creating a 1m high snow drift outside our back door. We had to dig our way out! It took all day to shovel the driveway and find our car!
Today the storm is but a memory! We have beautiful blue skies and a few light flurries. The snow looks very pretty on the branches of trees and bushes. Everything is sparkly! But it is still very cold and dangerous for walking! Soooooo...... The question is: What do you do when life gives you snowstorms? Do what I do! QUILT!!!!