Winner & Snow

It's time to announce the winner of the Kitchen Stitches Giveaway!!! Congrats to Kathy H who wrote:

Looks like a wonderful book. It is always so refreshing to have something beautiful in the kitchen and it is often the last room in the house that I try to make prettier with some quilting.

Kathy, you have an e-mail in your inbox. Please send me your snail mail address so I can get your book in the mail to you!

And because a blog post isn't a true blog post without pictures, I thought I'd share some from the last week or so around my house.

 Like much of the country and the lake regions that get lake effect snow in snowbelts like ours, it has been snowing and snowing and cold. I honestly can't remember the last time I saw green grass, but I swear God has a sense of humor about it all. You can read about my other post referencing this theory by clicking here. But this time around, we woke up one morning to the prettiest powdery snow that coats everything!

 It's quite dramatic and is really bright. Even without sun (notice the sky is the same color as the rest of the picture) snow is about 90% reflective and this morning it seemed like there were spotlights on outside.

 Luckily this was the lighter version of the pretty snow. We had snow like this in the fall that was much heavier and it was so early many of the leaves were still on the trees which lead to downed branches and power lines for a yucky mess.

The reason I think God had a sense of humor this time is this - we have one extreme of winter or another. This day we had snow and it was a bit warmer (in the mid 20s, a virtual heatwave!). When it's gorgeous and sunny however... it looks really warm, but the temperatures drop and hover around the zero mark... Not cool, Robert Frost!!!

But alas, it is winter. I live in the snowbelt. I should be used to this. But what can I say, I'm a summer girl. Oh, and a yoga update for those of you who like to laugh. I did much better with my mantra this week. I actually had one after talking to my friend who got on her soapbox to tell me yoga is not a treat, it is an investment in my health and well being. It truly put it into perspective. I only said the other line from last week once :) If you are reading this and have no clue what I'm talking about, read this post here. It should make you chuckle and make your Monday not so boring. :)

This is Why...

This is why I quilt...

 This was the high yesterday. Granted, I think God has a sense of humor and the sun came out and brought the temperature up to a whopping 7 with the sun directly on it later in the day...

 Here's the other reason I think God has a sense of humor. It was bitterly cold yesterday. It makes your nose freeze from the inside out when you breathe and your speed increases going to and from. BUT wait, it was absolutely gorgeous and sunny. It was very deceiving... But to distract us all from the cold, we had the right conditions to create snow rollers for the first time that I can remember.

 It was really neat to see. It has to be the right conditions of temperature, humidity and wind. Basically the wind blows and catches the top layer of snow and it rolls onto itself making these little hoho roll looking things. These were included in the batch in our neighbor's pasture.

I can see them out the window from the quilting room. It was nice to see and was something interesting besides staring at the thermometer all day.

Now yesterday I went to PT again in the morning and wore some yoga pants to make the stretches and exercises a but easier to do. When I was outside in said yoga pants, I was thinking 'it's not that cold'. Then you try to breathe and as I mentioned earlier, you feel your nose freezing internally. Not fun. But alas, that deceptive sunshine did me in and I got to the quilting machine still thinking I wasn't that cold. Then I went inside and went to the bathroom. I really was that cold. Sorry if this is TMI, but all I could think of yesterday was this clip:

I blame it on my hubby for brainwashing me with horrible movies. Hope it made you smile and you're warm!

Oh, and in other news, Miss Savanna made her arrival this week in a small break in the winter weather and we went to see her last night. She is adorable and has the most chubby cheeks you've seen. But I think she did me in too. In combination with PT in the morning and rocking a crying baby back to sleep last night, I didn't realize how much it was killing my hip until it was too late. Oh well. She's cute and worth it. I just wish my pain pills would kick in soon. I will share pictures soon once she gets home and settled in.

Come back tomorrow for some exciting news!

Snow Days!

So if you didn't already know, I happen to live in the wonderful area of Northeast Ohio called the "Snowbelt". Actually now I live in the secondary snowbelt, but my long-arm machine is still smack-dab in the heart of it all.

We've been getting small amounts of snow just about every day for the last few weeks, but this past week has been especially cold. When it's this cold the snow is super fine and powdery which makes beautiful winter scenes like this:

This is the view from my quilting room. The best part about really cold winters are the absolutely gorgeous blue skies that pop up between snow storms. (Not fifteen minutes after I took this photo the snow moved in and the sky was a whitish gray which isn't so pretty) Oh, and if you noticed, that is a large flower pot on it's side down at the bottom of the picture...

Just a little ways away from the flower pot on the patio is the bench absolutely covered in snow. We got this snow during the past week but not all at once. The snow so far this year has been a few inches here, 6 inches there, a little more overnight, which isn't soooo bad, but it does add up. 

 So what do you do when you live in the country with almost a 400' long driveway in the snowbelt? You get an 8' PTO driven snow thrower for your tractor. This is my little brother clearing the drive.

 As I mentioned, this snow is so powdery that it basically dissipates rather than being thrown very far.

 And all the while, the puppies (who are older, not young, but puppies at heart) love to look out the front door and take in the view. If you open the front door, they'll sit like this all day.

 Here you've got Hershey, Tucker and Abby. I love when they do this, but I haven't had the chance until now to get good pictures of it.

 And there has to be a ham in every crowd, meet Abby Sue. The other two could care less about a camera or they'll hide. Abby on the other hand wants to be front and center. I think she was a model in a past life.

 One of the other good things about snowy days like this (yes, there are good things about snow!) Are the beautiful sunsets we can get. This one was much prettier in person, but occasionally this time of year we get skies with shades of oranges, reds and purples that will take your breath away.

So that's the snow for the last week, however like any season in Ohio next week is supposed to be completely different. Last week on Tuesday the high was 8 degrees. This week the high on Tuesday is supposed to be 52 degrees. And then two days later it's supposed to cool off and snow again. Go figure, weather can be so strange here, nothing seems to phase us anymore. Just keep calm and drive safe. That's really all you can do.

And for those of my friends who have packed up and moved south, we miss you! I know you miss weeks like this! :) j/k. Lake Effect snow misses you! Alright, now I'm ready for a cup of tea. That and I'm getting ready to try out some new soup recipes this week. Wish me luck! Stay warm and remember to listen to the Pat Sloan radio show tomorrow where I'll be chatting about my new book, Seamingly Scrappy! I hope I don't sound like a dork!

New Arrivals!!!

The two newest patterns in the Alphabet Stitchery Line are now available!!!

 Bugs Bugs Bugs, doesn't that just say it all? There's all sorts of bugs from a snail to a spider, lady bugs, a lightning bug and everything in between - but these are cute, not creepy bugs... I promise.

On this quilt I used a fabric line called Little Critters and it had this adorable border print, so I just had to use it as a border on this quilt. (To date this is the only one with a border out of the 4)

And the Jungle Animals! There's a buck-toothed crocodile, a zebra, a monkey, a hippo in the water, all sorts of creatures! Go for a walk on "the wild side" and stitch up some of these adorable critters for the little one in your life.

Now, I don't think I've mentioned before another idea for the stitchery blocks... Have you ever done or have you seen the method of coloring fabrics with crayons and heat setting the color? Have a grown-up coloring book day and color in these critters for a little extra pop of color if you'd like!

As with the other quilts, the stats stay the same:

Finished size: 40" x 48"

24 Blocks (10 Stitchery & 14 Pieced)

Finished block size: 10" x 8"

 

These patterns are now ready to ship, so if you're interested in stocking them in your shop, please e-mail me at rubybluequilts (at) gmail (dot) com to place an order.

 

If you would like to purchase this pattern, but your LQS doesn't carry it, please either ask them if they would like to or e-mail me at the address listed above and I can direct you to a shop where you can purchase the pattern.

 

I also heard from a little bird that Cottonpicker's Quilt Shop has some bundles of the fabric used in the Bugs Bugs Bugs quilt available. If you would like to purchase a bundle, call Beth at 440.279.0610 and she can drop it in the mail to you. She also has some of the border print left, but not much, so if you want that too, let her know.

 

So, do you have a current favorite theme in the Alphabet Stitchery line? I can't choose, that's like deciding which kid you love the most - just not possible.

 

I'll be back with more updates from the studio soon. Oh, and by the way it's snowing again... And again, and again... But it's Winter, so let's get through it and move onto Spring! Who's with me?

 

 

AND... it happened...

We got snowed in, majorly. Wanna see?

We woke up to a few inches and a Winter Storm Advisory until 4pm on Saturday. They were calling for about 12" of snow. No biggie right?

But we got hit with Lake Effect, all day. The advisory got extended til 4am on Sunday and it just kept snowing...

 and snowing...

 And snowing...

 And snowing...

 I didn't start taking pictures until about 10:30 Saturday morning and the snow stopped about 4:30 that afternoon. The neighbor's tree above...

 My Japanese Maple that's now buried...

 It just kept piling up...

 The squirrel tried to eat for a minute or so and he had enough of the white stuff...

 But now that it's all over my other neighbor needs to find his car (see the mirrors on the side)

 My neighbor across the street's tree and mailboxes... Oh, and we didn't see a plow truck until about 7pm I think. So no mail...

This is Ben cleaning the drive for the THIRD time... Each time he cleaned it there was about 6-8" of new snow.

So needless to say I was snowed in this weekend. Today I'm going to try to venture out so I can quilt something I was planning on doing yesterday... Wish me luck.

Did any of you that entered the Snowed In Giveaway finally get some snow too?