With the early day-light savings time, I'm motivated to end this blog and move on to the next fabulous project. Although I'm a bit early on the year end, I think its been a good one. I'll admit, these last few months were sparse on posts, but for much of the year, it was a success. I didn't start this blog to gain readers, but I hope the next one is more interesting to those who didn't raise me (or my husband). My new blog craftymsp.blogspot.com will be my showcase of things I quilt, knit, embroider, etc and the inspiration for the handful of projects that are constantly swimming through my head. I hope you like it.

Ice house or Abandoned parking booth?

Today I'm pretending it is summer. It was a blah day at work. So many things to think about these days - people's jobs, 401Ks, project prospects in the office (or lack there of), designer babies...So I was in a glum mood much of the day, but decided to turn it around.

As I was walking home I pretended it was just a summery breeze, not freeze.

I pretended I was running up to the farmers market to get veggies for the burgers instead of to the grocery store.

I imagined my bare feet were standing on the deck while lighting the grill, instead of tucked warm inside my boots, standing in 6 inches of snow.

Finally, I fantasized that I was running outside in fresh air instead of inside on a treadmill.

So, after an evening of summer, I think I can go back outside in the cold...for now.

Its hard to ride a bike in this kind of weather.

I finished the quilting on this one tonight. Straight lines around the blocks and randomness at the edges. I think I also perfected my "signature". Do you see it?

Back from the wonderful Colorado. Skiing was great. Seeing friends was great. Glad to be home.

My friend Annie calls this "snirt". It is yucky - piles of snow melting away in the rain. Vanishing before our eyes, replaced with crusty, dirty ice. I'm doing a snow dance again.

Oh forgive me - I've been so neglecting the blog lately. I am working on projects, work, getting ready to go skiing...it all just slips away so fast. There is light though - and that is slipping away slower these days. The picture above was looking west on Friday as I walked home. After 5 and the sun was just slipping down. The picture below does not convey the feeling happens in our stairwell late in the day. The sun comes in upstairs and bounces around until the stairs glow. Its wonderful!

This weekend was "finish off the project weekend". Or at least get started on finishing...So, I went to the store(s) and got batting, thread, fabric and stuff for finishing three projects. This is the first one - a wall hanging that I started years ago. It is now pieced together and quilted, just need to do some finishing embroidery and put some buttons on it. Then I'll bind it and it will also be the first step in my overall big project of the year - decorating the house. This is going in our guest room - it matches a picture that I have from IKEA with vases of the same colors, so they will be the inspiration for the rest of the room.


The next project: baby girl quilt. This one is so cute, I'm going to have trouble giving it away. But it will go in the pile of quilts on hand, because that is what I made it for. I saved a square to be added to later...I love baby animals. Again - Thanks to Carol Ann for the great fabric. It is basted, just waiting to get quilted.

Finally, I got fabric for the back of my "Madras" quilt. That's the crazy one made from Christmas fat quarters. I'm feeling really good about my progress on these three projects and I even started fabric organization with closet shelving.

So this weekend was a great one - hope yours was good as well.

Hello sunbeam. Its been a while...
Tomorrow I will post some pictures of projects I've been hard at work on this weekend and soon, very soon, I will be a good blogger again.

Kelly and I watched Mama Mia on Saturday night. What a wonderfully awful movie! We both agreed that listening to ABBA on trips is a great memory of growing up. What is highway 2 without it? So I downloaded their "Greatest Hits" and its still as good as I remember.

Dear Mr. Police Officer:

Thank you for breaking my streak of warnings.

I guess one out of six isn't too bad. Especially one out of four within 5 blocks of each other.

They say that things start to catch up to you as you age, and for me driving citations fall into that category. I must have looked more apologetic back then. Or found officers who were willing to hear my story (I can be persuasive). I'm not a speed maniac, nor a rule disobey-er; just pulled over for a missed turn signals, or speeding on the way to a funeral. Alas, tonight there was no warning, just a fine.

At least my husband is understanding.

This is what 20 degrees below zero plus windchill looks like...

A new year, a new quilt. I got a bunch of fabric for christmas and some of it was all color matching and ready to go. So I started a quilt yesterday and am really close to having the top done this weekend. (My sister is pretty sure I'm crazy). There is one problem...the fat quarters were either not quite fat enough or shrunk (a lot) in the wash, so I'm missing some squares. I have to run and find the missing fabric to fill in the holes...luckely the pattern is random, so I think i can just make up a couple of squares with the left-overs.