Snow Day

They said it was going to be historic. They said it was going to be epic. They said it was going to be snowmageddon. I woke yesterday morning, looked out my window to see pavement on my driveway and cried, "wolf!" Yep, then I went outside to shovel. Haha...I couldn't get into my garage to get the shovel without going over a drift that was thigh deep. And that was just the beginning. Oh, we got snow, finally! I happen to live in an area that gets threatened with bad weather all the time, but the storm front always splits and goes North and South of me. That's not cool for someone like me who looooves inclement weather. I love this snow. I think we're going snowshoeing tonight. Hope so.

I couldn't get out the front door. There was too much snow in the way and this stuff was heavy to shovel, but it sure is beautiful outside.

Oh yes, it was definitely a snow day. Practically the whole city was shut down, which was fine with me because look what I got to do...

It's a sewing machine cover with fabric from Sew Mama Sew. They always have such lovely goodness there and I can usually find what I want on sale, you know, being the thrifty person that I am. The cover wasn't all that difficult to make following these directions, but it was my first time with free motion quilting. Yeah, I was scared, I made a few mistakes, my technique was rough, I broke a needle and I had to oil the machine before I was finished, but I did it. And it fits, and it looks great if you don't look too closely to see where I started quilting again after oiling the machine, but without adjusting my settings. Oops. The thread is a little bit loose in one area. I should also mention that I ran out of thread and had to switch to a different color - because it was a snow day, after all, and I was pretty sure my fabric store wasn't open for me to bop in and grab another spool.

Here's a sewing hint for you if you are working with two pieces of fabric, one of which is a straight piece (Piece 1) that needs to go around a corner or a curve to attach to the second piece (Piece 2), like the picture above. Always start with Piece 2 on the bottom so that as you are sewing, the edge of Piece 2 is your guide and you can ease Piece 1 into the curves and move any excess fabric out of the way and behind the needle. It's much easier this way as you can see what it is you are moving rather than trying to see underneath Piece 2 to make sure you don't have bunches of fabric going all wonky from Piece 1. If it's a corner, stop at the corner with your needle still in the fabric, lift the presser foot, turn your fabric (Piece 2) 90 degrees and move all the excess fabric from Piece 1 to the back. Lower the presser foot and continue sewing. Does that still sound complicated? I suspect that if you follow along as you are sewing, it will make more sense.

Look who stopped in for a visit a couple days ago...

It's a Cooper's Hawk in the tree next to my garage. I often see these hunting in the neighborhood and as much as I would like to stop them from killing, I know it's nature's way and I let it go. The time that really bothered me was when both hunter and prey slammed into the side of my house during the chase and tumbled down onto the driveway about 15 feet away from me. The prey was stunned and the hunter took full advantage of it. I think he looked at me and dared me to stop him. I didn't even try.