Unexpected Holiday

Despite living in Canada, and experiencing regular snowfalls, we, in Calgary, never have a Snow Day - not in the 23 years I have lived here.  It snows -- we carry on.  We're late; we have car accidents; we go to work anyway.  I work at the court house, and we do not shut down.  Last year, as you may recall, Calgary suffered major flooding in June.  Parts of downtown were under water.  But the court house wasn't, and I went to work.  (To be fair, we told many of our staff to stay home, and stayed open only long enough to adjourn all of the matters scheduled for that day.)

But, yesterday and today, we have been shut down.  There was a major electrical fire in the downtown and several blocks are without power.  So I get to stay home!  Yay!

What to do?  Well, I did have some yeast in the cupboard that was in danger of expiry.  So, I made some bread.

Then, I made some cinnamon buns.

I did some reading and podcast listening.

And, oh ya - I did some quilting too!  The Calgary Modern Quilt Guild is collecting 15 1/2 inch quilted blocks, then we're going to put them together for charity quilts.  I just happened to have some blocks laying around from my early days of quilting, when I was "trying stuff".  Add an extra bit of fabric to bring it up to size, and had some fun trying some new quilting designs, including doing a spiral with my walking foot.

All in all, a very nice way to spend a couple of surprise free days!

Q4 Finish Along Goals

I've been suffering from serious quilters block over the last few months.  I blame this:

Yes, you have seen this before - it's Sand and Sea Glass, the block of the month project from (now defunct) Traditional Pastimes.  I have quilted the easy parts of this quilt - the sashing and borders.  I've started quilting the blocks, and I'm not having any fun.  And, I've got it in my head that I have to finish this one before I can enjoy starting any others.  I don't even like this quilt any more!  But I WILL finish it!  I will!  And, so, I'm putting it on my list for one more quarter.

You've also seen this one - another one I'm hesitant about.

This is Scrapitude, and it's still at the flimsy stage.  How to quilt it?  On the one hand, it's scrappy, so an all over pattern would be fine.  On the other hand, there are some nice white patches in there that could do with some custom quilting.  Decisions, decisions!

This one is new.  (I managed to push the quilters block aside for a bit.)   I won this pattern,  Sunrise, from Carolyn Friedlander, through  a giveaway on Modern Sewciety.  I spent some pleasant hours this summer, with easy paper piecing, and have started quilting.

This is baby sized.  The quilt ends at the teal border - what shows as white outside that is just batting.  I only have the white parts to quilt yet.  I'm actually pretty pleased with the quilting so far.  Just when I start to fall into despair (see Sand and Sea Glass, above), I look at something like this quilt, and I see that I HAVE improved my quilting.  I'll never be Angela Walters, but I'm coming along!

I also put together this one, in the early days of spring - hoping to have a nice table runner by summer. This is a Thimbleberries pattern that was kitted in more modern fabric. It's still a flimsy:

And - in for a penny, in for a pound - I might as well throw in these two once more:

 Maple Sugar, above, and Aqua Stars, below.

So, that's it.  List everything, I say, and perhaps I'll finish a few.

My list:

• Sand and Sea Glass
• Scrapitude
• Sunrise
• Watermelon
• Maple Sugar
• Aqua Stars

Linking up to the Q4 FAL at The Littlest Thistle