February Deep Freeze

It was a balmy -20 (air temp) when I woke up this morning.

Thankfully, this cold snap is supposed to be short-lived. The husband is keeping his fire gear in the kitchen so that it’s warm enough to get into should he have to go to a structure fire. We hope that doesn’t happen, as fighting fires in subzero temps comes with a whole set of additional issues beyond trying to save someone’s house. Pumps freeze up, engines won’t start, etc.

We are grateful to be warm inside.

I ran errands yesterday and didn’t get much sewing done. I did pick up a Creative Grids Circle Savvy Ruler, though. It took me a bit of searching to find it at the quilt store, not because their display is messy (it’s not), but because I was looking for something smaller and didn’t realize that the ruler is approximately 11” x 18”. I tried it out last night and it is going to make cutting go quickly. I think often about what Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Company says: You have to find the rulers that make sense to your brain.

Noon and Night is back from the tech editor and I am going through the suggested changes. That was definitely a worthwhile experience as it has helped me distill down my preferred approach to designing and writing patterns.

I am still a bit baffled by the fact that many of the very old, very cool quilt block designs that I run across in my internet travels have never made it into quilt designs. That gives me a lot to work with—I have a stack of ideas—but I wonder why we’ve been so quick to discard some of these blocks in favor of ones that lend themselves well to use with precuts. I know time is at a premium for many people, but as I’ve noted before in my role as a church pianist, the world doesn’t need Yet Another Arrangement of Amazing Grace.

Today will be devoted to finishing the quilting on Cobbles and getting that one bound. I would also like to give you some sneak peeks at the next quilt if I can get part of it assembled this weekend. Showing you one or two blocks won’t give you a sense of the overall design.