Not much to see here

Last evening I ended up doing two loads of laundry and working in the kitchen. I had dishes to do and I needed to make some food for lunches. I made creamed spinach and cooked some mushrooms that had to be cooked or I would end up tossing them. Cooking of course meant more dishes to do!

I got this from my sister yesterday. She works for the county criminal system so she gets to stay home today because of the weather.

Here in good old Ohio we go to work unless there is a full on blizzard and it better be a bad blizzard not just a big snow storm! It was warm yesterday, upper 30's, and it rained last night. Overnight as it rained the temps fell. My driveway is a sheet of ice.

I figured the main roads and heavily traveled backroads would be salted and they were. There was so much salt on the road it looked like snow! The only icy streets were the neighborhood street that the city doesn't salt. The cul-da-sac where I live is one of those. It was a sheet of ice all the way down to the cross street that was salted because it is a hill.

Temps are suppose to drop into the negative numbers tonight. Where ever you are take care during this cold snap!

Yeah it is Friday!

It has been a busy week at work and I have loads to do. I chilled out last evening and only managed to do a load of laundry. I did start cutting pieces for a quilted flannel table topper for a friend that I gave this quilt to for Christmas.

I will improv piece the drunkard path centers of the blocks for the table topper just like I did for the quilt. I have a few pieces rough cut.

I also plan on working on Sammy's quilt. I would like to have at least one finish for January so I am going to have to work hard to try and get the quilting done and get the binding sewn on.

Have a great weekend!

Progress on Sammy's quilt

Yesterday was a long day and I went to bed very early. That meant I was up really early - like a little after 3 a.m.! I sat down and quilted one more shirt on Sammy's quilt. I am now 67% done with the quilting.

I also got most of the dishes done before I left for work. It was snowing hard at 3 a.m. By the time I left for work the roads were snow covered except where there was salt. I turned on the all-wheel drive and headed to work going slower than usual.

New pressing pad

On Saturday I decided to make a new pressing pad to replace my old sad one

I cut the front and back panel off this box my new (still not hooked up LOL!!) TV.

I used some aluminum tape that the insulators had left behind to tape the cardboard together. Once the insulators get down to just a few yards on a roll, they just toss them on the floor. The stuff is too good to waste so I gather them up! This tape is expensive if you go to buy it. I am only using it because it was free.

Next I decided to cover the cardboard with aluminum foil to keep moisture out of the cardboard and taped the foil with the aluminum tape.

Next I added a layer of wool batting - just because I had a small piece laying around - and a layer of warm and natural which I wrapped to the back side.

Finally I covered it with some backing fabric.

I had to try it out so I washed a bunch of fabric that needed to be washed and started pressing it. The new pressing pad is 30" x 47" so it is plenty wide to lay and press the full width of quilting cotton. My old pad was 23" x 58".

Here is the pile of fabric I pressed on my new pad

Using what I had got me a handy dandy new pressing pad!

Quilting and snow

I was off yesterday because of the snow. There was a foot of snow in the cul-sa-sac from Saturday and Sunday's storms or should I say weather events (ugh - fancy weatherman talk! LOL!!). I shoveled for over an hour on Saturday evening with my neighbor lady helping me out a bit and I helped her out. We did spend some time catching up since we hadn't talked since the fall. Sunday I got up to shovel more and there was an 18" drift in the front of my garage door

This is the view from my sewing studio

Another neighbor that is next door and I were out shoveling on Sunday and he got the area cleared out into the street between out drives. The snow plows still hadn't come so I called my boss and told her on Sunday night I probably wouldn't make to work on Monday. I went to bed early on Sunday night because I was so tired from shoveling another 4 - 5 inches of snow. I was up by six and looked out front. My next door neighbor was stuck in the snow. I got dressed and went out to help him dig out. The snow was packed under the car. We got it all dug out and cleared a path to his house. We had to rock the car back and forth and with him pushing we got the car out and back into the garage. My house is the tan one.

Later Monday afternoon I saw Dave out clearing at path down the cul-da-sac so he could get out today. I went out later and walked to the cross street shoveling the snow to clean the path also. The streets are so bad in town they had to close school today. The town that shares the border - well their streets are fine! I don't know what the plow guys had been doing, but I am willing to bet they won't do my street until at least Thursday. Here you can just see the path Dave and I made.

After I would rest after shoveling I did get a little bit done on Sammy's quilt. I am now 65% done. Inside the blue square is what is left to quilt.

It was hard to move that quilt under the needle with as sore as my shoulders are from shoveling. I am still feeling it today!

Yeah it's Friday

I didn't get any quilting done again last evening. The quilt sits in a pile just waiting to be worked on

Everybody keeps saying we are getting snow so my big plan is to stay inside and quilt this weekend. It did snow yesterday and last evening, but we only had about a half inch. This morning I noticed a cat or two must have been out and about or maybe it was racoons...

The other day I did bring home another rock. This one was set aside for me by the landscapers when they were replacing a retaining wall. I had forgotten about it, but grabbed it as the area it was in is going to get a serious cleanup shortly. The rock is a bit bigger than my fist, but it will be a nice addition to the rock edging for the shade garden.

Have a great weekend!

Bought some fabric

I was given some gift cards so I spent some of the money on fabric. All of it was on sale so I got a lot for my bucks! The skull fabric - 7 yards - was only $3.99 on clearance from Hancock's of Paducah. I will use that for backing on a Harley quilt.