I HATE YOU SNOW

Ok, I normally am all about the snow.  I like to play in it, it is very pretty and I don't even mind shoveling.  However this is enough!  

IF I HAVE TO SHOVEL AGAIN I'M GOING TO PUKE! 

I want to go outside and run but cannot for fear of twisting my ankle again, it is still not better from the last time.  YUCK YUCK YUCK

Ok, rant about snow over.  I should have invested in cross country skies this winter but now i'm sure it is too late to get much use of them before the thaw starts.  Does anyone out their want to sell me your slightly used cross country skies?!  Speacking of the thaw I really am excited about the summer.  I cannot wait to feel the sun on my shoulders while I sit outside and sip my morning coffee.  

In other news I guess I will be starting a new quilt today.  I was hoping to start my new line of clutches but spoonflower.com just shipped my fabric.  I am very excited about the new clutches, here is a sneak peak:

 

I have been listening to Chris Garneau: Hands on the Radio

Mellow just like I feel with all of this snow

Creative Cabin Fever

I have realized recently that my blog would be more interesting to read if I were a better writer.  O well I have been greatly gifted in other ways.

I have been crazy creative lately.  I have been very effectively channeling my cabin fever to quilting.  I have finished a large quilt, it might be my largest quilt I have ever created.  I'm not sure of the name yet, however it is not going to be what my mom wants me to name it "Growing Friendship."  YUCK! She must have seen those words carved into a wooden plaque that was painted red and hanging on a wall next to rooster paintings and a cooper tin shaped like a pig.    

This quilt is also the first quilt that I have quilted with heavy machine quilting.  I have traditionally been a hand quilter.  Machine quilting creates a whole host of problems that I did not account for like puckering, and pushing.  I decided to try my had at it while I was talking to my new friend Luke Haynes.  He said that some quilting gets so complicated that only other quilters can appreciate it.  I thought about it and he was totally right.   There is a place for hand quilting but machine quilting is WAY faster.  I like hand quilting better but I think I will work on perfecting machine quilting because of the difference in time.

On a different note I recently decided that I hate my purse and that I needed to make a new one.  I didn't want to make this bag out of canvas or upholstery fabric because they don't break in well.   So I decided to "upcycle" an old leather bag from the thrift store.  I should have taken a before picture because the change has been very dramatic.  This purse had a panel of leather on the front with embossed tropical leaf shapes, it had a short shoulder strap, and there was no flap on it.  I like this bag better.   I am very happy with the way it turned out.   However, I don't think that my machine was made to push through leather.  My stitch lengths are now all crazy on regular fabric, and I just got a tune up 6 months ago.  Blurg.

I have been listening to Vampire Weekend none stop. 

Oxford Comma :This video is crazy: one continual shot  

Warning some cussing so little cousins don't watch!