All fixed – for now! Rick and I got things patched together so it’s all working. We have power and water again and the electrician will check out the breaker right after Christmas – I did talk to him and assured him we are fine for now. It’s been snowing lightly almost all afternoon but the dangerous wind has not arrived yet. Traffic is still moving on the highway and all is well here at this point.
I need to correct my headline about the “worst” cars made – the headline actually said the “most useless” – haha!!!
Thanks for all the comments and chatter – I appreciate it so much!
From the readers:
I made this cracker mix yesterday – Keeper is very interested!
A reader from Cross Lake, MN sent this wintery picture – we have too much wind to see snow like this.
I tried Color Parade on the bed in the guest room.
This happens almost every time!
And Millie knows she’s the center of attention!
Your Color Parade looks fantastic with the rug that is showing on the left side of the picture. Stay safe, we are dreading the cold here in north central Georgia.
Carolyn – I’m hoping to feature Rugs From Rags in January – are you with me?
Yes!
Love all the crafts in the pictures, everyone is so talented. Keeper and Millie are beautiful 😻
Since most of the country seems to be waiting a winter storm I must mention that reading your blog posts are a lift. The images this post are so with a wonderful feeling of holiday spirit. Now that we arrive at the shortest day of the year ( my favorite) thanks again, Mary. Time well spent in keeping us informed. So happy you have some electricity. Brutal without it.
Stay warm and safe!
Love Millie and all of the quilts and pictures. Hunker down and stay safe.
I will sleep better tonight knowing you have water and electricity again. We take so much for granted till it’s taken away. I appreciate you keeping us updated as my thoughts are on all our beloved animals and those less fortunate trying to keep warm and out of these terrible elements. I loved all the pictures showing quilts, pets, decorations and even winter scenes. Stay safe please.
Happy to hear you’ve got everything working again. Isn’t that the pits when you get a seam on the corner of the binding?!?! I pin my binding on at the beginning and lay it out on the piece to see where my seams are going to end up. It gives me a chance to move it if I need to.
Here’s an interesting post I saw on Facebook today:
A Hummingbird Icicle in Michigan … Mother Nature is a Great Artist! ❤️❤️ (Hope the picture comes through)
📷 Tammy Shrive.jpg
Great idea for pinning binding first. I’m going to try that next time.
Happy day!! Two posts in one day!!! Glad to hear that the water and power problem is fixed for now. I am also preparing for bad weather. Hoping we won’t lose power. I have about 200 half squares to trim and also bought a camping lantern to cross stitch by if needed. More worried about keeping warm, but it will be what it will be. If I was Millie, I’d also choose that beautiful red and white topper to curl up on! She has good taste. Lovely project show today. So thankful for you, Mary! Stay safe and warm!
I was also binding a quilt this afternoon and the same thing happened to me. I hate that when it happens. I grew up about 30 miles from Cross Lake, MN. Lots of pine trees up there, and they are so pretty when it snows. We usually didn’t get the terrible wind there like here, but it could get brutally cold! Loved the pictures again today. We only have a skiff of snow here so far, and no real strong wind (SE Iowa). Today is our daughter’s 50th birthday. Hard to believe she’s that old! Stay safer, everyone in the upcoming storm. Maybe it won’t be as bad predicted. We can always hope that, can’t we??
I love the quilt that Millie is laying on. What is the pattern name?
Marry Christmas!
We are under a winter storm warning up here in Crosslake until Saturday. People are very concerned about losing power again in this bitter cold. We are supposed to fly to Dallas tomorrow. We’ll see how that goes.
When My binding seams end up at the corners, I cut a couple inches off at the seam and restitch the binding pieces….I cut off as much as it takes to move the seam from the corner.
I put the garbage out last night and I didn’t even go out to put the can away this morning. Either the neighbor will put it back, or it will be waiting for me. That meant I just stepped outside the front door to get the mail and paper. And the drifts are back. Visiability was awful, plus Interstate 90 is closed again. The cupboard doors under the kitchen sink are open, just in case. The thermometer says -14 degrees and the sky is clear. Have to wait to see what morning brings. Weather report says Sunday should be 40 degrees. Haven’t been to a fabric store since Dec 3 — I’m in withdrawal!! I need some red woodgrain fabric for my sled.
The Christmas cards are half done. Also got the miniature trees set up. They look so cute and easier than a bigger tree. Picked 95 dead blooms off the Christmas cactus. There will be more. It bloomed thru March last year. What I really want to do is sew the latest quilt blocks together — when I get the cards done. I’m trying to finish up blocks I started back when and sew into the quilt and take to Project to be quilted.
Can’t forget shoveling snow….. All in good time.
Take care and don’t do anything stupid. We old ladies weren’t meant to be out in this weather, and I’ll gladly comply. Merry Christmas to everybody, be happy with whoever is there and enjoy what you have. We can celebrate Christmas on any day. Life in the winter.
Betty in Rapid City
Hi Mary, love Keeper keeping an eye on the cracker mix! He would say sharing is caring Mum!B3lla loves to share little nibbles of my muesli bar after dinner at night. The snow looks beautiful, but cold! Take care everyone, best wishes from Sandy
Waiting for the snow and wind and dangerously low temps/wind chill in northern Illinois. We may not make it to the Christmas Eve service. I would hate to miss it.
A Merry Christmas to you and Rick. Stay warm and safe.
I love your Color Parade quilt. I want to try straight line quilting soon. How far apart so you do you make your lines?
It’s brutal!
Snow, wind and cold. Windchill…-65 .
Stay safe, warm and still.
Bracing for a winter storm here in NE Wisconsin too. We still have plenty of snow stuck to all the branches from last week. Our power was off when a limb fell on the power line to our house. Luckily it was fixed within a couple of hours of reporting it. Mary, glad to hear your power and water are fixed for now. Love the black background on the first quilt. Very festive quilt show!
Color Parade is wonderful! I’m going to have to try it. It is going to get down to 8 degrees tomorrow night here in central Arkansas; with a high tomorrow of 50. ??? Only in Arkansas. Merry Christmas to you Mary and Rick and all the blog readers. Stay safe and wam
My husband and I covered the plants that didn’t make it into the greenhouse. They can mostly handle freezing but not the single digit temperatures we’re expecting. Hubby has covid so we both wore masks. I’ve been spending the days upstairs while he’s downstairs. I’m hoping I don’t get it as the Iowa family will be visiting after Christmas and I sure want to see my grandbabies!
I’m glad your water and power issues have been resolved.
I love seeing the Color Parade quilt on the bed and Millie knows she’s beautiful on that red and white quilt. Fun reader projects today.
I’ve almost got the last project of the year finished. As I’m sewing on the binding I noticed some holes in the backing. The cats apparently played under the quilt while it was pin basted and put some little holes in it. So some patching and it’ll be ready for the guest bed.
Here in Alaska we are having many days of well below zero temps – both lows and highs ! Good time to stay inside and sew unless I have to attend to the wood boiler outside , which heats our home and hot water . Stay warm everyone!
,
Beautiful quilt pictures! I love the one on your bed! It’s such pretty colors. I like the one Millie is on too. Hugs,
I have been very interested in all the reports of your winter weather. Here on the south coast of South Australia we are watching as the highest flood waters in at least 70 years along the River Murray make their way across from the eastern states, where there has been record rain and flooding, some as early as March. We’ve been waiting through a long wet Spring for warmer weather, and Christmas Day plus a couple more days will be hot, then back to moderate weather. The wet weather has produced lots of extra growth (and so many garden weeds!!), but is now drying off, which will make excess fuel for summer bushfires.
And I, too, have been looking forward to the solstice and later sunrise because the birds have been starting before 5am! We still have summer weather ahead for at least another 3 months before things cool down. Such extremes across the world!
Happy Christmas to all, wherever you are, and stay safe.
Pauline in South Oz
Good luck with the storm, Mary, you and Rick stay safe! We are have just come out of our first taste of winter: two weeks of 14 degrees Fahrenheit. No snow to speak of, so we were able to go skating on the frozen smaller canals around our village for few days. When it freezes in the Netherlands everyone gets their skates out and waits for the ice to be thick enough. That takes a number of days, and of course it is very dangerous to try if the ice is too thin (as you can be swept away under the ice by the water if you fall through), but as soon as it is, off we go! Now it is grey and soggy again, but it was a nice start to the season.
Have a Merry Christmas and I hope you water and power stay on!
Fiona – Thank you! I love hearing about what it’s like on the other side of the world. Stay safe if you’re skating!!!
Love the pictures! Wishing you and Rick a blessed Christmas!!!
Today is a wonderful blog. We are hearing from Netherlands and also Australia to make this international. Love hearing about weather and projects from everyone so please keep us posted on your lives. Wishing everyone a very safe and Merry Christmas and new year.
Janet – I, too, love hearing from our international readers!!! I feel connected.
-20 with windchill at -43! I have opened the shades to even look out! Your little truck isn’t the “most useless” it’s the “most fun”. We have our old 70 chevell and it’s just for fun. Going for a ride is what it’s for.
Guess what, I sewed about 80 pieces wrong! So Jack and I have a date 🥹. Grrrrrr!
Stay warm everyone! Don’t go out if you don’t have to! I will go out and give the birds some treats and hubby will feed the kitties. That’s it. Oh, I got some new stamp stuff in the mail yesterday, so I can stamp and ignore Jack for a while 😂
Joy – same weather here – just fed the birds but will go out again soon to the barn. I love and hate my animals all at the same time! Yes, Little Red IS just for fun – it’s now parked for the winter. A 70 Chevelle – fun!!!
Mary it was our honeymoon car in 1970. We drove it 280;000 miles and then the transmission was having issues. Jay restored it and now we use it for fun and he takes it to car shows occasionally.
It is zero visibility here. 👀
Color Parade turned out nice. Quilt show was great..
Even trying to measure around the quilt for the binding I can have a binding seam close to the corner—ugh! I start in the middle of the bottom of the quilt and hope for the best.
Glad you have water and electricity. Stay safe in this bad weather. At least we can all sew while we are home bound.
Merry Christmas to everyone!!
The picture from Cross Lake more than likely has the snow frozen unto the branches. A week or more ago it rained and then went into snow. Trees around where I live are all like that. Broken trees closed roads and bought down the power lines. We were without power for 74 hours. There were many towns around without power for days. The wind we’ve had just blew the last snow around as it was fluffy. Wet frozen snow doesn’t get blown. Think we’ve had around 20 inches or more snow. Live about 40 miles south of Duluth.
Diane – wow! That’s a lot of snow and we’ve got months of winter ahead!
Love your kitchen cabinets!
I have the same issue. I hate when the binding seam hits the corner. I don’t know about you but I will cut off 3 or 4 inches to move the seam in further in. Just when you’re nearing the finish line it’s a bump in the road!
Kathy G – and that’s exactly what I did – cut off a chunk and put that seam on the side. Glad I’m not alone!
I love your Color Parade quilt. Stay warm and Merry Christmas!
Nice quilts –but let’s talk about that very cool metal/stainless steel bowl you are using for the cracker mix. Put my name under that one, or can I just request that instead of a quilt? LOL. I’m sure you picked it up years ago at some 2nd hand store that I never go to. It’s really unique. Love it.
Beamer’s mom – I used to give these bowls for shower gifts – not hard to get – came from IKEA!! Less than $20 … but I’ll put your name on this one! ☺️
Well, since I want you to live for a long long time, by the time you are done with it, I might not need it either. I’ll see if I can still find them at IKEA. Thanks.
Your animals are adorable I love reading about them and your home life….Merry Christmas to ya and family bobbie rumler of corona de Tucson AZ
I’ve tried to develop the habit of “auditioning” my binding on my quilts before I sew. Sometimes I just have to shift the starting point a few inches to prevent bulky corners.