Brrrrr. Stay in and sew!

It's been a cold start to the new year.  It was only 20F when we got up this morning!  Last week we even had a couple hours of snowfall.  It was after a short stretch of warm days so nothing much stuck on the ground, but fun to see anyway.

These two like to bask in the sun whenever possible.  Yes, larger dog prefers the smaller bed.  

The Tramp and I have moved up to Bronze status at the dance studio.  It's a pain dancing with masks on, but at least we are getting out, meeting nice people, and having fun while getting some exercise. 💃

I joined Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Project Feederwatch again this year.  December was so warm there were hardly any birds, but now it's more winter-like they are taking advantage of what I put out for them.

I've arranged my sewing room so I have a comfortable place to sit and observe the feeders.....or observe Maisy sunning herself. 😊

Molli Sparkles has started a Cut It Up QAL (quilt along) this year.  His idea is for you to cut into the "top shelf" fabrics you've been hoarding because you like them too much to cut into them.  I was a bit stymied by those instructions as I don't really have anything like that in my stash.  Then I had an aha moment and dragged out several packets of pre-cut fabrics, charm squares and layer cakes, that I'd hidden because I don't really like working with pre-cuts.  And I came up with this combination which came together very well, if I do say so myself!  Instructions for the next step came out today.  😃

I've been beavering away at my Happy Village.  The blue "river" fabric was provided as part of the quilt guild's President's Challenge for this year.  If you google "a river runs through it quilts" or "a ribbon runs throught it quilts" you can see the concept.  The blue fabric has to enter and exit the 18" x 36" quilt at 3" wide.  This is the pattern/concept I chose for my quilt and I'm excited to see what other guild members have come up with.  Our deadline is the quilt show in March.

Also for the quilt show I'm on the ribbon making committee of two.  My co-maker is doing all the embroidery on her professional machine and I'm making the ruffles (on one of the vintage Singers!) and constructing. I have six(!) bins of batiks owned by the guild to pick from for the ribbons. These are the first four "test" ribbons and we need to make 68 more!  We met yesterday to choose fabrics for the special ribbons, Best in Show, Judges Choice, and etc.  Moving right along.....