Mother Nature, you're killing me

"Blizzard Buddies", the pattern I created recently to remind myself I still love winter.

I am a die hard fan of winter. I always have been. I love the snow. I love snuggling in a quilt with a book. I love a roaring fire at a quaint inn somewhere. I love skiing now and then. I love sledding. I love hot beverages of any type. I love that many of you want to punch me right now.

This year, however, I am being tested to the limit. I will not bore you (again) with my rantings and ravings about the number of school days my children have actually been at school for a full day since before Christmas (but suffice it to say I can count them on both hands and do not have to remove socks because I need no more appendages - and good thing because it's pretty cold), but I will rant about the fact that today, for the first time ever, I had to cancel a trunk show booking due to snow and that is so upsetting to me. I think some of my long lost flight attendant guilt is kicking in from when I had to apologize over and over for weather-related flight delays that were oh-so-clearly my fault; but this time I feel like I wasn't a hardy enough New Englander to brave the freezing rain and ice and get to Portsmouth RI this evening, where in typical New England style it is just raining and the perfect night for a guild meeting. Seriously Mother Nature. You're killing me. So let me take this opportunity to apologize publically to all members of Quilters by the Sea for receiving the great distinction of being my first ever booking to cancel due to weather (or anything else for that matter), and I trust that because quilters are inherently nice people you are not all going to spend the meeting this evening standing around cursing my name and demanding I provide free alcoholic beverages like my passengers of yore. When we meet again it will be a lovely June day in 2012, and I promise to be worth the wait.

So did you see my new pattern up there? Brand new this week - "Blizzard Buddies" celebrates all the joys I normally love about winter with some jaunty cute snowmen I've (of course) pieced crazily and embellished heavily. It was a quickie project I created and loved and wanted to share with the world. Or it was meant to be quickie, anyway. I got the background done, then realized I owned absolutely no white or cream tone on tones. How the heck is that even remotely possible? Thank God for quilt shops, but the shopping slowed me down a little. My absolute favorite parts are two of the embellishments I did:

1. How cute is that quilting? Maybe you don't consider quilting embellishment, but I think these snowflakes spiralling all over the place like a flurry using a very light baby blue-to-white verigated thread is nothing short of brilliance.

2. Look at the hair. And yes, snowmen can have hair, IMO. Didn't you ever use an old mop head on your snowman as a kid? If not, you have not lived. I feel badly for my children who just can't make a Swiffer wet pad look quite as cool as a snowman wig. Anyway, the hair is made from my newest embellishment obsession, Kreinik iron on threads. If you not tried this, you must. I order you. It was incredibly easy, incredibly fun and left me with a couple of curly headed snowmen and a couple, like this one, who look like they are trying to hide some bald patches with some crazy almost comb-overs.

The project is perfect for winter-loving quilters advanced beginners and up, so get to your snowman building!