Snow day

As predicted, we had about 8-10" of snow yesterday, beginning at around 10 in the morning.    We were well prepared with projects AND food.  In the morning, our friend and neighbor Manny came over with his digital projector for a run-through of Paul's historical talk next week.  I get to run the PowerPoint while he talks, and Manny, bless his heart, will be there for moral support.  He has been a great help with photos and historical tidbits.   We now have it all narrowed down to about 20 min.   After we finished, Paul and I had pancakes for lunch - quite a treat!

Between all this, I decided to start making some of the Missouri Star swap blocks rather than working on UFOs.   I had just written out new instructions for the group that I needed to test.  The link we were using was no longer live.  I made seven of these not-so-easy blocks and hope to get the other seven done in the next few days.  They're all cut out.  Maybe I'll finish this batch today or tomorrow.  It is meant to be a scrap buster with a gray background - my grays are getting depleted.

I will probably make a second batch in a slightly different colorway, with gray at the center.  But I want to finish Bennett's quilt and my wool appliqued piece first.

I've been reading The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, Age 83 1/4, a fictional story of life in a Dutch nursing home.  It's been translated into 30 languages, including English, and is apparently a hot item in libraries all over the world.  I find myself translating some of the expressions back into Dutch as I read, and it is funny and sweet at the same time.   My mom hadn't heard of it, so I ordered a copy sent to her - this is what is so nice about Amazon.com.