Catching up

I wrote the following on New Year's Eve...

This morning I made a few blocks for a swap, and yesterday I finished working on a brick for Studio Place Arts, our local arts center.  

SPA was flooded like every other building along N. Main St. this summer, with quite a bit of water in the basement.  As they pumped it out, several bricks fell out of the foundation, too.  Those were replaced, and the "bad" bricks stacked up in the back yard.   The folks at SPA decided to offer them to local artists to create items that will be raffled off this winter some time.  I volunteered and here's what I made with the brick I got.  

It was dirty but in good shape.   When I picked it up, I thought I'd applique a small version of the building which is full of large windows and has turquoise doors on the first floor.  In summer, there's an easy chair carved out of granite out front, and tourists take their pictures there.

But time passed far too quickly, and now it's due in a couple of weeks.   I decided to dip into my extensive collection of selvages.  Some of them have great sayings.  I added the ricrac just to be a little different.  I didn't cut out all the holes, just the ones on the top to make the brick visible.  And sewing the thing shut was a real pain.  But it's done and ready to deliver.

And now for today, a week later...

The snow is streaming down, probably at the rate of an inch an hour.  Winter is seriously here.  I have been baking rolls because we were going to have company for dinner.  I don't think they're coming now, so I'll put the rolls in the freezer to take to Pauline's on Wednesday.  We're going to Burlington to see Come from Away, the traveling Broadway show.  Just as we did last year when the three of us saw Book of Mormon, we'll spend the night at Pauline and Bob's (he has to work, poor guy).   I've been working on some placemats for Pauline lately, but I won't finish them before Wednesday.  I'll take them over later in the month.

Earlier this week, I worked on a few blocks of the month and also some samples for an online swap I've organized.  It's a traditional log cabin very similar to the Manx blocks I'm making.  Those end up at 9" and these swap blocks end up at 8" finished.  

I have tons of blue and actually bought another piece at the local quilt shop which is closing January 20.  Mary has long had an online shop but thought she'd try the bricks-and-mortar one a couple of years ago.  I don't think her selection was a good fit for our town and the hours were a bit erratic.  But I will miss going to Quilt Bingo there every once in a while.  Maybe we can continue that somehow.

Our Christmas tree and most of our decorations have been put away.  Our wreaths are still up but will come down this week or next.   Lots of neighbors have their lights up still, which does make the evenings cheery.  I do enjoy the peacefulness of a snowy day - I'll knit, watch a little TV, and read.  A perfect Sunday!