Beating the Snow Day Blues

I wasn't the only one on 19th Avenue who was feeling a little blue yesterday. Jesse's meetings in Portland were all cancelled and he didn't have a lot of actual work to do either. Instead of moping around the house all day, we got dressed and decided to take a walk in the snow. In the late morning the snowflakes were giant and puffy and with the temperature just hovering at freezing, it wasn't nearly as cold as earlier this week. Our walk was really nice, especially since it's the most exercise we've gotten in quite a few days. Between travelling and the icy sidewalks around Portland, running has not been in the cards.

I also had an ulterior motive for our late-morning walk. This past weekend I finally finished that secret sewing project that involved many circles and a little bourbon. The mystery project was a baby quilt for our friends Anna and Brian who are expecting an addition to their household in February. I finished a bulk of the quilt when Jesse was in Florida for three days in November, but didn't get around to the binding until Sunday. As with every project that I complete, I have been itching to give it to them the moment it was completed. Yesterday was Anna's birthday, and unfortunately she had to spend the morning working at the coffee shop. So, we decided to stop by for a hot drink, a chat, and drop it off to her then.

While trying to come up with ideas for a design, I was initially going to do a patchwork quilt similar to the one I made for Ava. However, I decided that I wanted to do something a little different and this was the perfect excuse to start a mini test project. I have been excited about incorporating circles into future designs and wanted to see if a) I could handle curved piecing and b) whether they would turn out looking anything like circles. I have to say, I'm pretty happy -- it's not perfect, but really, no quilt ever is.

This is the fourth quilt that I've completed and I'm still not sure whether it's more fun accomplishing another design, or giving the final product away. It feels pretty darn good to take a step back and think about the quilt from the beginning pieces to that final stitch. However, since I've only kept one for myself, I suppose it's the latter.

Congratulations, Anna and Brian!