Some days, you are filled with life and verve and sunshine.  Other days, the speed with which time disappears can threaten to overwhelm you.  Then I think of people like Melanie Testa (Every-single-day blog here) who is confronting cancer with grace and courage and beauty and strength that inspires so many of us.  We all have small and not-so-small moments of pain or sadness, so I’m thinking every now and then, I shall have to share a photograph or moment of beauty.

Slow down.

Appreciate those in your life and give thanks that they ARE alive and share themselves with you.

And that includes things with four or more feet that love you, too.

And take time to look around you and give thanks.

As I drove to Eli’s wrestling meet yesterday, the fog that had lifted here in Hope was hunkered down along the coast from Belfast north, including crossing the Penobscot Narrows Bridge at Fort Knox-Verona Island and over to Bucksport.  This bridge is stunningly beautiful no matter what, but yesterday it was nearly unearthly…

The Narrows Bridge over the Penobscot, looking up at the suspension cables as I drove over. Photo (c) 2011 Sarah Ann Smith. Photo is clickable to view larger

I had no idea what the photo was going to be.  I saw the wires and reached into my purse one handed, pushed the “on” button and held the camera up to the window to push the shutter.  I just clicked without opening to view screen…. some days beauty comes to find you.

So what does one do when you are moving in and it snows?  Stay put and unpack more….   I got my wish for at least one really good snowstorm after moving in.  Last night we got (I’m guessing) somewhere around ten or more inches of snow between yesterday afternoon and sometime in the wee hours.

Mid-morning Friday it began to snow. Notice the top rail of the fence and the top of the fence posts. You'll see why I'm asking at the end of this post!

The photo above was yesterday afternoon…HOW did I get so lucky to live somewhere so beautiful??? No matter what the weather or the season, it is glorious!  I can wait to see this view turn green, then gold, then back to white, as the year turns and share the view with you all.  And I may be more than just a bit of an odd duck:  I have always loved storms:  rain, wind, whatever.  This house is very snug and tight, which is a good thing as it takes quite a buffeting from the wind.

It has been colder, but not by a whole lot.

When I got up this morning…it was a bit brisk. Yes, that is 15 Fahrenheit,  with a mild breeze blowing (3 miles an hour, bringing it down to a wind chill of 12).

Mt. Everest you might wonder? Snow capped peaks? Sort of....

Once I got the storm door unfrozen and used it to push away the snow blocking it on the outside (I was thinking it was a good thing the house wasn’t on fire!), this was the view of the path to the car.  Ahem.  Path?  What path?  FORMER path.   Now, it didn’t snow that much…the wind blew it there…..

The arrow points to the close-up shot shown above

If we wanted to go anywhere, or let in the guy to measure Eli’s room for carpet, or take the dog for walkies, that path had to re-emerge.  I used the exercise as an excuse for waffles (with maple AND raspberry syrup thank you very much, and my made from scratch recipe please, no toaster waffles!) later.  Ahem.

There's that snowcapped ridge again, with the shovel for scale

Fortunately, the snow wasn’t too heavy!  Eli, who is getting *very* tall (at almost 13 he is just a skosh shorter than I am!), did the doggie duties.

Yes, 'widgeon, you CAN do it! Up you go!

But but but, said ‘Widgeon, my leggies are short!

Hah HAH! The doggie is a trooper! He's reached the pinnacle!

And it is SO much fun to romp in and eat the snow:

Let's go galumphing, says the dog....it's fluffy!

Then it was time to dig out the car (yes, we are eventually going to build a garage!)

Please notice the car. Behind the wind blew the snow nearly away (tho the plow ridges on the side of the drive are nearly as high as the side mirrors).

It appears the snow decided to land on the hood of the car. As you can see from the shovel I placed on top, the roofline is snow-extended all the way to the bumper!

Phew!  It wasn’t as much work as I feared, though, because the wind swirling around the cars had minimized the build-up between them and on the sides.

DONE! There is, once again, a path. And if the weathermen are right, we'll have three consecutive days above 36 which will melt and mud things up nicely....time to get the dog-wiping rags out!

And remember those fence posts….

This is the view from the dining room. If you look in the middle distance, you might see some little brown dots.

Here’s a closer view.  The top rail of the fence is now buried, just leaving the tips of the posts.  Wonder what the ground looks like under the snow?  We’ve never seen it except in the real estate listing photos!

Yes...those little dots in the middle are the tippy-tops of the fence posts. I LOVE IT HERE!

Now…to unpack and hang some pictures…nearly done (well, except for the studio…another week or so until I can begin there due to painting gonna happen).

Yes, while the turkey was roasting on Christmas day and the potatoes were boiling and the pie and stuffing were done, I took a little time for art!  About a thousand lifetimes ago (meaning last winter, maybe February-ish) I took an online class with Sharon Boggon (her site is here and is now called In a Minute Ago, here blog is  Pin Tangle)  about a “working” sketchbook.  Not a fancy, work-of-art-in-itself journal, but about using a journal as a way to flesh out ideas and stimulate creativity.  Here’s a link to the class description…I really enjoyed the class!  Alas, I have been abysmal at keeping up with it–simply too much life happening.  BUT…. I have the journal and the supplies and the desire.  So on Christmas I made the time!

I just LOVE how this turned out....it makes me happy. Being creative and noodling around just makes me content. I should do this more!

I took some of the squares I had cut from magazine pages, and some words and phrases, and started gluing them up.  One page became two…. then I took my WONDERFUL Christmas gift from hubby:  a set of 72 Derwent Inktense pencils

The Inktense pencils are in the upper left. My magazine snippings are in the box, and the bag on the right is my travel-art bag, with room for a set of 6 graphite pencils, a 12-travel-set of watercolor, a waterbrush, glue stick and a couple odd pens are inside in their custom-made pockets

and a waterbrush and, in the evening after supper while watching Starman with my family, colored in the background.  I LOVE IT!

And I cannot let the last Christmas posting pass without Kate’s candles–I’ll blog about our Frayed Edges meeting in a few days, but I had to share these.  Kate found the votives in cylindrical glass cups then re-purposed old (tossed out) sheet music.  The large one is from Stonewall Kitchen (a Maine company) and smells of “Maine Forest.”

My new Canon G12 has a "candlelight" setting on the dial, and this was taken just holding the camera still, no tripod or bracing...love it!

Here’s what we woke up to this morning….much more snow than anticipated…WOOOHOOO!

Looking over the front lawn to the street

The front porch...hmmm....

The driveway---or it will be once we shovel!

And a perennial favorite of mine, snowy woodpiles!

detail from the most recent free motion sampler--should be clickable for a larger view in most browsers

In my previous post, I shared The Ginormous Quilt (I may have to actually NAME it that!) inspired by Jenny Bowker’s quilt sampler and my variation on her theme.   I was able to see Jenny at Quilt Festival in Houston, have supper with her and Aussie friend Lisa Walton (of the gorgeous hand-dyed fabrics, here), and Jenny invited me up to her class one morning before the class began to see her other samples.  I thought I should try a few variations on the theme myself but, unlike Jenny’s samples in Houston, introduce some curves into the process.  Here’s my original variation on Jenny’s idea:

And here is the most recent one–and yes, *I* actually *pieced* that!  What’s become of me?

Free-motion sampler, before washing

Since I have the Ginormous thing, I wanted to test out various battings before spending a bundle to have it basted on a longarm.  The good news is that wool batting does not alter the whiteness of the sashing enough to be noticed, so if I want to I can use a wool or wool-blend batting. In this sample, I used Hobbs Heirloom Wool, which is quite puffy.  To use a Pamela Allen (if you’re not familiar with her work, click on her name to visit her website and prepare to spend a good long while being inspired!)  word, I like the “puffosity” of it.  The bad news is that you need to baste MORE with wool batting than with cotton or  you get some slippage and bubbling.  Ahem.  Basting is NOT my strong suit!

Since the Ginormous Quilt is to be a used bed quilt, with cats sleeping on top of it and getting it seriously hairy, I need something that will wash up nicely and easily without fuss.  So I tossed the sample into the washer and dryer with the regular washing.  As you might gather, I’m not a fusspot about some things.  This is what it looked like straight out of the dryer….gulp!

After machine washing and drying, wool batting (shrinkage expected!)

I took it upstairs, misted it with water and pulled it out a tad—here are back and front before ironing:

After machine wash and drying. Misted with water and pulled out a little.

Back view, after washing, drying, and a light mist of water prior to ironing

After ironing, it is much better and an inch smaller than before washing/drying:

After washing, drying, misting and ironing. Notice the ripply straight grain bindings. This is why I ALWAYS make bias! This was as a sample of why I don't like straight grain....

I REALLY dislike straight grain bindings, but given how little of the fabric I had left, I decided to do a straight grain binding.  This sampler is a perfect example of why:  ripples.  UGH.  The teaching part of this section of the quilt is “why I don’t do it this way”.  Ahem.

The bottom line:  despite the apparently horrible crumpliness of the quilt straight out of the dryer, I think this soft, light, drapeable wool batting (Hobbs) could work.  I would simply tumble dry to “damp” instead of “dry”, then let it air dry the rest of the way.  Of course, there is the question of whether or not it would fit in a home dryer! My sample was just under 18 inches before quilting.  It was, after squaring up after quilting, 17 inches with binding.  After washing, it is 16 x 16  inches.  This shrinkage was expected and planned for in constructing the top, which I made oversized so that when hubby and the cats hog the covers I will still have enough quilt  left.  Smile!

I have at least one other wool batting sample, by Pellon, and plan on also making a comparable size  with the Quilters Dream Wool and another with their cotton batting, which is one of my favorite cottons.  All samples will be machine washed and dried…I am absolutely NOT going to fussy-wash a quilt that is nine square yards huge! When I get them all done (probably in about a year…sigh…) I’ll share the final comparisons.