Monday, June 23, 2014

End of Winter? Beginning of Summer?

Just a few days before the first day of summer, we got a huge snowstorm.
This is the snow coming off the roof. Where we live, it's common to get snow in June, but it doesn't usually accumulate.
The storm hit on Tuesday, catching us by surprise (rain was predicted) as we were inside the hospital getting DH's thumb fixed. The surgery went well, but we came out to cold rain, and we weren't dressed for it. It turned to snow as we drove up to our home, which is a higher elevation than the hospital. I had to drive DH to Salt Lake City that afternoon to pick up some things he needed for the voter registration booth at the Farmers' Market, as he wasn't allowed to drive for the rest of the day. It snowed all the way down to the city and most of the way back. The above photo was taken Wednesday morning. It had melted by Thursday, though. We're hoping that's the last snow until fall. I'm really glad I got out with the pups on Monday.
On Thursday Common Threads met at Margareth's. She showed us the table runner she was weaving on this loom, which she can take outside to the deck when the weather is nice.
Margareth is also making rag place mats on her big floor loom. She's using 1/2" strips cut with a rotary cutter and a sett of 8 warp threads per inch. For a floor rug, she says to cut the strips 3/4", but you can use the same sett. I'm dying to try this. I made chair mats with denim, but I have lots of quilting fabric, and I think this would be fun to do.
Margareth was also working on this sweater vest:
The pattern is Aran Accent Vest from Patons 500846 Cables.
Thursday evening, I went to Davidene's, our local quilt shop, for the organizational meeting of the Park City Quilt Guild. We decided to keep the group dues- and bylaws-free for now. For the July meeting, we will all bring our tips and tricks for various aspects of quilting, such as cutting and sewing accurately.
Several people brought some show-and-tell projects. One was this ducky quilt:
Another was this embroidered Winter Wonderland quilt:
We saw this leftovers quilt, the third quilt this quilter made from these fabrics, just to use up what she had left.
Then we had this bunny quilt:
Here's the back of the bunny quilt:
And then this 1600 quilt:
Finally, Davidene and her sister showed us this quilt to commemorate the 249th Engineer Battalion and all the places it's members served starting in 1943. 
It was great meeting in a quilt shop. There was plenty of space, Davidene allowed us to use it for free, and there was plenty of parking.
I've mostly been working on my Mary Tudor cardigan. The second sleeve is just past the decreases for the sleeve cap now, but I wanted to take he photo before it got too dark outside, so here it is as of Sunday afternoon.
The pups and I took another hike in Toll Canyon Sunday, but we couldn't make it all the way to the Fairy Tree. The snowstorm had brought down some trees.
We made it over or around this one and another, but when we came across three down in a row covering the trail and almost before our goal, I decided to turn around. It had been a long enough hike. It was a beautiful day. The birds were singing and the squirrels were out in force. It was amazing to see how well the wildflowers had come back after the snow.
In the meantime, Soren is having fun at daycare playing in the water with the other kiddos. He's lucky to have a great daycare right where Mom works.
What's on my needles: Mary Tudor cardigan, second sleeve just starting the cap.
What's on my Featherweight: Delectable Pathways, still working on the hand appliqué for the last panel, but I will be making a block for Habitat for Humanity, a house block of my choice.
What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished D. E. Stevenson's Listening Valley. Now listening to Marie Bostwick's A Thread of Truth. Still reading Pursuit and Persuasion by Sally Wright from Book Bub on the Kindle app.
What's my app of the week: Facebook. Sometimes it's the only way I know what some members of my family are doing. 
What's in my wine glass: Simply Naked Unoaked Merlot, 2011. Very nice!
What's my tip of the week:  If you find you have moths in your yarn stash or knitted items, you don't have to resort to poisonous mothballs if you have a freezer. Put the items in plastic bags, squeezing as much air out as possible and store in the freezer for four days or longer. Don't open the bags until you've treated all your woolens. Vacuuming in all the crevices of your home will help, too.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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