Shiney Ice & Fractured Hearts

 It was an icy winter wonderland here in northern New Brunswick last week.

                                     The views from the front porch were breathtaking!

 The weight of the frozen ice was making the birch trees take a bow again. I was amazed to see how resilient the trees were after the ice storm last year, not all took a bow, they snapped & broke!

 Bill wrapped the evergreens with some snow fence mesh & cable ties, that is a very good solution with the winds that we get at the shore.

                                  Mother Nature sure can paint a beautiful palette of nature!

 The backyard evergreens take a beating. See the difference, the left side is high & perky when the right side (NE) is heavy drooped with the ice?!

 Last winter we only last one branch from all the evergreens, with that heavy ice/snow.

From the dining room window, I'm happy to see the evergreens, everything else is winter white!

                      The view from the great room window, overlooking the Anniversary Garden.

 Bill & I both love every season here. It seems they move around the 365 day year, faster & faster.

 The backyard sure changes in the winter.  You cannot tell the grass from the water, only the breaker wall's rocks on the top let you know the location where it divides.

 The big cement urn will be flipped over in the spring & will overflow with plants once again.
The geraniums are resting in the basement & it's a pleasure to see green growing in the basement.

I love our evergreen that has its skirt all the way to the ground. I watch a squirrel & are they ever small here compared to Ontario squirrels, it runs under the tree & through the tree.
I worry about that squirrel as we also have several eagles that live in the area.
The weather here is unsettling, schools are closed again due to the ice. Today it is 2C tomorrow wind chill is -25C, weather is all over the map!

Some Sewing...

 I was going through the truck that Liz Vincent sent me & found this quilt top that she had done called Fractured Hearts.
I love the aqua tones in it & the hearts remind me of Valentine Day. So I'm going to machine quilt it on my machine.

 I remember hearing about a workshop doing this quilt. I love Liz's colour choice.

I plan on putting it on the back of the kid's deacon bench. I miss Liz & still can't believe she is gone.
I look through the neverending projects that she never completed & the quilt tops left to me that were never quilted,  & Liz was a longarm quilter too, never having enough time to finish her quilt tops.
I think of the nightmare I'm leaving for my family to sort out ... or I'll live long enough to get them finished & cleaned out. Either way, like the weather, life cannot be controlled, only enjoyed! 

One of my newest projects is doing a T-shirt quilt for my son Mitchell. I have many of his racing T-shirts from our 1/4 mile racing days & will put together a memory quilt for him. Competitive racing was a big part of our lives for over a decade! We travelled all over North America & met many fellow races. We made racing a family affair, even our Dalmatian dog, Nichele went with us! What a fun time we all had! Now a memory made into a quilt.

This is a mishap that happened when I was tracing last night. I used a micro 03 pen & did not like the look of a fold crease that I thought I had removed before tracing & sprayed with Mary Ellen's Best Press & when I hit it with the iron & moved the iron... it smudged!!
So I made another one as there are four to this pattern that will be made up of the 30's reproduction fabric. This pattern is from a Fon's & Porter magazine from 2005 called Sweet Susan.
I need to have some embroidery work to do & the 30's fabric is so spring/happy/colourful fabric.

 With such a mishap, this made it a perfect piece to experiment with pencil crayons!

 I had picked these pencil crayons up at an art store in London ON & never really used them till now.
I'm enjoying the result with pencil crayon rather than crayons that you have to heat set. The colour is more vibrant & it's easier to control as the tips are smaller to get into corners.
Another thing that I changed out was the order that the colouring was to be done first, then you hoop & embroid. I really recomend embroidering first as it provides a guide line/bumper line,  to stay in & colouring is easy!

 A piece of Jo Morton fabric was my starting point for colour as everything had been outlined with DMC 310 Pearle cotton #12. I will finish the colouring & then I'm going to use the Parisian colouring that I made a few years back to make it look more aged on the KONA fabric.
I'm thinking a wee cushion to put on the vintage rocking chair with some patchwork around it?

Rexton has been stalking me for her Temptation Treats, yes Cynthia I think your right when you call it 'Cat Crack'! She will literaraly trip me to get my attention for it! Must feed this cat or risk injury!

Thank you for stopping by on this wintery day for a visit.
For me, it feels good to know that in 55 days, spring will begin or that's the date the calendar says it will! March 20th & Easter is just a couple of weeks from that on April 1st. April Fool's Day has been put on hold this year. Old man winter is my visitor for a while yet, & Mother Nature is keeping him groomed for viewing!

Till then I'm going to try to sew my way through winter!

Have a safe week with this ever-changing weather we are all experiencing!
Cynthia