Anticipation For Spring, Still Winter, Medieval Quilt, & Rug Hooking

 With anticipation for spring, all the Christmas bulbs are blooming!
The red amaryllis looks great with the new velvet teal drapes & even the green plants look fresh with the teal backdrop. 
With still months of winter left, I needed a warm feeling around the windows & velvet curtains were on clearance at Fabricville with the right price!

 The teal colour looks great with the gold velvet sofa. The sofa is in need for a recovering but we're waiting till the Boston's mature a bit more & Bill's thinking of getting a white German Shepard in a few years when he retires. I know newly reupholstered furniture & young ones don't go hand in hand!
Until then we'll 'Want what we have instead of having what we want.'  lol

 The paperwhites are so fragrant it makes my heart sing. Heather has introduced me to gardening & it is also becoming a longing to get back to it for me too.
It's raining today after the freezing rain left, it's going to be a sloppy drive into town tomorrow. I have a dentist appointment to replace tow cracked filling, probably from chewing on ice due to an iron deficiency. I have supplemented with iron enriched foods & the craving has left me.

 The paperwhites grew so tall that I tied a ribbon around them. It so nice to have blooming plants inside the house with all the snow that's viewed when you're looking out.

 The snowbanks are getting quite tall, I laughed going down Hardwicke Road when I saw the 80km sign just peeking out of the top of the snowbank. lol I didn't have my camera with me but that would have made you laugh too!

 The snow drift is so high in the backyard, it is well past the railings & you go upstairs to get to those deck railings!

 The morning before the snow dusting, freezing rain that changed to rain. Pretty colours!

 My freehand/wind icy snow sculptures on the back deck.

 I don't know what I would do if not for the evergreens to make me calm with all this snow!

 There is a saying here 'Snow is the poor man's fertilizer, wow, the backyard is going to have green grass this spring & summer!

 The sunporch is a chilly place to be but the view of the high snow gives you a shiver too!

 The geraniums are in an east window so they're just holding their own, the large one facing south bloomed one red bloom. The west window is full of plants that are waiting for the sunporch to warm up so they can drink in the sun from that area.

 The dogs fenced in pen is full of snow! It is so funny to watch Baxter lift his leg, nearly over the fence, to have a pee. See the propane tank to the right?

 This is the small path to get to them. They have been so handy as we were without power for 48 hrs once & just last week for 1 1/2hrs. The backup generator is working beautifully!

 The snow is really piling up & today the weather is warmer with showers but tonight everything freezes up again. Tomorrow is going to be sunny but more snow is in the forecast for Tuesday.

 Bill dug out an area on the side porch for our Boston's Bridget & Baxter.

 Not much going on in the potting shed these days.

 This lighthouse bird feeder is a busy place to view with all the wild birds & squirrels around it.

 It sure is winter here on the northeast coast of New Brunswick but winter with beauty to it!

U Is For Unicorn - Medieval Quilt 

 So many years ago my quilting girlfriend Cynthia made this quilt in a soft beige colour when my youngest Medieval loving son Nicholas saw it, he was thrilled. I promised him someday I would make it, well today I started it!

So many blocks! I'm going to do it as a quilt as you go, then when the blocks are finished & brought together it will already be quilted!
Stay tuned for the block by block reveal as I finish the quilt this year!
Cynthia called hers ' 1001 Nights' because that is how long it took her but she did hers all by hand!!
I'm using my sewing machine & doing the embroidery by hand.

My New Learning 2019

 Every year I try to learn something new, this year 2019 it was needle punch rug hooking.
Way back in 1974 I was taught latch hook quilting & it was enjoyable & easy.
Then the Miramichi Rug Hookers taught me to rug hook on burlap & linen with a rug hooking tool like a crochet hook. It was hard to get the loops all one height by I soon caught on & purchased a needle punch hook when I saw work that Edie did at the guild. She made beautiful pansies in a circle on a round rug. Years passed & I never used that hook, until now.

 Several years ago my girlfriend Elizabeth gave me a rug hooking kit, I never hooked it as it was to be done with a punch needle hook. If not now when? Good question, I started that rug two nights ago!

 This is called The Regatta & it is all red, white, & blue with the boats outlined in black. I think it is going to look get out in the sunporch this summer!

The readings that I have read say that the back should look as tidy from the front & with needle punch rug hooking that is the side of which you hook. I find it so much easier to follow a pattern from the back than the front.

Here is a close up from the back that is worked on from the front!

 Bill filled the wood holding hoop up with wood before he left but with the milder damp temperatures, it feels so good having the firebox on so the wood is going down.

This was a pleasant surprise to see the temperature above 0C for the first time in a very long time!

Thankl you for stopping in for a visit, I hope you enjoyed your time here.
Stay healthy & safe wherever you are.
See you next week!
Cynthia