Baby it's Still Cold Outside!

Goodness!  With all this snow, all I want to do is quilt! On one of the snow days when I worked the barn since no one else could get to work, I picked this kit and Gloria pieced it for us.  Isn't it cute?  It's called Annandale by Jo Morton and is a free download on the Andover website.  Jo made her's in her classic black & burnt orange which is what we had planned  to do but when I saw her border fabric in brown and pink, I decided to change it up! Can't wait until it's quilted! We have the kits for this version which does include the pattern, but we are happy to cut the black and orange version.  The kits will be up on our website soon but are available immediately if you have to have something to piece on these cold winter nights!

During our first big snowstorm, our good friend Debbie fearlessly drove her big Dogde pickup to the barn.  On her way out, she must have been checking out her purchases instead of the road and ended up drifting off the driveway into the pasture until she was stuck!  But never fear!  We are a full service quilt shop!  When I arrived in the pasture with my trusty Ford Expedition to pull her out, she was a bit incredulous: "you're gonna pull me out with that?"  Never fear- just like in Crazy Camp, we'll tell you when it's time to panic! Once we got her out and on her way, what did our Lorri do but follow her tracks right on out into the pasture but she stopped in time when she noticed that the sign was on the wrong side of the road, or rather she was on the wrong side of the sign!

Now maybe you heard on the national news this morning that yesterday, Spokane (that includes us!) had another 10 inches.  That's not so bad until you factor in the wind that's constantly blowing out here.  So I call Lynda and tell her to stay home, that the roads hadn't been plowed, checked in with Kallie who's husband was gonna get her to work, but I forgot about MaryEllen....that is until she called to tell me she was stuck on Tramm Rd just before the railroad tracks.  Yikes!  So I pull my husband off the tractor, and we go to her rescue!  We've got her pulled backwards about a quarter mile almost to Bisson Rd when here comes our shipper Jan!  Oh my goodness- with stronger words to follow!  She stops and can't get moving again, so we unhook from Mary Ellen, squeeze by Jan, and pull her backwards out to the highway.  Then back for MaryEllen!  Both arrived home safely and hopefully have forgiven us!  They're both at work today so we can hope!

Needless to say, snowy days are a great time to applique (when I'm not rescuing stranded motorists!)  Here's a "Little (more) Porch Time".  These are months 3 & 4-it's just missing a couple birds at the bottom by the geese. I do have some corrections to the directions in the book for section E as follows:
1.  The zinnia backgrounds, block E2, should be cut 7-3/4" x 21-1/2".
2.  The filler beneath the zinnia, block E2, should be cut 1-3/4" x 24".
3. The house background, block E3, should be cut 18" x 20-1/2", OR to  make it look like the photograph, cut the house background 16-1/2" x 20-1/2" and stitch a cut size 2" x 20-1/2" filler to the top.  The side squares on the background in the upper left corner are undetermined; I just appliqued scrap rectangles so it looks somewhat like the photo.
Hope this helps!  Hope everybody gets lots of stitching done!  Remember, busy hands stay warm!