Wednesday Weather Report #89 - 1/30/19

We're in the middle of a huge winter storm here in WNY - you've probably heard of the polar vortex slugging towards the east - that would sort of be me.

To look out the window the sun is shining and it's not snowing but there is a swift wind. Yet, 20 miles away there is zero visibility and the wind is just a whipping the snow drifts around causing lots of multi-vehicle accidents and tipping over semi-trucks. The visibility is so bad the firemen are having trouble finding the accident scenes let alone each other. Yikes!

We currently are under a blizzard warning, winter storm warning, wind chill warning, special weather statement and the county sheriff has asked for no unnecessary travel. Did I mention it's a perfectly sunny day outside my office window?? I think tomorrow is supposed to be a lot more of the same. It all depends on those lake effect snow bands - will they hit us or not?

Yesterday I had to run to the local grocer during lunch. A quick peek at the bread aisle showed the supply was a touch thin:

The milk supply was sufficient but the OJ was in short supply, despite it being hard to discern in this stunning photo:

We joke about the french toast effect - mention the word storm and every one stocks up on bread, milk and eggs. I forgot to check on the eggs but it might be funny to go check the same shelves today to see how well they are stocked half way thru the "storm".

January 23 - 29, 2019
40 - 28 - 19 - 18 - 23 - 15 - 26 F

January 1-29, 2019

I hope you are having a lovely weather day!

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Feline Friday - 1/25/19

Momma has been working on the Good Fortune mystery quilt from Bonnie.
Well, it's not a mystery any more but she keeps working on it...

Last weekend she laid out the blocks she had finished so far to see how they looked. We liked them but Momma thought the red/orange chain blocks might look better in the corners instead of the stars. Momma consulted with my fav Auntie ChaCha who said it was Momma's quilt and she could change it if she liked.

So Momma changed the corner blocks and I gave my opinion.

And I continued to give my opinion until Momma picked the blocks up. Geesh. Sometimes she's just no fun.

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Wednesday Weather Report #88 - 1/23/19

I'm all caught up on my weather quilt. Woohoo!

Last week's piece was another fun one. It was hard to remember if it should be included this way:

or maybe it was this way:

January 9 - 15, 2019
29 - 21 - 17 - 23 - 19 - 25 - 27 F

For this week we introduced a new color. Welcome PINK!!!!

January 16 - 22, 2019
30 - 22 - 30 - 14 - 8 - 3 - 19 F

Today is a wild color considering that we were just at a high of 3F two days ago...today it's 40F!! Hello turquoise! We started the day with a thin coat of ice and now it's just plain raining. Ick. It can go back to 3F and full sun anytime now...

January 1-22, 2019

But wait, my friends, this is the money shot:

June 1, 2018 to January 22, 2019

Isn't it fabulous??!!!

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Feline Friday - 1/18/19

Smells. Good.

Can't. Quite. Reach. The. Salmon.

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HeLP for Hexie-aholicss - 1/17/19

Hello Hello and Happy New Year! Welcome to our monthly Hexie Linky Party where we entertain EPP projects of any vintage or paper shape.

It's a brand new year - do you have a new hexie project or are you still working on old faithful? Today is the day to share!

As you are well aware, I am working on Mr Serious. I've just counted up the finished hexies and found it to be 1001 which makes me just 163 short of the half way mark!!!!

If my numbers have already made you crossseyed, you can skip to the end!

My original plan had been to take 9 months to stitch the top, leaving 3 months to quilt and bind the quilt. I also knew 3 months gave me lots of wiggle room, if needed, even tho they would be busy summer months. On Saturday I will be 19 weeks thru the 9 months with 20 weeks left to go. Where has the time flown?

The original math had told me 8 hexies a day would be sufficient while I had actually hoped for 10 a day knowing that some days I wouldn't even have time to stitch a single hexie. It's good to know that I have actually been keeping a 7.5 hexie a day pace so far despite many no hexie days. I had no idea I was so close to being on schedule.

It will be hard not to stitch all weekend, instead of doing some necessary chores, during the pending snow storm...wish me luck!

And now it's your turn - what are you working on? Did you start a new project? Pull out an old project? Finally succumb to starting a temperature quilt?

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Wednesday Weather Report #87 - 1/16/19

We're friends, right?! So I can be honest?

Righto then ... I haven't done a THING on my temperature quilt since last Tuesday beyond recording the daily temps at 1pm.

Instead I've been working on Mr Serious in anticipation of tomorrow's HeLP post:

The 3 cream hexies are the shading for the chin.
They are not quite as subtle in person.

What's that, you say? Oh yes, I know the color map is upside down but that's how I work on each strip so it's easier to just have the map upside down. In essence I am starting with what's closest to me and then stitching away from myself.

I'm working in strips by creating a 7 hexie rosette and then creating 6 hexie partial rosettes that fits onto the first rosette. This allows me to create a strip which is quite portable and easier to work with instead of the whole mothership.

I only need one more strip to complete the section that fits into and squares off the mothership. I doubt it will be ready for tomorrow but I'll do my best. No matter how far I get before I post tomorrow, I should be able to get a current count of completed hexies and rejigger the math to get back on a solid production schedule since I now have an install date of 9/6/19 for our exhibit at the Arts Council for Wyoming County.

Back to the weather...
It was a beautiful week with a touch of snow, a lot of sun and all in the purple and violet range!

29 - 21 - 17 - 23 - 19 - 25 - 27 F

I should have no problem catching up this weekend as a big storm is expected so I don't plan on going anywhere. Sunday should be in the single digits so it's time to pull out the next weather color :)

How are your temperature quilts coming? Any one new joining in? We would love to see your projects!!

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Feline Friday - 1/11/19

Momma took a half day this morning! Which is kinda funny cuz she might have to work OT again tonight to get her work done. Momma's are funny like that.

Any way, I did my best to keep her lap warm cuz it was only a pink day so far.

Well, really, it was a white day if we were using the windchill.

Luckily, now that she's off to work it's a violet day and I have Casa Grande to myself!

I'm happy to help while she works on my purrtrait :)

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Another Serious Update

Yesterday was the four month mark for Mr Serious!

Am I on schedule? Nope, probably not even close.

Am I still trucking on? Oh hell yeah! And If things go as planned, I should be adding the first eye tonight!!!

It got to a point where the red/Mothership was just too large and cumbersome to be adding hexagons one at a time so when I moved to the black/face I started making hexies in strips. I started each strip with a rosette and then added partial rosettes until I got the length I wanted before adding it to the new black face section.

I'm not sure the two whites I'm using for the body have the contrast I need to delineate the chin so I'm trying to finish the black and then I'll go back to decide on one of the whites or a yellowy cream.

The plan is to finish this black/white section until it fits into the red/mothership and then stitch them together. That will mean that each column is the same length and I can get a good count of where I stand.

I'm not sure what I'll work on next - the brown table into the white body at the bottom left or continue with the face at the top right while also adding the yellow. I'm thinking I *should* do the brown/body to fill out and match the width of the red/mothership but I really want to dig in to that yellow! This is what we call impatience so I won't decide until this face section is done... Lord help me ...

Wednesday Weather Report #86 - 1/9/19

Today we are awaiting a "big" storm. Between 1am today and 6pm tomorrow we could get up to 24" of heavy, wet, lake effect snow. So far I think we've accumulated a whopping one-quarter of an inch.

Partly it's how the bands of lake effect travel across the area, partly because the ground is warm after being 47F yesterday and raining heavily last night but the majority of it is because I finally had my snow tires put on yesterday and wore snow boots today. You're welcome!

January 2 - 8, 2019
29 - 31 - 46 - 35 - 30 - 26 - 47 F

January 1 -8, 2019

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The Bibliophile Files - 1/8/18

Hello and welcome to another year of The Bibliophile Files, which is my monthly list of finished books.

I finished 2018 with 77 books bringing my total recorded number of read books to 702. Sadly I can't remember what year I started using shelfari before it migrated to goodreads in 2016 but that's still a LOT of books. Thankfully I have access to a fantastic library system and my local librarian doesn't mind ordering special requests once in a while.

My goodreads.com 2018 summary says I read listened to 25,856 pages with my shortest book having just 33 pages, the longest 1,014 and my average was 335 pages. Those are some pretty respectable numbers, even if I didn't finish my goal for the year.  I blame that on reading a couple 1000+ page books. A good excuse, right??!!

For 2019 I'm sticking with the same goal of 90 books and 8 days in I'm still on track to finish that goal. Bwahahahaha! We'll see if I can keep up the pace. I just realized I should look up a reading challenge for the year since I didn't do one last year.

FINISHED
     Murder, Interrupted - written by Patterson but based on true stories that have been made into a TV show. There are 2 more audiobooks in the series.
     Whiskey Sour - a new to me police procedural series. The lead detective is named Jacqueline Daniels, or Jack for short. Ever book in the series has an alcohol reference altho that doesn't seem to be a big part of the book itself.
     Murder Games
     Give up the Ghost
     The Great Alone a fantastic (long) audiobook that starts in the 1970s with a family moving to Alaska and how the darkness and solitude affect a family that includes a Vietnam Vet with PTSD.
     Mr Penumbra
     The Night Circus - I know it's gotten rave review but for me this longish book was just meh. I suppose this might be because it was about magic and fantasy but it did fit in with all the circus books of 2018.
   
IN PROGRESS
     On my stereo - A Gathering of Secrets
     on my iPhone - All the Missing Girls

And now it's your turn. What have you read recently? Feel free to share novels, magazines, quilt patterns or cereal boxes - everything is game.

Feline Friday - 1/4/19

Momma was a little worried about me this morning...

I didn't wanna cuddle in her lap, I was pretty cranky and the biggie ----- I didn't eat my breakfast. I know. Crazy, huh? She even put extra kibble in my bowl.

Eventually she pulled out the good, wet stuff!

I wonder if that'll work again tonight?

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Wednesday Weather Report #85 - 1/2/19

December 26-31, 2018: 34 - 33 - 52 - 31 - 33 - 39 F
January 1, 2019:  33 F

December 1-31, 2018

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