I bought some gray batiks a couple years ago thinking I wanted to use them to make a kaleidoscope quilt. I lost interest in making that pattern, but started thinking recently about making something with those grays.
So I thought about combining them with some low value colored batiks along with a variety of black and white prints.
Here’s the first few blocks.
It’s definitely a departure from what I usually make. I was laughing as I was sewing this evening because it seemed so quiet as I was sewing! Maybe all those bright fabrics have been screaming at me! There are some bolder black and white prints that will show up soon in these blocks. It will be interesting to see how they look.
If I had this quilt in mind when I was buying the gray batiks I probably would have purchased some different fabrics. The darker grays might be a little too dark, but overall I like where this is going.
I went through my stash of batiks to pull out my lighter colored pieces and I only had about a half dozen that were what I wanted for this quilt. So I went online and bought a bunch… sight unseen. I don’t usually buy batiks online because you never know how accurate the photos are. It’s risky, but I was pretty happy with what was delivered.
I sewed three blocks today and made an additional four strip sets.
I still have ten more blocks to make for my scrappy KFC trip quilt. I hope to make some progress on that tomorrow.
Today was the third day of a nasty winter storm here in Portland and surrounding areas. It started with snow and rain on Friday and turned into a terrible ice storm Friday night and all day Saturday. Today was a little better, but it’s still dangerous out there. There are trees down all over the area and hundreds of thousands of people are without power. I’ve been so lucky that I’m still warm and toasty.
Friday night was the worst part of the storm. On top of all the ice, we had gusty winds. At about 2 am a limb broke off one of my neighbor’s Douglas Fir trees with a bang and came crashing down through all the lower limbs as I laid in bed waiting to hear it crash into my roof… right over my head. Instead I heard it brush the side of my house as it came down. I went out to take a look and it was leaning on my neighbor’s roof. I’m pretty sure my life passed before my eyes! It scared the hell out of me and the dogs!
We had more freezing rain early this evening. But the temperature has finally gone up a little tonight and I can hear the ice melting and dropping from the trees near my house. It’s a wonderful sound!
Here’s my humming bird feeder from earlier this evening.
Here’s the feeder on Saturday afternoon.
The neighborhood was absolutely deserted yesterday morning so I got bundled up and took the dogs out. I had planned to just let them run leash free on the street in front of my house, but it was so nice outside and it felt so good to be moving around, we turned it into a 2.5 mile walk. They had so much fun!
They drug each other around by the leash for at least half of the walk. They were exhausted when we got home and had a nice snooze.
Look at this happy face…
I took the boys out for another walk this afternoon and it was a pretty exhausting walk. The snow on the roads is more icy in spots, loose in other spots, and just a mess. We did walk about 2.5 miles and worked hard the entire walk.
I did take some photos of ice around the neighborhood today. Amazing that something so pretty can be do dangerous and cause so much damage.
I have to say, I am not a fan of ice storms! I’ll be really glad when this one is behind us.
agilejack 
What a departure from the usual, but it will give your eyes a rest. Your photos really highlight what “ice storm” means. We’ve had snow, rain, snow, freezing, rain, more freezing, etc. for almost the whole last week. I have no desire to go outside at all. Today is one month since my Covid diagnosis, but it feels like much longer. I’m so much better than I was, but still have more convalescing to do. I’m still not back to regular sewing, but – one day at a time. I’m anxious to see where this new “Trip” takes you! Today, I hope to work on pressing my Dresden Plates.
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I’m glad to hear you’re slowing getting back to normal. What a long journey for you!
We don’t get much snow here but if we do we often get ice. But this storm is out of the ordinary. I’ve been in Portland for almost 11 years and I’ve never seen a storm like this one. And I hope I never see another one. I’m so lucky that I have no damage on my property and I kept power the entire time. Some people are still many days away from having power.
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I really love the size of your zipper pouches but, I just want too make it all in one fabric. My future daughter in law loves llamas and I found this adorable fabric with llamas all over it. I was wondering if you could give me the instructions for the sizes without the side panels. Im going for Alzheimers test and im having a terrible time trying too figure it out. I would appreciate it so much!
Thank you,
Lori Sylvain
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The larger pouches I make are 10×12 inches. You can orient that panel vertically or horizontally.
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Yes, totally different 🙂 The dark greys will be a good contrast. The boys look so cute playing, smart they know to pull the others’ leash. So glad you and your house are unharmed! That would be awful scary! We awoke to a good foot of snow, the most I have seen here in Texas in decades! 🙂
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Wow! That;s a lot of snow! Does it cause issues like it does here? We just aren’t ready to deal with snow. We just wait for it to melt off. hardly any snow plows here.
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Lol, yep, we might get a dusting of an inch or so or else ice and everything shuts down- no one knows how to drive on it safely. We had a very bad pileup near Ft. Worth and there were 6deaths, a lot of injuries. Most winters we get nothing but cold. Temps dropping in the 30s sends people panic shopping 🛒 so fast, like we will be snowed in or something. We are supposed to get down to 1 degree tonight 😳!
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Yes. People here are the same… no idea how to drive in snow and ice. I had seen that pile up on the news. Can’t imagine being stuck in something like that.
We had a car go off the freeway bridge over a pile of snow into the Columbia River yesterday. The Columbia is a huge river. They werent’ able to find the car last night and stopped the search after two hours because it was so dangerous.
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Amazing to see that much snow and ice. So beautiful and yet I imagine scary too. Here in the West Country in the UK we rarely get any snow so a treat to see your lovely pictures. The dogs looked like they had a great time!
Love the great batiks, very restful.
Keep safe!
Lindy
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We don’t get very much snow here, but when we do it’s usually quite icy. But this freezing rain is something else all together. I’d be happy if I never see it again. I’m lucky that I came away relatively unscathed, other than stressed out.
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I am glad that you are ok and very lucky to have electricity. Here in Gatineau, quebec, canada we had an ice storm more than 20 years ago and I still remember it like yesterday. We lost power for more than a week, so many trees were broken or bended. I don’t think you give names to your quilt but this bargello could be called ice storm or at least it will be a souvenir of this dangerous but beautiful storm. Take care and stay safe
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Such a great idea for naming this quilt! Thanks for suggesting it! It will now be Ice Storm! It’s perfect!
I’m really lucky that I’ve had no property damage and kept my power the entire time. there are some places were trees are down everywhere and people will be without power for days or weeks. I’ll be happy if I never see another storm like this!
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Wow! Be safe out there during your walks. Love the gray new quilt fabrics. I have been working on a scrappy scrappy kaffe quilt with all little pieces. So much fun. I get inspiration from you.
fun
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thanks for commenting! I’m always happy to hear that people find my quilting inspiring. I get so much energy, joy and great ideas from what other people make.
And isn’t it fun to use up scraps??? Scrappy quilts really are my happy place!!! the more fabrics the better!
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I love your new blocks. I do a neutral quilt now and then too. I think it is recharge time but then on the other hand your new quilt looks a lot like the ice and snow you are having right now, a true winter landscape quilt. We rarely have as much ice as you are showing and I’m happy about that. Right now I think we must have about 14″ of snow on the ground and with below 0 temps it isn’t going away anytime soon.
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Someone else said the same thing about this quilt matching our ice storm. I don’t typically name my quilts, but this one will be Ice Storm!
We don’t get a lot of snow here. But every now and then we get a big storm and they often bring ice. There are so many big trees here that all that ice is really dangerous. Plus, we don’t have the equipment to deal with snow, so we just have to wait for it to melt… even on the freeways! It can be a real mess.
You have so much snow! I’m glad we don’t have temps as low as yours. I don’t miss that really cold winter weather.
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