Incoherent Scribblings

How appropriate that I finished “Winter Love” by SamSarah Design Studio from the JCS 2007 Christmas Ornament issue just in time for Valentine’s Day!

Actually, I stitched this as part of my 10 Ornies in 500 Days Challenge. This will be turned into a Christmas Ornament for a member of my family. At the moment, I think it will more than likely be for my step-mom, but I haven’t decided for sure so I haven’t personalized it yet.

I envision it as a simple pillow-style ornament, though I am hoping to make it a tuck-pillow ornament. I would like to finish it into the ornament sometime soon, but it will really depend if I can find some appropriate fabric.

There isn’t much of a fabric selection out here in West Texas Town, so I am considering looking to see if I can find some sort of fabric shop online. I figure that with all the quilters out there, there are just as likely to be OQSs as there are ONSs, right?

And with this finish, I am afraid I can put it off no longer… “Above the Clouds” must be next in my rotation.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

It has been some months since I last worked on “Four Seasons Cats” so when it came up in my rotation last week I knew it was time to finally tackle the Winter Cat border.

I like this pattern, really I do, but for some reason it always gets pushed to the bottom of my rotation. I suspect the problem is that although each square is not very big the stitching is extremely dense and as a result, I find it easy to procrastinate about it.

However, with the completion of the Winter Cat border I feel like I have had a micro-mini happy dance because I now have the borders for all four seasons complete.

The winter border stitched up in a very quick five hours and though I should work another five hours on the piece to finish my ten hour rotation on it, I probably won’t because my goal for this round was merely to finish the border… and besides, I am ready to move on to “Spring Queen!”

Today with the finish of the winter cat from the Margaret Sherry patterns in the December 2007 issue of The Cross Stitcher, I have a semi-happy dance. Since these patterns easily stand alone, I could count today’s finish as 25 of my 26 Project Challenge. I decided to stitch all four cats together on the same fabric though so I am not counting this as a happy dance until I stitch all four. Nevertheless, here is the first one out of the four.

In addition to working a little bit on “Fairy Flora,” I now am completely finished with Outi’s belated birthday present. However, I am not mailing it until after I return to Texas because I am waiting on a little extra for her package. I am quite pleased with the way her present turned out. I just hope she likes it.

Living out here in West Texas Town less than 100 miles north of the U.S./Mexico border, it is easy to forget that it is December, much less the Christmas season.

I suppose the fact that I own neither television nor radio probably has something to do with my complete and utter detachment from reality this materialistic overhyped time of year, but I think the reason that I am so befuddled is because it doesn’t really feel like Christmas to me.

Yes, there was a cold snap over Thanksgiving weekend and even a little bit of snow, but if it weren’t for the pictures I took to prove it, I wouldn’t believe it. I have barely needed a jacket since I moved here, most days I can still wear my sandals if I feel like it, and as I type this, my kitchen window is wide open because it is nearly 60 degrees outside. (Did I mention that it is 11:00 pm?)

Admittedly this isn’t the first Christmas season that I have spent “down south,” but I have never before lived in a place where the concept of winter seems so utterly foreign: A place where scarves and snow boots are fashion accessories, where yucca trees are strung with Christmas lights, and where Santa sits serenely amongst the cacti.

Snow Bike
Originally uploaded by blondelibrarian.

Coming from Iowa I am no stranger to snow storms or deep snow, but even if this was my bicycle I don’t think it would do me much good to ride it to the train station today.

Since yesterday the Munich area has received approximately 50 centimeters (or about 20 inches) of snow and all public transportation apart from the underground (aka subway) has stopped running. And according to the news, yesterday and today you could/can expect 20-80 kilometer traffic jams, delayed or canceled flights, and disrupted train traffic.

A spokesman for the traffic police in Bavaria warned that those who do not absolutely have to go somewhere should stay at home and so that is exactly what A. and I have done this weekend: We left the car in the garage, watched the chaos on TV, and have periodically gone outside to play in the snow.

However, as we were trudging through the snow this morning snickering at the poor souls who dug their cars out from under the snow only to get stuck in the drift that all their digging had created, I was reminded of how when I was a kid I would get so frustrated because my parents didn’t want to brave the roads during a snow storm.

I especially thought that my mom was a wimp because at the first sign of a slippery road she would hang up her coat and tell us if we thought we needed toilet paper that badly we should just walk ourselves the eight miles into to town and get it. Of course once I got old enough to drive and after I ended up sliding into a ditch or two myself, my whole attitude about driving in the snow completely changed.

Now, as a native Midwesterner I had no choice but to learn to drive in the snow and even though I have not lived in Iowa for nearly ten years, I can still drive in the snow… even if I have to drive an ancient rear-wheel drive car.

And as a result of that “confidence,” on the day that we got a slight dusting of snow when I was in Iowa a few weeks ago I decided that I just had to run some errands. Without much thought to the snow, the small hill that my mom’s house is on, or the retaining wall kitty-corner from her house, I jumped into my 1980 rear-wheel drive Chevy Malibu with its studded tires and stepped on the gas… And promptly slid around the corner and came face to face with the retaining wall.

But like the proverbial “bike riding,” as soon as I felt the slide I remembered exactly how to steer out of it… which is why instead of hitting that wall I stopped in front of it with about an inch and a half to spare!