It was ONE degree Fahrenheit when I left the house for work this morning. That is COLD. Des Moines, Iowa got 8.5 inches of snow yesterday–welcome to living in a house with a sloped driveway and a single car garage (that currently doesn’t fit a vehicle!). Not that I am complaining–we love our home and we are extremely grateful to be out of the condo! But the snow does present and extra challenge or two! 😉
I’ve been so busy this Autumn; apparently too busy to blog — though I had plenty of material I could’ve blogged about! I took a class at the University where I work, in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications; called Social Media Strategies. I learned so much, but I am so glad to have given my final presentation last week and to be done with the class.
The Thursday before Thanksgiving the Des Moines MQG met for our holiday social. We had freezing rain (icy conditions) that evening, so many didn’t make it. However, we had a decent sized crowd, good food and great company. We do a holiday swap (everyone is asked to bring a grab bag item for any holiday our season of our choosing). I made this mug rug/mini quilt from Kate Spain’s In From the Cold pattern (I downsized it to make the block smaller):
Those little sawtooth squares (half-square triangles) are like 1/2″ finished on my version!
On the back, I used up some orphan Flying Geese that I made while testing methods and sizes for our Fox in a Box pattern.
The item I brought home from the swap was this wonderful organizer that Jill made using one of my favorite Christmas fabric collections from recent years:
There were some other great handmade items, check out our post to see more of them!
Row House Creations is keeping me busy as well; working on Building Foundations Sampler blocks each week, our weekly business workday, quilts for magazine submissions, and a new pattern that we hope to introduce before too long.
I’ll be back soon with a catch-up post or two!
a Blessed Advent Season,
made by a brunnette 
Love the organizer swap. Is there a tutorial on this organizer. I love the snowfall on this page. How do you do that? It’s pretty cool. Stay warm and safe!
The pattern Jill used is from the Pretty in Patchwork Holidays book. I think the snowfall on my page might be leftover from last winter—yikes! Hopefully it wasn’t “snowing here” in July. 😉 I believe it was an option on WordPress, but now I need to find it again…
Mahalo Doris!
Sure think your mug rug is adorable. You did such a nice job on it! I can’t imagine being in such cold weather (already this winter!) and having to go out and shovel before going anyplace. Oh the joys of home-ownership. Sorry you’re having such a tough initiation. Your holiday MQG meeting sounded like it was really nice. We had ours this evening, but being out bare-legged, in a short-sleeved top, on December 9, still doesn’t “compute.” Warm weather certainly makes it more difficult to get into the holiday spirit. Hope you enjoy your nice long break between Christmas and New Years.
Well, Linda, I lucked out on the shoveling as Frank and a neighbor did it before I went out but man, those cold seats! I might have to ask for a car starter for Christmas. Just thankful for the wheels to get to work, my good job, and the roof over our heads.