All the little pieces....

.....are stitched together.



I've been stitching every spare minute I get and am having such a fun time of it. I love all the vari-colored pieces and how they look together. I am still not completely done with the crib quilt because I need to order some of my favorite batting and then decide whether or not I will machine quilt, hand quilt or tie it.....


click picture to enlarge

....but I did finish this valance that includes the embroidered blocks that I had at first intended to be sprinkled in the quilt. Daughter-In-Love had the great idea of making a valance with the blocks, and together we brainstormed about how to add the bitty blocks in with them. I am thrilled with the results and I only wish I had another valance just like it to put on my own window in the Workshop.

We've had a nice 10 days worth of January Thaw here in the North. A January Thaw is exactly what it says....it gets unseasonably warm (in January, of course) and all the snow and ice melts down until there's almost nothing left but brown dirt and brown grass and ugliness. People wash their cars and take their motorcycles out for a ride and act like it's spring when really, they know better.

But here we are today, back to Regular January when it is very cold and it snows and the mud turns into hard mud. There's thick frost on my window panes again and the temps are dipping below zero again, but hey! it is wintertime after all and so I am not complaining. I kept repeating to myself when I was taking my walks in 40-50 degree temps, "Enjoy this now, Jody, because it's not going to last." I really did enjoy those nice days, but I didn't get my car washed. Dang it!


January Thaw...I told you it wasn't pretty.


Look who's been visiting my backyard along with the Black-capped Chickadees.
A Downy Woodpecker.