When is Enough, Enough?

(there is eventually quilt content to this post...)

I ask you, "When is Enough?". This is in response to winter. Snow. Cold. I am by all accounts a definite summer person. I don't mind the blazing sun, high 90's. And for many more months than I am afforded here in Maine. But winter, forget it. It is for the arctic birds. This winter has been the coldest and snowiest in recent memory. We've gotten more snow in January than in all of last year. And it has been really cold too. Like frigid. Many of you were hit with this week's 2000 mile wide snowstorm. Perhaps we were mildly spared, only getting 75% of what they predicted. But still, we've averaged 10-12" snow per week for the last 5 weeks. My kids have not gone a full week of school since before Christmas. They logged 4 snow days in just January! And if that's not enough, they are predicting another 6-8" tomorrow. At least it's on a weekend!
The snowbanks along my driveway are nearly to my chest, certainly above her shoulders! She can hardly keep her boots on playing in the yard.

And the sidewalks that the kids use to get to the bus stop are disappearing because the snowplows push the snow back onto them. The banks at the road's edge are at the height of my van's roof. I tell ya, this is no climate for a person to live in.

.

I did take a quilt off the frame today. It's from the Parisville fabrics, and has a massive amount of ivory Kona on it too. It's kind of minimalist, but hopefully the quilting brings out the more elegant simplicity of plain ivory. I'm not really sure why the stripes down the top are different widths or why the ivory on each side are not equal width, but these are not my questions to ask.

The borders are 21 and 25" wide, and are quilted mostly similarly. I brought the clamshell pattern from the following fabric, and used it in the quilting on the borders. I got to use my Handi clamshell template (I have 4 sizes!) for the first time since my October retreat to SLC.

The borders have nice texture and I think will look nice draped down the sides of a king bed. Yes, this quilt is freakin huge - about 106" wide and nearly as long! I did many rows of fancy feathers too.

There's about 2500yards of Bottomline thread in this quilt. Yes, that's close to a mile and a half for the mathematicians out there. The back of the quilt was (I think) constructed from a sheet. I have heard warnings about not using sheets, but this was no issue whatsoever. I really like the way the back looks. The 2 bands of printed squares run across the top and bottom of the quilt.

And here's one last closeup of my freehanded filler. It's fun, and whimsical and I like to use this on busier prints. I think it quilts up nicely, allowing use of more formal feathers and rows of swirling to also coordinate in the quilting scheme.

Hope you have a good weekend. Stay warm. Stay indoors. And may you not have to use a shovel!