Baby it's COLD outside!

The chill of winter is making a daily fire a necessity. If it isn’t too cold I can build a fire and begin to work.  If the temperature is hovering around 5° outside, I need to build the fire and walk away for an hour or two.  My machine is happy working in cold air, but she grumbles loudly if I accidently start her up before my wall thermometer reaches 52°. I did this one fine day thinking the thermometer was reading in the low 50’s (because I actually was trying to read it in the dark) and it was not that warm.  I started quilting and the groaning and griping from my sturdy Gammill surprised me. After a time she ran more smoothly and I quilted merrily for an hour.  When I stopped for a short break, and it was more daylight than dark, I glanced at the thermometer on my way out of the studio and saw it had reached 42°!  Oh my! No wonder I was hearing noises I had never heard before.

My latest project is already a quilt top waiting for time on the machine, but here is a picture of two of the columns before I assembled it.

Here is another column quilt that I finished in November. I like how the open spaces provide a place to have pretty quilting.

And then we have Toby, resigned to the stool because it is the only warm place in the house large enough to accommodate a cat. Hmph! Small cat lesson, ‘you take what you can get when you live in a house that stays at 59° until the family arrives after 4 pm and the furnace gets turned up to 66°’

I remember a winter that was so cold I was grateful to go to my horrible job at the factory because it was so much warmer there than at home. I’m so grateful now for the fireplace and all the effort that goes into the gathering, splitting, stacking and hauling of wood into the house when needed.  It is a comfort to be able to stay home and work and be warm.