All Sorts of Craftiness

It started to snow today as I drove home. I couldn't believe it. If I'd been standing up instead of driving I think I would have started to jump up and down and throw a temper tantrum. NO MORE SNOW!!! I can't take the sight of another snowflake. I'm sick of the stuff.

I got home, and after twenty or so minutes of sulking I glanced out the window and discovered the snow had turned to rain. This is good. Then the rain stopped. Even better!

I have to admit, being locked in my house for the better part of a month and a half has been productive. Never mind the budget benefits - I filled up my truck with gas three weeks ago and only refilled it today - I've gotten lots of projects done.

Something I've been wanting to do for awhile now is to make myself a matching quilt and pillowcase set. I had intended to make them white and black to match my room (and storebought white sheets - see how clever I am!) but I found this material in the Wal-Mart in the next town over and fell in love with it. I paired up this white and blue cloud print with a blue and yellow star print, and added silver sparkly white! The pattern is called "Yellow Brick Road" apparently (as you can probably tell, I had plenty of help from my sister, an avid quilter!).

It matches nothing in my room, but I love it. It also prompted a rearrange-ment of my furniture (again) which I also like. I was afraid moving the bed into the center of my room would bisect the space and make it look smaller... and maybe it does look a little smaller, but it feels cozy and making the bed sure became a lot easier!

I made myself a few matching pillows with the scraps and squares I had left over. I have tons of pillows on my bed - two standard sized, one smaller travel size pillow, a body pillow, and a little square decorative pillow - so I'll probably be making pillowcases for awhile. This is the square decorative pillow.

This is my travel-sized pillow (my favorite!).

This quilt is sooo big and warm... I made it queen-sized so it would be plenty big enough to snuggle up in. And so warm! I don't know what kind of batting we used, but this one blanket replaced the two other blankets I was using before. Can't wait to get more material and finish off the pillowcases.

Another project I hope to do this summer is to make a duvet cover for my poor old down comforter. It also needs some quilting repaired, a good cleaning, and some mending... not sure I'm going to do that myself; I might see if I can take it to someone.

This week's project: a "princess dress" for my sister Ruth, aged ten. Every year my younger sisters attend a Valentine's Day Tea hosted by some friends at church. Fancy garb in red, pink, or white is required, and this year Ruth aired her desire for a "princess dress" and my heart melted, because I remember being ten and wanting something with a huge pouffy skirt and tons of layers of sheer and lace. :) Anna and I found the material on sale today, and I cut out the pattern... now all I have to do is figure out out these directions and get it all sewn up in time for Friday. I guess I know what I'll be spending "naptimes" doing this week!

So, that's pretty much what's been taking up my time lately... what about you folks? Any weather-inspired projects?