Snowy Days, State and Provincial Flowers Chat, Appliqued Mini Placemats

The dig out from the back to back snow storms that dumped almost 18 inches of snow here was fierce. Here is Ned's path out the back...he needed encouragement to give it a go.

I photographed two Blue Jays in between complete whiteouts who hung around the feeders a lot which kept getting covered in snow.  It was good they were there with their larger beaks at the height of the storm to uncover the seeds. I noticed the chickadees would then appear to quickly grab a seed or two. 

We kept warm by our fire. 

And very importantly, we did not lose the power which happens often here with high winds. One stormy night, I made a broccoli and potato soup with open faced cheese and bacon sandwiches heated a little under the broiler. Tony is not a broccoli fan but he liked the soup. I am using this product to make chicken broth and it works well to add flavour to otherwise kind of bland homemade vegetable soups.   

I have deliberately not looked at the ingredients...I'm using it sparingly- whatever it is you just need a little to get flavour.  

I completely finished the two mini placemats. I realized I'm not one for much fiddle faddle about choosing borders. So these found polka dots for the blues and stripes for the pinks in my scraps were a quick and easy choice. And easy blanket stitch around the edges of the valentines too.

Using old leftover scrappy blocks for the backs was a win also. I had the thought that perhaps Dresden blocks are my all time favourite blocks. I sure enjoyed stitching these and more of them, about 80, are shown in my featured post in the sidebar.

  I think I've shared this before but it bears repeating...6 Alphabet Patterns for Hand Embroidery, a free collection found at the Needlework/Craftgossip site. These are neat if you want to stitch a little monogram on something like a Christmas ornament.

 I've always wanted to stitch a quilt featuring the flowers of the Canadian provinces and American states. I found the patterns for the American states at Vickie's lovely site Pattern Bee and downloaded a copy. I used to follow her blog, Turkey Feathers, which seems to have stopped in 2022, sadly. 

I also found free patterns for the 50 State Flowers at one of Debra's Slow Flowers Journal post. Now I have to find patterns for the Canadian provinces (several are the same as the American as it happens). More about this quest later.

My dryer broke down and Tony has been trying to fix it. So far it is in this state but he cleverly found the defective part deep inside and has ordered a replacement.

He explained to me how these inner workings operated.😴 And I did get to give it a good cleanout which I don't think had ever been done; actually that's a silly thing to say -I'm  sure it had never been done as who gets inside a machine like this!

I'm pleased and thankful with how much shoveling I've done with no ill effects, as such. We'll get out the snowmobile this afternoon to run over the trails and make them accessible for walking again. I've just made a pot of tea so it should be ready. 

Hope there is something to comfort you, interest you and please you this February day. ✨