January Blahs

Christmas has come and gone. The decorations are packed away again and the only reminder of the holiday past is the bowl of cards still on the table by the door. They will move on shortly and so will I. After another successful show season I have sewing and quilting to do. I sold 2 couch throws this year so will need to concentrate on replacing them in my inventory. I already have one planned and fabric prepared - just need to start cutting and sewing. Along with those 2 I also have another throw to layer and quilt. Several years ago David spent a week or so in Wilmington, North Carolina helping the people who purchased the business he worked for here in Maine get up and running. He was looking for other things to do so I set him up with my cousin Alliene, who lives in Wilmington and he spent an afternoon/evening with she and her husband, Ben. David came home with a few presents from Alliene, one of which was a hand-pieced quilt top. She was unable to provide much as to the provenance - perhaps it was pieced by her mother (my Aunt Jane) or her grandmother (her namesake, Alliene Estabrook). We just don't know and sadly have no way to find out now. I have the backing and batting and will add it to the mix while learning to quilt on my new machine. I'm still experimenting with tensions etc. to get the right mix, which of course changes depending on the fabrics in play. I am not going on the usual January fabric acquisition binge as usual because I need to conserve funds for show applications. Since I am no longer a Board member at UMC I no longer enjoy the perk of free spaces, although I did negotiate a deal for some credit in exchange for wrangling the Facebook page. We'll see how that works out. I thought I did a decent job this past year (certainly better than previous efforts) but I know I have more to learn. Christmas Day was quiet for us - and cold as the boiler chose to leave us without heat or hot water that day. We waited until the next day to call and Dead River was here within an hour. 3+ hours and over $1000 we were back in heat although the system needs to be cleaned and serviced as that got dropped this Fall. As I write this we are in the first hours of our first snow storm since my difficult ride home from the Holiday show over a month ago. This snow, however, is powder and so light you can blow it away. We needed this but it will be gone in another drenching rain storm on Wednesday. We had one of those a week before Christmas that sent trees crashing down and ripped shingles off in some places. There were people without power for several days and I noted yesterday when I drove home on Prescott Road that there is still a missing pole and downed wires there. We experienced fierce winds and drenching rain but kept our power.