Thursday, February 26, 2009

Last Blast of Winter

I have always said that the weather can change in a blink of an eye in Walla Walla. Last night, I was on a roll. I stayed up until 4 am hand stitching the binding down on a quilt. Sometime after 2 am, I put a load of laundry in the dryer. Our basement felt cold and damp - colder than it was when I put the load in to wash; like a winter fog had just rolled in. When I returned upstairs, I looked out the window in our living room from where I was curled up with the quilt over my lap, no sign of fog.

But soon a heavy slushy rain came pelting down. It was almost hail but not quite. It splattered and started to cover the ground. I stood and watched and all of a sudden, a huge thunder clap broke through the sound of the pelting rain and lightening lit up the sky followed by a sound that could have been a jet breaking through the sound barrier. The sound was so low and close, I almost expected to hear a crash but only silence came and snow fell heavily.

By the time I went to bed, there was probably over an inch of fresh heavy snow. When I woke up to blue skies at 8 am, it looked like there had been about 3 inches. But did the sun last? No! It is now snowing heavily again. There is always a last blast of winter at the end of February in our valley. It brings a cruel halt to the signs of spring and often surprisingly warm days.


And the quilt? The binding is on. I will do a label for it after it is washed. The batting is cotton, I like to see how the shrinkage shows up the quilting.

This quilt top was made on my Sweet 99, Minnie, a hand crank, on Christmas Day. We didn't get to be with family due to snow. I had to celebrate the season by making a Christmas quilt. And, I love sewing on hand crank sewing machines. There is just something so relaxing about the process. I forgot my disappointment over Christmas with every turn my hand made to stitch the quilt.

2 comments:

Grandma Shell said...

Love your quilt. I also find myself so ingrossed in my sewing that it's nearly morning before I decided I SHOULD probably lie down for a while. And, I'm an early riser so it is just a bit sometimes. Like the postcard also. Didn't have time to browse any further as I've got to go to work pretty soon. BTW, I just live down The River a ways...near Biggs, OR, but on the WA side. We're STILL having that Last Blast of Winter it seems. Good to meet you.

Sally said...

Thank you for the kind words! I hope spring visits Goldendale, soon. We have had two nice warm days, here.