ThreadBear

The weather is on my mind today. It could be because we are having our first real snow event of the season and my youngest has a snow day tomorrow from school. One wouldn’t think, being an “indoor sport” and all, that quilting would be affected by the weather, but for me it is.

WINTER: First of all, I’m lucky that my sewing room is actually one of the warmest in the house, but I have friends who are relegated to the basement and so have heard quite a few tales lately of misery while quilting. If I were cold, I wouldn’t be able to do it.  I do however hate the fact that it gets dark so early. I really love to quilt when my upstairs room is filled with sunlight (and yes, warmth).  We’ve been very lucky the last few years that the snow and ice storms might knock our internet out, but not the power, so quilting can happen even if I can’t surf the net or read my email. Part of the problem is that I don’t seem to be able to stay up as late, but on the bright side, I’m not going to spend much time out on the snow-covered roads, so great time to be quilting!

SPRING: Not much bad I can say about spring. The days are longer and warmer. I guess the only problem is I have added guilt feelings because I know I should be out weeding, trimming trees, and all that. Heaven forbid if I actually decided to do another garden. Nope, I think I’ll keep my gardening to my quilts.

SUMMER: Having been raised on the west coast where summer meant days of sunshine, no rain, and warmth (not humid either), it seems like this season is an even tougher transition for me than winter and snow. First of all, I hate to be sticky and so its very hard for me to deal with objects designed to keep one warm. Secondly, there’s lightning. I’ve always had quite a decent respect for lightning, but after our house was hit a few years ago and subsequently having lost quite a few of our electronics (phones, computers, garage door opener, etc.), I’m quite fanatical about getting things turned off and unplugged. I also have become a weather aficionado and spend quite a bit of time tracking the weather, listening to weather reports, and even measuring things like rainfall*.  This of course means, that I will not have the longarm or my sewing machine plugged in if there’s even a threat of significant weather.  Therefore, if there are thunderstorms, I can’t quilt.  I guess I could take up hand quilting, but I figured out a long time ago that’s not for me.

FALL: Like spring, not too much other than the occassional thunderstorm to circumvent my sewing, except it seems like all the school activities are crammed into this one season. Not to mention just getting my daughter off to a good start with the new school year. And then there’s the reverse-spring activities such as putting the rose bushes to bed for the winter.

So, yes, the weather does seem to affect my quilting. It certainly affects my mood and there are times when the quilting uplifts me beyond whatever the weather seems to be doing. I guess the worst part is that it always seems like I want to quilt when I can’t (like during those thunderstorm times). Ah well, guess that’s when we can pull out a puzzle or family game, or even (gasp!) watch some television.

Happy Quilting (and weather watching!)

~Kathy

P.S. My friend Kathy’s book has been published. See the AQS blogspot for their review. Doesn’t this make you want to rush out an buy it? (No, I don’t get a commission if you decide to purchase it yourself, but I do want to give her a plug – I’m so thrilled that I actually know someone who’s such an accomplished quilter and author.)  I can’t wait until I get mine!

Rule Breaking Quilts by Kathryn Schmidt

* If you ever want to get involved with weather, there is a great national organization called CoCoRaHs. This group has folks in every state to submit precipitation data, snowfall amounts, etc. on a daily basis. I’ve been doing this for a few years and it is so fun and easy. If you look at the state map, one of the blue Michigan dots is me!