Friday Fortius

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Fading Temps

(affiliate links to my designs)

Digital temperature quilt projects have become more of a time hog and less of a fun project the last few months, so I'm thrilled when another one is finished. My batik quilt panel representing the second half of 2024 moved to the finished column this week, and I'm so glad!

I haven't tried putting the two panels together yet to see how they'd look, but the color scheme is growing on me. Initially, I did not like my rainbow temperature scale because I don't really care for the red, orange and yellow, but also because I picked colors I don't like to use as much to reprsent the hot temperatures, which I also don't like. And yet, holy moly! Didn't the premature quadrupled full shortened year panel make the coolest tea towel?!?

Bring on winter snow!!!

I still have five more digital projects to finish, and I really love three of them. Yet all have become drudgery, not only because we had identical highs and lows for long consecutive strings of days this year, which is not typical where I live, but also because life really got in the way this year. We're just a few days away from finishing up the year, and I'm not going to make a decision on creating a 2024 temperature quilt, real fiber or digital, until the end of the month. Or maybe I'll take a week off and start in January and play catch-up. Ha ha ha! I feel like that's what I've been doing most of this year!

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Wordless Wednesday

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Sneffels

Nearly 13 years ago, I designed one of my favorite snowflakes, Mount Sneffels.

I recently had to make a white version of the flake for my 2024 digital snowflake temperature quilt. I can't believe I hadn't made a white one before. Other than the rock covering...

I enjoyed revisiting the pattern. I still love this snowflake.

A white version provided the opportunity to play in Photoshop, of course. This is such a great flake!

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Snowflake Monday

Today's snowflake, inspired one of my snowflake photos from 2023, may have been better-suited for Halloween, especially had I chosen a bloody idiom as the name. You see, while removing the pins after stiffening, I accidentally stabbed myself without knowing it. I literally painted the flake red. (Lemon juice and hydrogen peroxide successfully bleached the blood stains.) While researching potential names, I kept thinking back to the October holiday. Vampire Juice, cold-blooded, bleeding heart, blood boil; blood, sweat and tears... I couldn't find a suitable name with the word red either. In the red, seeing red, red in the face, red flag, red-handed, red herring, red tape... Then I got the wild idea to look for emotions the color red inspires. I mean, besides, "Ouch!!!" Passionate, energetic, impulsive, ambitious, determined, courageous...

You may do whatever you'd like with snowflakes you make from this pattern, but you may not sell or republish the pattern. Thanks, and enjoy!

Finished Size: 8.5 inches from point to point
Materials: Size 10 crochet thread, size 7 crochet hook, empty pizza box, wax paper or plastic wrap, cellophane tape, water soluble school glue or desired stiffener, water, glitter, small container for glue/water mixture, paintbrush, stick pins that won't be used later for sewing, clear thread or fishing line

SPECIAL STITCHES:

Popcorn Stitch (pc)

Work 5 dc in designated st, take loop off hook, insert hook through top loop of 1st dc and replace loop on hook, pull loop through top of 1st dc.

Vigorous Snowflake Instructions

Make magic ring.

Round 1: 6 sc in ring; sl st in starting sc. Pull magic circle tight.

Round 2: [1 pc in same sc as sl st (or next sc in repeats), ch 3] 6 times, omitting last 2 ch of final repeat; 1 dc in starting pc to form 6th ch 3 sp of Round.
If you're not reading this pattern on Snowcatcher, you're not reading the designer's blog. Please go here to see the original.

Round 3: Ch 9 (counts as 1 dc and [ch 7), 1 sc in 2nd ch from hook (1st picot made), ch 4, 1 sc in 3rd ch from hook (2nd picot made), ch 7, 1 sc in 6th ch from hook (3rd picot made), [ch 9, 1 sc in 8th ch from hook] 2 times (4th and 5th picots made), ch 4, 1 sc in 3rd ch from hook (6th picot made), ch 9, 1 sc in 8th ch from hook (7th picot made), ch 3, 2 dc in 3rd ch from hook (spoke tip made), working back down spoke, ch 8, 1 sc in 8th ch from hook, 1 dc in ch below 7th picot, ch 3, 1 sc in 3rd ch from hook, 1 dc in ch below 6th picot, [ch 8, 1 sc in 8th ch from hook, 1 dc in ch below 5th picot (or 4th picot in repeat] 2 times, ch 6, 1 sc in 6th ch from hook, 1 dc in ch below 3rd picot, ch 3, 1 sc in 3rd ch from hook, 1 dc in ch below 2nd picot, ch 2, 1 sc in 2nd ch from hook, 1 dc in ch below 1st picot, ch 3, sk next 3 ch, 1 dc in next ch, 1 dc in same ch 3 sp, ch 3, 1 dc in 3rd ch from hook, 1 dc in next ch 3 sp] 6 times, omitting last dc of final repeat; sl st in 2nd ch of starting ch 9; bind off. Weave in ends.

Finish: I've been stiffening my flakes with undiluted, full-strength water soluble school glue for quite a while now, and I've been squishing the glue onto and throughout each flake with my fingers (yucky mess!!!) instead of gingerly painting the flakes with glue. Yes, it's a mess. But it's faster. And stiffer.

Tape wax paper or plastic wrap to top of empty pizza box. Pin snowflake to box on top of wax paper or plastic wrap.

If using glue, mix a few drops of water with a teaspoon of glue in small washable container. Paint snowflake with glue mixture or desired stiffener. Sprinkle lightly with glitter. Wash paintbrush and container thoroughly. Allow snowflake to dry at least 24 hours. Remove pins. Gently peel snowflake from wax paper or plastic wrap. Attach 10-inch clear thread to one spoke, weaving in end. Wrap fishing line around tree branch (or tape to ceiling or any overhead surface) and watch snowflake twirl freely whenever you walk by! Snowflake also may be taped to window or tied to doorknob or cabinet handle.

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White Friday

White Friday last year is such a blur. That week turned my life upside down, but in writing today's blog post in early November of 2024 (I traditionally have composed my White Friday blog posts a year in advance, as they happen, or right after), I realized my life wasn't the center of the universe last year. Lizard's life took the biggest hit he's ever faced, and we're still dealing with some of the repurcussions. What began on Thanksgiving 2023 may influence the rest of his life. It was not something we planned for or expected, and now it's something we are forced to deal with on an almost daily basis. But Thanksgiving is a time for giving thanks, not moaning and groaning about things that can't be changed.

I'll start with the White Friday soap. I thought I'd detailed our White Friday ordeal on my blog earlier this year, but a search turns up nothing except the aftermath. I hinted several times at what happened, but I never explained. It all started with White Friday soap. In a hotel room. During our Thanksgiving celebration with Lizard's family. Even that is foggy now. White foggy.

Back in about April or May, I thought I should probably write in more detail about what happened. Now that the annivesary is upon me, I'm not sure I can do it. It might take a bit more healing. A bit more gratitude. A bit more distance. If it doesn't appear weekly or monthly on my blog beginning next week, rest assured I kept a good journal. I will share the story at some point.

Lizard was up for only a very short drive on White Friday. Although we did get a few fog photos, I was mostly limited to White Friday photos I could take in the neighborhood and white thread crochet, which, I confess, I wasn't as motivated to do at that time, and white thread hand-quilting.

Higher elevations of the nearby canyon got a bit of snow Thanksgiving night. So a touch of white was just waiting to be photographed. At the time, I wished Lizard felt better so I could shoot more. Now, in retrospect, I'm so thankful he agreed to go out at all. We got snow White Friday night. The white Grand Junction temple made for perfect White Saturday photos.

The drive home was treacherous for the first three or so hours because road conditions did not improve without the blast of sun the canyons got later in the day, after we'd already nagivated our way through. It was too dangerous to pull over to take photos, so I got only a handful of photos before we got into the canyon shadows and only one snowy shot at an official rest stop.

The snow followed us home, and we had a White Monday while I worked from home.

I finished only one snowflake during the Thanksgiving holiday. It wasn't totally original. It was inspired by an old snowflake.

My White Friday hand-quilting still is not done yet. Still packaged from our 2023 Thanksgiving trip. I never took it out of the bag after we got home. Never had time. Now I'm two weeks and a day away from White Friday 2024. This project will be one of my goals for next year's White Friday blog post. And I'll try harder to snap more White Friday photos in 2024. But you won't see them until 2025. :)

Another 2023 White Friday goal was to finish the hand-stitching of my QAYG Hawaiian Punch, which I fully intended to gift to my 50-plus-year penpal in April 2024 for her birthday. I finished this part of my White Friday stitching in January of this year, so not totally White Friday. I was able to finish this portion of the project once Lizard's White Soap skin trauma abated. Working on this piece in peace for the first time in a couple of months reminded me of the true spirit of Thanksgiving and my very own White Friday tradition.

I just recently learned it's okay to pat myself on the back, quite literally, for making it through one of the darkest times in our lives, the six weeks there was no white and no light. Almost no hope. Just fear. Just panic. The resulting gratitude is something I hope I can incorporate into every day, not just Thanksgiving, and not just White Friday. I am thankful for Lizard, for faith, for prayer, for overcoming, for healing, for friends and family, for hobbies, for snow, and for being able to stay home and keep my wallet shut on the biggest shopping day of the year.

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Grateful Anyway

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