Resilience and Resolve

Resilience:

Spring arrived with a wallop of a snowstorm - 14". That was one of the biggest blizzards of the season, and the third or fourth weekly storm.  Spring had started to show some hopeful signs: Shoots of iris and tiger lilies and daffodils, tiny buds on some trees and shrubs, and the blooming crocuses.  I thought those little blooms would all fade under the heavy blanket of snow, but I was surprised to see a few that exhibited heroic resilience.

For comparison, here is what yesterday morning looked like. It was absolutely beautiful.

But it was a lot of work to dig ourselves out.  Let's hope that's the last big storm.

Resolve:

I seldom let politics mingle into my online presence, but without revealing my political leanings, I feel compelled to say that I am frustrated and fed up with the way facebook gave away so much of our private information to both political parties in the US.  It was the last straw for me on top of the fact that their ad targeting was too intrusive and off the mark, they kept changing my newsfeed preferences and other settings, and I don't need them to curate my news. I don't think anyone should rely on curated news--we all need to dig into sources and get to the bottom of things. 

I will be deactivating and hopefully deleting my facebook account today. I will rely on email and text messaging and if anyone wants to see my quilts, they can come here and take a look. I will miss live facebook videos from Bonnie Hunter and Linda Franz, but I can catch the replays on their blogs.  I am using a feedreader (SupaReada) on my phone for keeping up with blogging friends when I am away from my desk.  

I hope that this will have positive impact on my life. I feel my attention is scattered in so many directions.  I hope to be a better blogger, and find more time for quilting, sewing, embroidery, crochet, knitting, piano, drawing, painting and reading more books. Just seeing that list makes me exhausted. 

I just finished "The Storied Life of AJ Fikry" by Gabrielle Zevin and loved it.  Quirky cast of characters and poignant story. Some great quotes towards the end. I am waiting for my library to let me download "The Great Alone"  Any recommendations on what I can read in the meantime would be most welcome.

And on to quilting:

Finished a rosette. This was a quickie. 

Could you tell that the center star was made out of fussy-cut scissors fabric from 2007 or so?

I have to add some connectors (star points/diamonds from adjacent rosettes) and stitch it in.

I have started to print out what I need for another one. I am going to try to get smarter about kitting these up, after I saw what Cathi does over on Quilt Obsession. She is prolific about turning out beautiful handpieced quilts using our favorite method - Inklingo. I think this would also help me tame the clutter in the quiltorium. Too many things in motion with fat quarters strewn everywhere.