From winter to spring......

....in just a few short days. These are the colours I am currently seeing in my kitchen. Sunshine on the blue cupboards, and daffodils blooming on the balcony. But just a couple of weeks ago we had  a little interruption in our everyday lives with the novelty of snow!

I've lived in Rome for close on 18 years now and have never experienced more than a few hours of snow in the city. We had ten days of it February - complete chaos or perfect quiet, depending on how you look at it.

Schools were closed, cars didn't move for days, our busy streets were turned into a sleepy country town by 10 - 15  cm of snow. My girls made snow men and learnt to sled on sheets of plastic. At first we were sorry not to have a real sled, but I think they had more fun in the end with the endless variations they invented. My five year old would fly down the slopes of our local park, spreadeagled and fearlessly. She wants to find me a really large plastic bag next time so I can do it too!:)

There was a little interruption to quilting whilst I organised snow suits and mittens - very piecemeal. The little one wore her snow suit rolled up, and the elder had a snow suit that barely reached the top of her rubber boots.

I've always been envious of quilters who photograph their quilts and tops out in the snow. This quilt top below on the right would have looked perfect with a wintry white background, but as there was as much mud as there was snow, I decided to leave it at home (besides, I forgot that it was already sandwiched ready for quilting and not exactly at it's most photogenic).

Now that the snowsuits are packed away again and I'm thinking about pulling out our t-shirts, I'm getting in a little quilting. I'm not sure why I piece in the winter and quilt in the warmer weather - but that's how it is. Luckily I have two hoops. These quilts were started ten years apart - my tastes haven't changed much, have they:)

PS. The first picture in this post was for Serena, another hand piecer and quilter, check out her hands all round block. It's and old photo that I've posted before - I've actually quilted all the circles and the centre - and now that I think of it, I unpicked the outline quilting and did a centre line. I'll have to get a new photo of that - but either I quilt or I photograph.....
......speaking of which, thanks to all my new followers and everyone who has left a comment. I'm not very good at replying to comments although I appreciate every single one of them. With two children and a dog, I have to choose between quilting, blogging and keeping up with correspondence. I do write back when I can, but please don't give up commenting if I don't.