How Do You Do That Vivian? Vol. 4

This is a little tutorial on how I make a snowflake. But first, since we're talking about winter weather...

The other day here in Orange County, we had a sudden showering of hail.

You see our winters are very mild...I've even have some of my vegetable garden still!

Yes, that's right, hail. While the rest of the country has snow in the winter, we have pretty mild weather here...except for occasional showers. Rarely do we get hail. The Purse Dog didn't like it one bit!

"Let me it!"

I've lived in Orange County since I was 7. Winters with snow and freezing temperatures in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania and Roswell, New Mexico (the two places I lived before I was 7) are a vague memory to me. I love the winters here. Like The Purse Dog, I love mild temperatures, sunshine, and an occasional shower.

Many years ago, I was in Bethesda, Maryland with my sister. She was receiving treatments there for cancer at NCI. One evening during the fall, I was sitting in my sister's hospital room. It had been raining most of the day. Suddenly I heard what sounded like little pellets hitting the window. I went over to look out and see what this strange sound was. It was little ice pellets hitting the window. I had never seen or heard anything like it before.

I asked one of the nurses, "What is this?"

She answered, "Oh, that's sleet."
I said, "Oh my, so this is sleet! I've heard of sleet. I think I heard about it on the Weather Channel once."

She smiled, "You're not from around here, are you?"

I think she was really saying, "What planet are you from?"

I told her I lived in southern California, not far from Disneyland, and that I had never seen sleet before. She just smiled and left the room. I'm sure she went over to the nurses station and told them about me. They probably had a good laugh.

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Now I don't know how to quilt sleet, but I can quilt a snowflake. Let's get on with the tutorial, shall we?

Machine quilting numerous Christmas and winter quilts, I was always looking for a nice snowflake pattern. I could never find one I liked, so I made this one up:

First you draw lines like this. I use that cheap chalk I told you about before.
Then you quilt these shapes. They kind of look like holly leaves. You quilt them in opposite corners. Use those chalk lines for reference points.
You need to quilt 4 of them. Next you quilt up about two-thirds of the way up, stop briefly, and then come back down.
You make these lines with little notches you see below. You make 4 of the, using those chalk lines for reference.
Here it is all finished. See how easy!
Lastly, you wipe away the chalk lines with a microfiber cloth--like I told you before.
And here's a variation below of that snowflake. I quilted it on a scrap cloth in variegated thread. It's essentially the same designs, but at a different angle. Why not add some loops and "sparkles" too.
I hope this tutorial made sense. I do apologize for sharing a "winter" design here in February. Maybe where you live it's still snowing. Or maybe it will help you in the next holiday season!

The Purse Dog and I need to get back to work! I've got tons of quilts to do and she needs to finish her nap!