Playing in the Snow

Now I know from my own experience that you just might be able to tell what kind of a day I am having by how my quilting stitches look.  If I'm uptight or just generally in a grump, they look different from when I feel like I am dancing in a pool of sunshine.  But it wasn't until this week that I realized you could tell something about people's personalities by how they piled up snow.

On Monday afternoon three artist friends (non-quilters) came over to try their hands at some snow dyeing.  The snow had been on the ground a long time, was wet from a freezing rain cycle that froze into a hard crust and from the melting  (sigh of relief ) that was going on, and was wetter still from a brief rain that morning. In other words, it was good packing snow.  We commented on the lethal snow balls it would make as we piled it on top of the prepared fabric.  "Just make sure the fabric's well covered with snow,"  I had said as we went out the basement door.

Inside again,we placed our bins on a table side by side and started laughing.  Linda, the careful, detailed graphic artist,  had shaped hers into a perfectly smooth bread-loaf mound:

Jen, with her loads of enthusiasm, had created a veritable Everest of snow:

Kathy, who is generally laid back but with a wicked sense of humor, had created a happy in-between:

And then there were mine, kind of lumpy and free form.  Not sure what they say about me . . . .

We found much to laugh about the rest of the afternoon, and I am not sure that the way the snow was mounded impacted the results much, although Jen did cut the top off Everest before she applied the dyes.  The wetness of the snow may have made a difference, diluting the dyes more than usual, since my fabric was not quite as vibrant or petal-ly as it usually is, but still interesting:

And if you are still with me, thanks for the company.