snow and what-have-you

Yes, yesterday was rainy, cold and snowy!  We got snow flurries several times yesterday.  My grandson's first game was canceled and I was disappointed (as was he), so now Wed. evening will be his first game.  Today it's bright sunshine but still only in the high 50's which is too cold for me. 
I managed to get all the black & white pieces for the red, black & white quilt finished yesterday while the Kenmore was busy stitching some cute redwork (done in blue) floral baskets.  After the 9th design in the set, I turn over the piece and OH NO, big loopies.  I've cleaned the bobbin area, wound a new bobbin, tried different thread, put in a new needle - still have loopies, not as big, but the tension is definitely off.  So I've taken a break from sewing today and done some knitting.  My granddaughter likes the fingerless gloves - but longer than a glove, more like a gauntlet, so I'm playing with a set of 'gauntlets' for her.  It's been years since I did any cabling, but think I'll do that with these - now to find my cable needles......
And as promised a picture:

I quilted this on my regular machine as it has a flannel backing as well as flannel for the batting.  I used starch to 'glue' all the layers together with a few pins to keep a bit more secure. ( Once this was washed, it really looked better! ).   I did a fagot stitch around all the embroidered blocks and stitch-in-the-ditch in the 4 patch squares and border.  Then to secure the embroidered blocks a bit more, I just used a straight stitch to stitch a diamond shape around the designs.  Surprisingly, this little quilt is as 'heavy' as one with regular cotton batting! 
Well, I have pretty much done a whole lot of nothing today, so think I'll go find those cable needles and pretend to know what I'm doing :-)

Katie