Greetings from the frozen and snowy lands.  Our snow is only up to Yuri’s belly (calling him Yuri Zhivago as he prowls around the Siberian landscape), but we have had some extreme cold.  t’s better today.  My upstairs studio is a place of relatively warm refuge.  Please remind me of this when I complain in July.

Several years ago my DH and I bought this beautiful fireplace screen.  We live in the woods, and have leaf motifs on rugs, wallpaper, etc., so we thought it would look good most of the year.  Au contraire, ma soeur!  It looks great September through November, and stupid out of place the rest of the year.  After Pam (Hip to be a Square) made a hanging for her fireplace, I resolved to make a cover for our screen.

Here is the winter side.  Kind of a whimsical and batik-y fire.  I backed the base fabric with Pellon fusible fleece.

I cut all the fabrics freehand and glue-sticked them in place.  I edge-stitched and quilted the logs with various black and brown Sulky threads.  I quilted the flames densely with Superior’s Rainbows in flame tones, and also used my new Fabric Mate markers.  (Question:  have any of you had success at permanently bonding the fleece to cotton fabric?  I have used it a few times, and only get a temporary bond with much effort.  Any suggestions?)

The summer side could very loosely be called broderie perse, something I’ve loved since I was young.  There are no laboriously turned edges here, though.

 I cut these flowers from home dec fabric and edge-stitched them with invisible thread, and did just a little accent stitching with decorative thread.  I think it’s fresh and fun.  Working on it was a good antidote to the endless white outside!

I’m linking up to WIPs be Gone at A Quilting Reader’s Garden.