Keeping Warm when it's Cold Outside

Let's see, we could bake cookies, make soup or perhaps fire the kiln up to 1300 degrees.  Yes, it's time to make glass snowflakes again.  Here are some from past years.


For me, the hardest part is drawing a diamond grid.  Yes, I do have a jig that I could set up to cut the glass in strips and then diamonds but it would take a little longer to do it that way and I'm all about the shortcuts.  So, the grid goes under the glass, I cut along the lines, break the glass and end up with lots of diamond shapes.




No, the blobs in the middle didn't change color, this was an earlier batch after being fused.



Still a bit chilly?  This surprise from my eldest sister certainly added to the warmth in the outlaw household.  (She's actually made me many blankets and quilts that I'll feature in future posts as several are garden-themed.  When I opened the box, the first thing I noticed was the cool ornament quilting pattern.

 My eldest sister decorates for every holiday, season, day of the week...and finds it difficult to believe that some years I do and some years I don't deck the halls.  This year she made sure that there would be a tree in the house by sending this one.  (An artificial tree in it's box in the basement doesn't count in her book - some people...)