Vintage Dresden Plate quilt and a Polar Vortex

Yay - a TFUQ is finally quilted! These plates were bought from a customer.  Her mother-in-law was a quilter, but now lived in a nursing home, and was getting very close to her 90th birthday.  She brought me a whole bag of stuff  from presumably some time in the 1960's, that MIL had started but never finished. The daughter-in-law wanted me to make up the plates into a twin size quilt, based on the pattern in the bag. 

There were 20 plate blocks plus 20 plates not yet sewn to a block.  I made the quilt with the 20 finished blocks as requested and asked if I could buy the leftover stuff, if it turned out that no one else in the family wanted it.  My concern was that this would end up either in the trash or in the Goodwill box.  A few weeks later my customer called to let me know how much her MIL had appreciated her new/old quilt, and gave me the news that I could buy the leftover 'stuff' if I wanted it.  Woo hoo!!  Honey pot!!

These plates are the ones I bought - I appliqued them to a dotted yellow print and then sashed with the 30's reproduction blue print.  I love rescuing vintage quilts.

So... on to the current story of my life.  Sunday Jan. 5 was the first time I left the house since the previous Monday - Dec. 30th.  It has been snowing, blowing, raining, icky, icky, icky.  I went out once to shovel, but I'm not calling that 'going out'.
Sunday was a nice clear day with a looming, dooming forecast.  DH and I went for brunch with the out-of-town family, spent a ton of dough at Costco on our way home, then shoveled off the back patio and the front walk before the snow and rain/freezing rain started.  I am wondering "what was the point?". This was the back patio Monday morning.  Solid footprints in the ice.

This is the front walkway - snow & ice.

After breaking a wrist on ice each of the past two years, I am NOT GOING OUT.  And now we're in the grip of a Polar Vortex.  When I woke up this morning the bedroom was 58f.  That was with the furnace running.  There is a wind warning AND a wind chill warning.
Just what is a Polar Vortex?  Click here.

This is the current forecast:

How do I handle being home for so many days in a row?

Tomorrow, Wednesday, is Caledonia Guild day.  I also have a hair appointment (see comic above!).  The car hasn't moved in over a week and with the bitter cold temps I doubt that it will start.  Ha ha.  I may still be sitting here come spring.