a good day for mail

Yesterday there were 2 fun packages stuffed in my mailbox.  I love mail like that  :0)  

I have enjoyed this star project with my Quilt Patis so very much.  I was running out of the neutral background fabric but I wanted to keep going.  It is the perfect project for stitching at soccer practice, the playground,  waiting in the car...   I thought I'd call the shop where I bought it and see if they had more.  It was last July - I wasn't optimistic.  But, with only my phone number and an approximate date they were able to identify the exact blot I had bought from and they had more!  Thank You Village Quilts in Lethbridge!

The other package arrived from the  Fat Quarter Shop.  It's the fabric I ordered with the gift certificate that I won.  I had a lot of fun shopping.  Apparently I like red - a lot.  :0)

 I want to share some pictures from a walk I went on with DD#3 last week.  We went looking for the wild crocuses. 

 It doesn't look too much like spring here yet.  You wouldn't expect to find flowers blooming here.  But, if you look close they are all around on the hill by my daughter.

 I love the soft furry look of them and the pretty purple color.  It always amazes me how they push up through all that dead grass. 

We even saw bees!  It was a beautiful walk!

Happy Quilting!!

learning about borders

I have been busy quilting on the borders of my red and white quilt. I don't think I will have it completely finished in time for the quilt show in May. However, I thought if I could just get the borders finished I could bind it and include it in the special Red and White display they are having this year. The center is mostly done. I still need to add more quilting in the red triangles and squares but at first glance the center has the appearance of being finished :0)

I spent a couple weeks trying to figure out what to quilt in the border. It is just too narrow!! Nothing I wanted to do fit well in the space. The deadline was drawing near and so I went to the local fabric shop and bought a stencil. A design I liked and thought would be dense enough for this quilt. Unfortunately I quilted halfway down one side before I decided it was NOT the right motif for this space.

I decided to drive a little further - on the other side of the city there is a quilt shop that stocks a good selection of quilting stencils. I found this one and am much happier with how it looks. With so many feathers in the center the border looks like it matches better with feathers too. Don't ask me about the corners - lol. I haven't figured out how to turn them yet but... I will.

Somehow I just can't seem to plan ahead with my quilts - projects are always evolving in their own direction. A more organized person would have drawn out the entire quilting design before they started and wouldn't get stuck this way. I was just too excited to get started on the center square. Will I ever change??? Now where is that seam ripper...

Happy Quilting!!

groom block

It has been a very long time since I had some progress to show for my Bird of Paradise quilt. Finally last night I got back to working on my groom block. This is the first block of 6 that I am personalizing to make this quilt my own. I hope I get better at drawing them - the ideas in my head don't get on the paper easily.Once again I am going to procrastinate about the embroidery. I plan to put on a face and some details to make his coat look more coat-like.

Here he is with his bride. He's supposed to be helping her pick apples. I don't think many will fit in his pail - lol.
Next I plan to work on a block with DD#3 and DD#2 on it. They both want to wear pink dresses and carry pink flowers - oh dear! I shouldn't have asked their opinion :0) I have the flowers and leaves prepped and ready to start this weekend. There will have to be some negotiation over the dresses.

Wishing you a very Happy Easter!!

holiday panel 2

We are back from sunny, hot Florida. We had a lovely holiday. I found the Trailing vines project just perfect for travelling. Vine #2 is complete and I am excited to trim and sew it to the 1st piece of sashing and vine panel #1.

I was in a bit of a hurry when I prepped the last 90 leaves to bring and was dismayed to find this leaf with not enough seam allowance.

Oh well - I just left room and kept going :0) It was easily fixed when I got home.

We enjoyed Disney World. We found a booth there selling funnel cakes. A couple people had posted about Funnel cakes last summer and so I was very curious to try them. Delicious!! Good thing they don't make them here!

So were are back to regular life at home. I am itching to start something new and will likely cave soon - maybe even today :0)

Happy Quilting!!

DD#2 sewing

I have been very disciplined and have stuck to working on the same 3 projects so I have nothing exciting to report or show for myself. However, this weekend my DD#2 did some sewing on her project and completed another block.
She is making these from a bag full of discarded little triangles. The hst's finish at 1 inch. She's doing very well for a 10 year old! I get to be the proud Mama :0)

Happy Quilting!!

wahoo!

I was the very happy recipient of these flowers yesterday from DH on the occasion of our 15 year anniversary. I adore pink roses :0)
There were pink roses on March 1, 1997 as well :0)

I have been staying focused on the same 3 projects I posted about last time. This is good, because I do have a deadline for the hand quilting but... means I have nothing new to post about.

This morning I was astounded and giggly with delight to discover I won one of the big prizes from the Fat Quarter Shop's recent blog hop. My family will tell me "That's nice" but it takes fellow quilters to understand my delight :0)

Happy Quilting!!

time flies!

It has been a long time since I posted. I've been very busy. We had all new floors put in and so I've basically packed up and unpacked our house over the last 2 weeks. Whew! The hardest part was the sewing room. I have a very deep closet in that room and I hadn't cleaned it out in a very LONG time. It was good to refold some ufo's. I'm wanting to get back to working on one in particular so I hope I can post some progress on it soon.
In the meantime I've been focusing on these 3 projects and making some progress. This is the second vine panel of my Susan McCord vine quilt. It's about halfway - I LOVE working on this project!

I made a few more blocks for Cheddar Posies. I'm running low on my cheddar stash. The cheddars at my LQS are a bit dull. I need to find more somewhere else. Anyone know of a good Quilt shop in central Florida that stocks lots of reproduction fabrics? We're going on a holiday there in a few weeks. We've never taken the kids to Disney World/Land before - it should be fun.

I'm slowly making progress with my red and white quilt too. I have 3 of the setting triangle 1/2 wreaths done and did the background quilting in one of the corners to see how it would look.
I'm still waiting for the quilt to tell me what it needs in the red parts - I hope it starts talking soon :0)

Happy Quilting!!