finished to flimsy

This isn't the best picture in the world but I know better than to hold up the reluctant quilt holder too long. My 12 days of redwork top is completed as of yesterday afternoon when I finished the outer border. I will bind it in the same red as the interior of the quilt. I am thinking about doing some hand quilting in the outer border so it will need to be marked before we pin it. I am reasonably sure I have some heart templates that will work.

The whole project including the backing fabric uses fabric I had on hand. Woohoo for stash busting! I may pass the leftover backing stuff onto my mom for QOV strips just to get it moved along. Moved elsewhere works too, doesn't it? LOL.

The quilt group met today and the quilt shown on the right was turned in. Linda C made it some time back and I quilted it for her--this one and one like it but bigger.

I had some deadline handwork going while the girls pinned. Jane had a sweet snuggle up top Lois has been a busy girl and had several scrappy tops on hand. Apparently both Linda C and Marilyn have been stocking her up, LOL.

Marilyn also "gifted" Lois with a box of blocks that can be used for donation with a little modification or combined with other abandoned blocks I have on hand. Yeah, it came home with me. That is more my area than Lois' I don't mind taking things apart to re-purpose them for the kids. One project has a ton of pieces cut for more blocks along with its templates. I doubt I will make any more as there looks to be enough for our purposes but I didn't toss anything just in case.

We went out to a local cafe for sandwiches and made plans to run up to Boaz next week. Jane offered to drive and Lois is always up for a field trip. Beverly has a quilt to take to Susan, our long arm friend. Me, I am looking for blue fabric for my niece/godchild's t-shirt quilt. I had ordered something we had hoped would work online. Unfortunately it is leaning more towards purple than the almost royal shade of blue it appeared to be--it is called "blueberry". I can use the stuff on another project down the line but I am hoping I will have better luck finding what I need on our little expedition. Of course, lunch at Mill Street Deli will be on tap too.

Once home I made DJ's birthday cake. He didn't express any preference for what kind he wanted what I asked telling me "whatever you want to fix". I started naming off a few things to narrow the field down a bit---banana cake with caramel icing, it is! He will pick the lunch spot for tomorrow and we'll keep things low key. I think he would just as soon forget it but I won't let that happen!

Hope you have had a good day! Thanks for stopping by.

where I am headed

Remember all those Alex Anderson hearts I was stitching up earlier this year? Well, this weekend Norma and I are going to turn them into a top. Hopefully they will be quilted and ready to hang for Valentine's Day next year. Set a day and just sew, was our plan.

Alex used a triple rail sashing and nine patch blocks in the cornerstone area which just looked too "heavy" to me. I drew up several ideas of what I could use in EQ and shared it with Norma. She picked a different setting block but that's okay. I gave her plenty of options, LOL. I sorta like the pale, pale pink for the background as shown in the drawing but didn't have that on hand. White on white, it is.

Now if I can just get the weather to cooperate so I can keep the sewing machine and computer on for IM powered up. Much of the state is under a watch or warning of some sort today. I hear thunder cracking in the distance but our county is one that is under a tornado watch advisory. This is Talladega NASCAR race weekend too so you know that there is the equivalent of a small city outside and camping in the area. Hope for the best here.

Anyway, I am sewing---and enjoying it!

another block

#8 of 12 Feeding the Birds Santa from Bird Brain Designs---just finished, pressed and photographed. Much of this block was completed as I traveled back to IL this past weekend. Some bad patches along I-57 and to a certain extent 1-24 led to some less than stellar stitching but I kept plugging, LOL.

You see, my dad turned 80 earlier in the week. All but 4 of the family/extended family were back "home" for surprise celebration on Saturday afternoon. I left here on Friday so I could share a ride up with my family who live in TN. (DJ stayed home) We left at 6:30 Sat a.m. to ensure we would be there in time to surprise Dad. My sister from Colorado had flown in earlier in the week so he had already been surprised once. To say he was stunned and touched by all this would be an understatement.

My brother and his family who live about 15 miles away from my folks had us all over for supper. The whole mob scene, LOL. Jen arranged for a professional photographer to come and take pics of the group and various family groups too. I didn't take my camera---someone will have pics to share with the group.

By Sunday some of the group had to work but most of us went to church (took up most of two pews, LOL). Then off to a Chinese buffet for lunch that Mom and Dad like-----back in the car again for another 7 hours and another night in TN before heading home Monday.


Since returning home, the usual home tasks have intervened. Laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, etc. The pollen is getting to me a bit unfortunately but I figure it could be a lot worse. Some suffer way more than I do with allergy symptoms.

The azalea bushes are out though half of this bush looked almost dead a couple weeks ago. As you can see it is loaded with blooms now though.

Ah, spring---the good and the bad. What's a scratchy nose and throat and a whopping headache when you see pretty things like this?

The long arm quilter called to say that my Strip Twist quilt is finished and ready for pick up. I'll run up to Boaz tomorrow to get it. Some binding ahead of me, I would say. But for now, I think I will pull out the April Freckles snowman stitchery (shown in the previous post) and get it finished up. Back to a multiple colored floss project, LOL.

WIP Wednesday

Another edition of WIP Wednesday---the week are whizzing on by, it seems.

My friend Judy dropped off the queen sized raffle she made for donation that she had asked me to bind for her. I made and applied the binding on Saturday and started stitching. By Monday evening I was done. Back out came the stitchery---April snowman block from Freckles. I am making some progress. I cannot say that I am fond of doing satin stitch nor do I particularly like my results. I will modify some of the remaining eggs to something more textural---like the long-short split stitch I used on the carrot nose. Other than that, I am having fun with this, LOL, which IS the point, after all.

Since I am really not doing too much sewing output these days, I thought you might want to see some of the spring flowers and shrubs around here. Here is a bloom on my husband's pampered lilac bush. I don't think I have ever seen it as loaded with blooms as it is this year and it smells heavenly!

On the way out to the backyard to take this, I noticed that the azalea bushes are starting to come around too. Just a hint of that glorious dark pink/red at this point so I'll wait on those. What I think are lupines are up and my hosta planted near Pippi's gravesite is coming back up.


I couldn't resist taking a picture of the neighbor's dogwood tree while I was out. Driving around you see lots of out there but this is the closest to the house. DJ and I have tried 3 times to grow our own tree with little success. I guess we'll just admire theirs. Ronnie had said that this one came from Mt. Cheeha years ago so I imagine it is the more wild, native and hardy variety.

Yellow pollen is everywhere. I am told it is predominantly from the pine trees. Those with allergies must be miserable but it is all part of spring. We had a couple of days in the 80's--record breaking highs reported in BHM the last two days. Rain is due in tomorrow, they say. So far it is a bit cooler today, thank goodness, with a pleasant breeze blowing. No doubt some of that yellow is coming in the house. I figure that is why there are dust cloths.



Hope that you are having a good day and thanks for stopping by--------

finishes

I was able to get borders and binding finished up on the two stitcheries I shared in my last post. In the interest of time I used the same stuff on both of them rather than rooting thru a box of homespun, etc to find stuff similar to that shown by the designer. I had the March block done just in time to display it on the 31st and the April binding, just took the last stitches in it a few minutes ago.





My friend Judy has asked me to help her out with the binding on queen sized quilt she is donating for a local fund raising effort. It is gorgeous and the long arm quilter did a fabulous job. I'll get going on my efforts for it tomorrow. Judy scalloped off the two lower corners so I'll need to make miles of bias binding. Think I'll start stitching on the April Freckles snowman block and enjoy a gorgeous spring day.

Happy Easter to all---------