Finishes and Flowers in May

 Progress on quilt finishing seems to be going pretty slowly these days. The tops get done, backs get made or purchased, and then things stall. To be fair, my in-house quilter has other things he likes to do. But getting the bindings made and applied and then sewn down just feels like it's taking longer than it used to. 

For the first time in our history we have sewn down the bindings on the latest quilts by machine. I prefer to hand sew them. I enjoy the process and I like the look better. Since the painful flare-up I experienced last year in my wrists and forearms I've been trying moderate my hand sewing activity. The stitching I do on my postcards or scrolls or textile books don't seem to be a problem. Maybe because I don't stick with that one activity as long as I tend to do when sewing down a quilt binding. 

This green quilt began simply as a way to use up some of the green prints in my stash. As the blocks were accumulating on the design wall Son commented that he really like the look. Green seems to be his favorite color too. So we decided that quilt would be his and I made it to the dimensions he requested. It's much narrower than most of the quilt I make at about 48 x 75 inches.

He quilted it with an overall leafy design.

 The other quilt I just finished is the Welcome Blanket, 40 inches square.

I found a brown remnant in my stash that worked really well for the binding. I like the way it disappears visually. 

Coming up with a quilting pattern was a bit challenging due to the single heart block and other considerations. In the end we decided on this simple gentle wave across the width of the quilt.

 And now for the flowers 😊  This is the lilac we planted in our front yard two years ago (or has it been three years?).

 Not directly, but across the street there's this marvelous specimen with paler florets.

I have no idea how old it is but look how tall and big it is! That's the roof of the garage on the property at the far left in the photo. 

Meanwhile, my roses and peonies are budding. The front lawn is sprinkled with delightful yellow buttercups too. 

What's growing in your corner of the world?

In a Vase on Monday

 This is that glorious time of year when my roses and peonies (and the buttercups and vetch, etc.) are blooming. I take a picture nearly every week of the vase of flowers I've brought in but I don't often think to share them with you. A few years back I discovered Cathy's Monday meme, In a Vase on Monday. It's always a pleasure to see what others have grown and brought together in their vases. My backgrounds are never pristine, so I apologize for the clutter that may distract from my vase.

This is what I brought in this morning:

I have one each of my favorites. You can't really see the David Austin Queen of Sweden rose in this shot but that's the bush the rosebuds are from. The white peony is the last bud from that plant. The pink peony may very well be the last bloom from that one too. The big yellow rose is a David Austin Charlotte. 

Here's an overhead shot of the contents of the vase. Every time I take a good look at these flowers it puts a smile on my face. 

This is the bouquet I made late last week. Two of the white peonies, more Charlottes and Queens. 

If you'd like to indulge in more natural beauty hop on over to Cathy's blog and check out the links in the comment section. 😊

Riding the Roller Coaster of Life

Well, I certainly didn't expect to fall off that cliff. After a very productive couple of days building a new baby quilt for the Little Lambs Foundation work came to an abrupt halt. Granted, it was a natural stopping point. All that remains is some kind of outer border treatment. However, my attention has been turned elsewhere. In spite of the fact that I spend most of my days sheltering in place due to my chemical sensitivities the ripple effect of the coronavirus pandemic has somehow taken a toll on my creativity and productivity. Maybe because every member of our household falls into the high risk category for Covid-19 for one reason or another. Just getting weekly groceries has become a more hazardous mission than in the past. That makes non-essential items not worth the effort to procure if they can't be had via an online vendor. As it turns out, not all of them are - at least not at a price I'm willing to pay. So my retail therapy options are more limited than ever before. That's enough to depress anyone I guess.

Son and I did venture out to purchase a half-barrel in which to plant the Roald Dahl rose bush I ordered before the virus took over the world. Fortunately, hardware and garden centers are still open for business. They have been deemed essential, no doubt for the health and well being of the general public! And we actually had cleaner air around our home that day so we were able to clean the deck and get the rose settled into place.

I want to get some annuals to plant around the baby rose to give the barrel some color while it gets established. I'm thinking we may need to uproot the rose, put more soil in the barrel, and then replant it. I didn't realize it was sitting so low in the pot until after we had a rain shower overnight.

One of our smaller pots has some volunteer violets in amongst the weeds.

I have a hard time getting outdoors to do any weeding or other gardening due to the noxious fumes that emanate from neighboring homes. It cheers me up no end to see a bit of color through my windows. Around the side of our house the rosemary is in bloom too. There aren't any windows over there though. 😞

At about the time that work stopped on the baby quilt (which I will eventually share with you in another post) my friend C~ brought over a needlepoint kit she thought I would enjoy stitching up for her. She'd found it at a thrift shop, obviously a souvenir from someone's cruise.

Her husband refers to their only granddaughter as "Princess." She asked me if I could just stitch that word and cover up the word 'Cruises.' Yes, I could. But that would have left 'Princess' shoved all the way to the top of the cosmetic case and left a lot of empty space between the word and the rest of the design. So to begin with I shifted 'Princess' down a bit. I also did my best to shift those little white flowers up a bit.

This project was just what I needed. It gave me the opportunity to do some rhythmic, mindless basketweave stitching for the background. Now I'm tackling the smaller, more detailed areas. I'm finding myself drawn to other embroidery projects too. Something about working on small, hand-held projects has more appeal than trying to work out a quilt plan on the design wall or even cutting patches. I'd even be pleased to sew down a binding on any - or all - of the quilts that are ready for that last step. I just need to get the bindings onto the quilts. If only I could muster up the energy that requires...

Blue and White and a Tiny Bit of Yellow

I hope my readers in the US had a safe and happy Independence Day. For that matter, I hope our Canadian friends had a good Canada Day on the first of July! We have folks in the neighborhood now who are, apparently, very into setting off fireworks. Not only have I had a nervous dog in my lap for two days straight, when I tried to coax her to go outside to do her business I was almost knocked over by the smoke in the air. Needless to say, I'm suffering the usual effects. 😒 We're not out of the woods yet either. The law may say fireworks only on the Fourth but inevitably there will be those who feel the need to use up any leftovers in the days afterward. {sigh}

On a much happier note, I've received the first set of blocks for my turn in the F2F3 (Footsquare Freestyle round 3) block swap. These are from Kathy in South Dakota:

They are crisp and gorgeous! I asked for blocks in blues on white. This is my inspiration photo:

Kathy hit the nail on the head!

I've only made one block for myself so far.

This is a variation of a block our local guild did for a lottery draw a few months back. I took the 12" pattern and reduced it to four 6" units. Now I just have to choose two more blocks to make. 😊

While I have your attention let me show you - as best I can through a dirty kitchen window - the bouquet of roses that are blooming at the top of one of my rose bushes.

You might be able to see the lavender blooming underneath and behind the roses. Makes me smile every time I look out the window. At least, until they fade and the petals fall off!

Wednesday Recap

There have been a series of exposures to toxins since my last post. Before the first one I managed to apply the binding to my Scattered Taffy quilt, which allowed me to sew the binding down after the exposures. That's a good mindless activity for those occasions. I've just pulled the quilt out of the dryer and hung it up for you to see...

Approx. 60" x 67"

I'm looking forward to putting it on the bed. It isn't full bed-size but it will cover the mattress sufficiently for my purposes.

James used a Greek key pattern in the sashing between the Broken Dishes blocks.

Can you see it? It took us a while to come up with a quilting plan that would work with such busy blocks. I'm very happy with the results.

I've also sewn together all the pieces of my current Parts Department Quilt, started for Scrap Happy Day on the 15th.

Once I'd assembled the smaller pieces it was easier to see the quilt as a whole. Subsequently a couple of the 12" blocks were moved around. I'm thinking I'll bind this as-is. I already have a back made for it. It will finish at about 48" x 60."

The rose bush we inherited when we bought this house is in full bloom. It's right outside my studio window and I've let it grow tall enough to enjoy the blooms right from where I spend most of my time sitting. The two rose bushes we planted off the back deck last year are beginning to bloom now too. I finally went out and pulled the worst of the weeds from around their feet. As a reward I brought in one specimen from each bush.

Queen of Sweden

Charlotte, not fully open yet.

Cottonwood season is in full swing, a little early this year it seems. That means we look out the windows and see light, fluffy "snow" floating around. It also collects in nooks and crannies in doorways. It's one of those half-annoying, half-enjoyable aspects of the natural world. 😊

In A Vase on Monday and Blocks for Friends

You know how one blog often leads to another? I recently came across Rambling in the Garden via one of the other blogs I enjoy (I don't remember who now). She hosts a meme in which folks can showcase the beauties they've picked from their gardens: In A Vase on Monday. I'm adapting this to my own circumstances. I like to keep a vase of cut flowers in my studio but can't get out consistently to grow very many of my own. In fact, I need to get out and clean up my little flower bed but the air hasn't been safe enough yet. Seems someone nearby is always either burning something or doing their laundry with products that are toxic to my system. So the last time I went for groceries at our local co-op I brought home a handful of tulips to celebrate spring.

I've put them in a hand-built cobalt blue ceramic pitcher. This arrangement is tall and slender enough not to take up too much space on my cutting table.

We exchange friendship blocks in my local quilt guild. The friendship block requests had piled up a bit while I worked on other projects and then had to take time to recover from that fall I had. On Good Friday I was finally feeling well enough to do some sewing. I managed to get all caught up on the friendship blocks!

As you can see, they vary widely in style.

I started with the house block. The recipient/requester will be adding a piece to the bottom right corner so her houses will be perched on a hill. I have to say, I'm tempted to embroider shutters on either side the window. But then I'll probably want to add other embellishments too. We shall see. That one was fun to design. The patriotic star came right out of my Parts Dept. so all I needed to do was add the outer border to complete that request. Easy peasy! Things got fiddly after that. The batik block is dramatic when complete but every piece is a different size. We won't even talk about the strawberry except to say it's based on a 1.5" grid. I'm just glad it's done and turned out so well. Now it's my turn. April is the month I get to present a friendship block request. I've had a couple of ideas but haven't yet settled on what I'll ask for. I might just go for 5" squares of novelty prints for another Disappearing 9 Patch quilt that could then be donated for a child in foster care. 😊