It's Been A Perfect Day

What a fabulous weather day today, the temperature just perfect and a wonderful breeze.  I spent the morning finishing the Scrappy Hearts blocks,

 then auditioned fabric for the borders

Right side of fabric where the green is bright, or the

Wrong side of fabric which is muted, or

this blue with faint beige dots....

and because I simply could not make up my mind I decided that I'd take full advantage of the weather and sit outside and work on more hexagons, a most enjoyable afternoon.  Slowly my top is beginning to grow and of course I am adding them as I go along and not waiting to systematically put the individuals in a pile to sew together once there are hundreds, LOL.... I never was one for following rules!  I so enjoy hand sewing but my arthritic fingers can only go for so long and then I must stop and rest a bit.

Before sitting down to sew I decided to check on my garden and have discovered why the Clematis was withered and looked like it was dying!  Some critter (my neighbor thinks it may be the new baby rabbits from the wooded area across the way) has been eating at it,  I thought that it had been cut by a weed whacker, but not so, it is definitely a little creature that I share my surroundings with.   At least the roots are still in tack and in the ground, so hopefully it will begin to grow again and possibly I may end up with beautiful flowers to enjoy.  My rose bushes are doing well too, the red one named Coco looks like it will burst forth with a bloom very soon and the yellow bush named Lemon Meringue now has three buds ready to burst open with beautiful yellow roses.  I just love roses and these two bushes are climbers, I cannot wait to see them grow and prosper. 

Now, I have put away my sewing all to be picked up tomorrow.  

So what do you think?  About the auditioned fabric choices?  The blue looks like it may do the Scrappy Hearts more justice than the busy patterned green with black.  I wouldn't mind your opinion on this....  

Spend the afternoon.  You can't take it with you.  ~Annie Dillard

MONDAY AND NO SUNSHINE YET

Hey there, it's Monday and I have been keeping busy.  Took out the Scrappy Heart Blocks I was working on last year to finish this quilt off, trying to get another UFO finished.   My wonderful Easy Listening station is just about half way to full blast with all that wonderful music it plays without commercials 24/7 and I filled several bobbins and went to work.  Mind you in the beginning everything I attempted seemed not to be working well for me but, after a lovely hot cuppa and lunch it finally began to come together. 

My blocks are finishing out at 15.75" which seems rather weird, but rather than worry about it and seeing as I seem to have made the same consistent mistake, I'll carry on. 

Thinking it might be nice to add a large strip of square in a square blocks between these huge blocks, but, as per my usual routine I will walk around that thought for awhile until all of the blocks are fully sashed.  Possibly it might not look as busy if I just go back to my first idea when I began this project and add a huge border between the sets and then carry on that same border around the outside.  I am looking for ideas on how to make those scrappy hearts look like their floating...with my skill set I often get my ideas from seeing how other scrappy quilts look when sewn into sashed settings... Am I making any sense???

It should end up being a lap quilt size and I want it to be comfy.  

Our weather doesn't seem to be getting better yet, still rain and darkened days, hopefully real sunny weather with nice summery temperatures will arriver sooner than later.   So far this year has been on the damp side which isn't doing my arthritic joints any good. 

As i promised, there are a few more of those quilts Liz and I saw this past Saturday. 

This color combination was very restful, a rather nice teal with a beige against a lighter shade of ecru and I just wish I could have shown off the quilting in it much better, believe me it was lovely. 

This postage sized stamp quilt was nice and colorful.  Apparently it was a queen size and hand quilted. 

These quilts were displayed along side the Alter leading into the Tea Room, I this black, white and red finished up nicely, don't you?

This blue on white was exquisite but was set into a darker corner of the Church and my camera simply didn't do it justice.  It was pieced and quilted by machine.

This utility quilt was rather colorful and seemingly a very efficient way to use up left overs from other quilts. 

Back in the beginning of April I began a little quilt for a wee lad born to friends in Holland, well while my cousin was here I managed to squeeze in the finish and off it went with her to be delivered.  Here then, if you didn't see it on my Facebook page is the finished tiny quilt. 

Time to get going, I will wish you all a wonderful day or evening depending on where it is your reading from. 

If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.  ~Thomas Alva Edison

Sabbatical Has Ended

In case you hadn't noticed I have been on a bit of a self-imposed sabbatical.   No real excuse but to say I felt funky and decided a rest might do me well, and, it has!  I am feeling much improved over April and May and ready to show my face again.

So, if your still checking in to see if I had anything to share with you and your still interested, then I have a tiny treat for you today. 

My friend Liz accepted my invitation to attend a local guilds Quilt Festival in a quaint and beautiful small church about a half hours drive from where I live this afternoon.  When Liz arrived she brought along her new furry four legged companion "Kiki" who is but a year old, a rescued pup.  My goodness but she is so sweet and took to me right away and I had the greatest amount of cuddles all afternoon, admittedly I missed these types of teeny wet kisses and adoring looks. 

Isn't she just too adorable?

The guild members from what I could gather are all 70+ and older, so these quilts are very special.  I digress, on to the Quilts!

This was so so well done, hand pieced and hand quilted.

Because of the lack of space in this small church, each quilt was folded over on the pews and then displayed rather nicely in front of and upon the alter area.

I would love to have seen this colorful Bargello fully displayed.

This Log Cabin was also very interesting as each part was different shapes, only this one flower was visible.

This beauty was hand pieced, appliqued and hand quilted and my camera somehow does not do it justice.

Now this too was all hand appliqued and hand quilted, a striking display of fruits.

Liz really liked this one with a huge variety of blues and hand embroidery around the printed patterned medallions.

I was partial to this interesting red and white.  All pieced, embroidered and quilted by machine.

This is the final quilt of the day to share with you, pieced by machine with all hand applique and quilting. 

There were a few more, but I think I will save these for another day.  I was awed by the beauty of the quilts, the skills of those women and their sisterhood.  This exhibition was to assist in their fund raising for more fabrics.  Their guild makes beautiful Cancer quilts for those patients in hospital.  A remarkable amount of quilts are made this way by the Victoria Quilters Guild of Portland, Ontario, Canada.  After the exhibition, tea and biscuits with strawberries and clotted cream was served in the anteroom off the Alter, and delicious too (the clotted cream was to die for, but, being on my best behavior today, I only had one....

I am so very happy to be back to blogging again and ask your forgiveness for staying away so long...I hope you'll come visit with me again.

Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.  ~Guilaume Apollinaire