Gradmother's Flowers Are Continuing To Bloom

Well, here you have it. More flowers are blooming for my garden! The really good thing about continuing to make these flowers is that I'm motivated to post to my blog at least once a week.

My Spring cleaning has started. Okay, so it took me a whole week to 'clean my closet'. I cleaned out what I didn't want or need and those items are earmarked for others to use and enjoy. I haven't had my closet this clean or as organized as when we first moved here three years ago. (Sound of patting myself on the back.)

I worked until after 11:30 last night appliqueing on a small quilt destined to hang on a wall. But today I'm putting my quilting aside to devote the day to making some art. I want to do some negative painting with my watercolors, play with some mixed media and...? How much time will be left to do this today I wonder. First I have to wash the dishes, make the bed, and get dressed. Yes, I'm still in my jammies! After these minor chores, I'll have about two hours before my husband gets home from work and I have to start his dinner. But, after he is taken care of, back to my art. Oh, one other thing...I have to find the top of my drawing table. It's under this clutter somewhere!

My Mug Rugs

  This mug rug madness  is so much fun! I took the idea to my quilt guild last night. It's hard to tell how enthusiastic the members were but it was decided that we would do our own challenge. It will be due in June. However, an incentive will have to be presented to make it more fun for the participants. Maybe prizes could be given for the 3 most favorites voted for. Have to get back to the guild on that one!

  I took three mug rugs I had made to show the guild what they are aiming for. For this I went into my leftovers bin and pulled out pieces left  from rotary cuttings, the result of an experiment and a cute little guy print. I matched up like colors and constructed the rugs.

Mug Rug Madness

I bet you thought this is a recent picture. No, I'm sorry but this is just another tease...a photo from last year's garden. All the snow melted this week and bulbs started to emerge. However, this morning there is a blanket of snow covering all again. I really wanted to share with you a link to a cool blog that shares with the reader pictures of mug rugs and tutorials. Go have a look at the site and I'm sure you'll enjoy it. And be sure to pass it on.    http://www.twomoreseconds.com/p/mug-rug-madness.html

This week's flowers

  Here's this week's flowers for Flower Garden Wednesday. I have to admit that by participating I'm actually able to remember to post on my blog every week. As Martha would say 'It's a good thing'!
  And last night I cut out more hexagons to make flowers out of so I'm off to a good start for next week.

  My youngest daughter took me out to lunch today to a nice little sandwich/gift shop near our homes. We had the most unusual soup and sandwich combo. Here goes. I'm going to make your mouth water! The soup was a combination of spinach, carrots, onions and cheese. We split a panini sandwich made of sliced turkey, lettuce, provolone cheese, cranberries, and horseradish on cranberry bread. See...I told you I would make your mouth water.
  After lunch we stopped at a local junk shop and I purchased a mini hutch to place in a small space in my kitchen. After hauling it home and cleaning it up, I rounded up some items from my cupboards to display. I'll take pictures and show it off in the future.

What's new pussycat?

Catchy title huh? I'm feeling just a bit silly today. This time of year one day it's sort of warm and the next? Snow coming our way they say. This week brought a Winter Aconite to bloom in the front garden. this afternoon I found a snowdrop in the side garden ready to bloom when the sun  finally reappears. It's a bit strange though. I planted many bulbs in the side garden two years ago last fall, including snowdrops. All that came up the next spring were daffodils, crocuses and odd ones I can't remember the names for, but no snowdrops. I figured I planted them too late or the ground was too wet for them to survive. Maybe all it takes is determination from those little bulbs. I'll excited and can't wait to see what else appears this year. Here's a couple of pictures of that aconite.

  A few years ago my husband and I visited Lancaster, Pennsylvania where I went a bit crazy in the fabric stores. One of the pieces of fabric I acquired was a print of various sheep. In case you hadn't read about my interests on my profile, one of the things I enjoy is spinning yarn. Any fabric that I come across with sheep on it never gets left behind and out the door it goes and into my stash. The following photo shows a wall quilt I made for my studio (my husband calls it a craft room). I wanted to make that sheep fabric to show up more so I decided to use it in a wide border around the patchwork block center.

A Busy Week

  I finally got a chance to sit down and compose on my blog. I had something going for the last three days and it's good to sit down and reflect.
  On Monday evening my quilt guild enjoyed a lovely meal with a dish provided by each member. We have an amazing bunch of cooks amongst us! After our meal, we got further instructions on our mystery quilt. Wow, is it ever hard to wait for the next step in that quilt. When the mystery quilt is completed I promise to post pictures.
  On Tuesday, what our guild members call 'the day group' gathered at a member's house and sewed labels on Project Linus quilts being donated. We enjoyed coffee and a giant cookie provided by our hostess Mary and worked on some of our own projects. Mine was the Grandmother's Flower Garden patches for One Flower Wednesday. I can't believe I've added two more flowers to my pile. Now I have three. And, yes, it IS addictive!
  Today I went to a friend's house to help her get started with patchwork. I was so proud of her. She managed to make two blocks for a baby quilt and now I think she has the confidence to complete all the blocks required for her quilt.

Here's a teaser for you...a couple of items I'm working on so you'll have something to look forward to.

Finally A Finished Quilt

Okay. Here it is. I promised you that I had a lot more to share. So here is the next installment. This quilt started as a 5 inch pinwheel block exchange at my quilt guild. Needless to say, when blocks are done by different quilters on different sewing machines, they end up with various finished sizes. My answer to this dilemma was to cut them down slightly. They went from a supposedly 5 inch square to a 4 1/4 inches. You ask why so much? Because some of them were that far off. Since most of the methods to produce the blocks varied...hand sewn as opposed to machine sewn, different 1/4 inch measures on sewing machine feet, and some of us used rotary cutters and rulers which are accurate than other methods. But, in the end, the blocks were more uniform before I assembled them into the quilt top.

Because there weren't enough blocks to make a twin sized quilt I decided to add four patch blocks every other block. But it still wasn't big enough for the size I wanted it to be so I added a 4 inch muslin border to it and then another border of  pinwheel and four patch blocks to it. I really liked the visual interplay between the two blocks and decided to emphasize this with quilting them on the diagonal. I finished with a muslin binding and FINALLY it was finished.

I have to confess though, the center part of this quilt lived in a drawer for two years or more before I decided to finish the project. Another confession: there are more UFO in that drawer. LOL!

Lots of new things to share with you

I have a lot of new pictures and lots of items to share. However, Blogger is being obstinate so I'll start out with this post and add more later in the day so be sure to check back to see what I've got to share. The first thing I want to let you know about is that I am joining a patchwork challenge at   http://journeyofaquilter.blogspot.com/p/garden-party.html

We are making Grandmother's Flower Garden. The link on my sidebar isn't working but you can click on the link in this post if you want to join. I finished my first 'flower' this morning. I decided to try English paper piecing since it's portable and if I go out I can take it with me. I don't know how many of these I'm going to make because I don't know what I'm making out of them. I'm thinking maybe a tablecloth to spread on an  table by the garden when I go out in the morning to have  my coffee. Can you tell I'm hoping for spring?