Chevrons, A Desk, and Vase of Tulips. Oh My!

The twins' chevron quilts are now quilted and in need of binding. I did not get a chance to make the binding last week BUT I did locate the fabric I bought to make the binding, so there's a start in the correct direction.

My new-to-me desk is finally in place in the studio. Now to get it organized and ready to create from!

And I received a surprise in the mail on Thursday. The glass blower friend in WA state sent me a tiny clear vase. He's working at making table top sized vases, instead of floor vases/urns. I trimmed up some tulip stems and filled it up with bright colors.

That's all for now, FH and I just got home from helping some friends hang, tape, and mud drywall. Always a good time. Now to find a shower. See you next weekend!

Many Irons

In a complete contrast to last week's frustrations, many things have been going right. So much in fact that I had to make the decision to leave out pictures of the gardens' progress. Otherwise this post would take up lots of time and be saturated with photos. There are enough project pictures to choke bandwidth for anyone still using dial-up as it is...

Let's start off with miniatures! I have a few more quilt bolts for the shop. In this top picture, the dark brown bolt is a leftover from a project. The others were purchased to fill in the yellow, orange, and brown selections.

 In this photo, the bolt in the middle was bought specifically for the quilt shop. But it's from a line of fabrics that I purchased yardage of in other fabrics to make a quilt... so I don't feel very guilty about it. ;-) The other two are project leftovers.

Also the mini group project this week was hydrangeas. I made one of each color offered. The pink one still needs leaves though.

We "cheated" and used a punch for the flowers and the punch was 6-petaled and not 4-petaled. So we all have mutant hydrangeas. Made our lives easier for the two hour long meeting though!

Next up is me trying out my new prairie point guide with some extraneous fabric from my stash. I wanted to figure out the folds and cuts on fabric that wasn't purchased for the quilt I'm practicing the technique for. The results are pretty spiffy!

I did get the scrappy border on the other flag wall quilt this week. I'm very pleased with the results.

My healing shoulder got a bigger workout and I finally got this baby quilt quilted and halfway bound!

It's only been waiting since last fall... the baby in question is at the proto-crawling stage and loves to get hugs and kisses. He's a very happy boy. I can't wait to see his reaction to the different colors.

Now I'm working on a pair of quilts for twin boys born almost two weeks ago. The nursery is decorated in navy blue and white with chevrons.  I chose a larger quilt design and cut the squares half the size required. I'm getting two quilts for the same yardage this way. The blocks stored in the bag are actually in the order for the layout. The other stack is for the second quilt.

 And here's the layout for the first quilt. Not the best picture as it was taken last night when the light was bad. The second quilt's layout will be the same except I'm turning the blocks 180 degrees so the bottom becomes the top. I want the tops to be slightly different but these colors were difficult to get balanced. 

And that's it! Today I'll be piecing the chevron quilt tops and hopefully piecing the backs as well. I'm hoping I'll get to the quilting on at least one of them into the coming week. I also have that quilt to piece which require six width-of-fabric rows of prairie points! There are a few other UFO quilts waiting on their quilting too. Let's see how far I can get this week!

May the Road Rise to Meet You

This week I said farewell and good luck to someone who has helped me dust off my ethereal pieces and start rebuilding. My therapist for the last few years has retired after dedicating a good portion of her life to helping those who need it most.

I wanted to do something special for her, as not only a thank you, but to mark the end of a long chapter in her life and celebrate the beginning of the new. It needed to be easy to transport and not take up too much space since a cross country move was in store.

After I bit of hunting through various shops, I found this little cake plate dome. It's about the size of my favorite teacup, so I knew the size would work.

Then I started pondering and designing. This is the final result.

And here it is inside the dome.

So thank you for everything, Jean. May you enjoy this next chapter and have many happy days.