Productive Weekend

For the last month or so I've been working on a project that has been rather challenging for me.

It's been challenging because I've been using a bunch of orphan blocks, leftovers and lots of pictures to make a quilt for a special friend. I've borrowed a phrase from Finn that seems to fit this quilt "Everything But the Kitchen Sink". Here it is before the borders.

My freestyle letters didn't come out as nicely this time as they did the first time around. However, the first time around, I had set them with black and decided that the black background was just too much. So, I redid them with the blue background. I'm not as happy with them.

The Bearded One surprised me and made the suggestion of the split border with the light and dark blue. He also rejected the only blues I had in my stash that there was enough of. Oh darn, I had to go to the LQS. I really have to try to get a better picture of this. I got pictures from several of Bev's friends and tried to incorporate all of them. We call Bev the matriarch of our WetWesties camping group. It is a privilege to be able to boast an "I know Bev" bumper sticker on your Westfalia.

Considering the mish-mash of leftovers that I started with, I really didn't think this was all going to come together but yet, somehow, it did. I'm happier with the way this turned out than I thought I would be.

After just two years, my little patch of columbine has spread considerably. This year I've also added some new, red ones but I've put them up in the garden on the left, just below the shed. I love the patch of forget-me-nots in the background. They're spreading like crazy and I just can't bring myself to pull them, even when they're in a place I don't want them to be. I only wish the Magic Garden Elves would come visit and get rid of all the weeds!

And, in case you haven't figured out by now, I like to take weird pictures of a certain spotted one. How's this one KD?

Because...

....a girl can never have too many tote bags.

And because I decided that it needed a little "bling", I added some hot fix crystals. The picture doesn't do them justice. They really do sparkle quite nicely.

After being knocked out flat with the crud last week, I finally managed to get the Go in Peace banner quilted. It has been delivered to the church and will be hung shortly, I hope. Once it's hung I'll take a picture.

Meanwhile, my lilacs are blooming and my patch of columbine has doubled. Spring has most definitely sprung.




I'm hoping to get some serious quilting time this weekend. We won't be going anywhere and the Bearded One is now suffering with the crud so I KNOW he won't be doing anything. For once the weather in the PNW is actually cooperating too. Which most likely means that NEXT weekend, when we are supposed to go camping, it will probably rain. Such is life in the PNW.

Free Style Letters

I said I would make a banner/wallhanging for our church. The balcony extends over the end of the church and is about 4 feet high and is a big blank off-white space. This will hang up there, so that it's visible as you leave church. 

This was my first real attempt at Tonya's free style lettering. I had trouble with being "free". I'm afraid I'm just a little too anal. I had pieced all the letters into words and discovered that they were all very nicely lined up with the bottoms of all the letters nice and even. I had done this without even realizing it. So, rip them all apart and make sure that they did not line up. That was very difficult for me. 

Then came the stained glass blocks. Tedious is an understatement! If you look closely, you can see that the side rows of blocks have a little bit of black leading -- they were just that much too short for the ends. I figure that once this is quilted and bound those bits of black will be covered up wtih binding -- black of course. 

This was a real stretch for me, but, all in all, I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. I'll get it quilted this week and maybe it might get hung before next Sunday....well, that is if the cold that I'm currently fighting cooperates.