In Full Bloom

I missed all the flowers in bloom at home this spring because I was enjoying this little guy over here in my last post.  

My front planter while I was away.  

Photo courtesy of youngest daughter

The next best thing for me was to take out all my flower quilts and have a little quilt show.  It's also been raining cats and dogs here along the eastern coast for the last 5 days.  The sun only peeking out around 5 o'clock in the evening.  Every time I wanted to go out and hang some quilts and take pictures, there was a thunder storm.  

Hollyhocks and Foxglove flowers are two of my favorite flowers.  I planted some the year that I made these quilts.  They never came back up.  I do have kind of a brown thumb when it comes to growing things in the ground.  Pots on the deck, well that's another thing.  I'll show you in another post when they get to their full potential.  

I love flower quilts.  I need to make more.  These two quilts were made when I was a fairly new quilter.  I made the purple Hollyhock quilt first.  When I finished it, I had to make another one in my favorite color...PINK...

 This is Tulip Time.  It's a free pattern that I give away in my store.
Another one of my favorites ✿

The following are pictures from Abbey Gardens in Bury St. Edmunds, United Kingdom when I was there in April.  Also some pics from the open air market which is open every Wednesday and Saturday.  

It was amazing how bright and vibrant everything was considering how cold and wet everything is over there.    Taken on the only sunny day I saw in three weeks.

It's been a while since I posted to my Tuesday Treasure group also.

I am back and I've got my sewing machine foot pedal to the metal.  

Between Mother & Daughter

Sharing a bit of myself self with y'all.   My email exchange with my daughter today.  

Her First Mothers Day.  A continent away.

From: Jessica
Date: May 13, 2012 12:01:56 PM EDT
To: Stacey>
Subject: From one mother to the other

Hi mom!

Thanks for such a sweet email! Being a mother makes me appreciate what you had to go through over the years. It's tough work! 

And I'm not sure how positive I am these days but I know it'll get better ;)

Thank you for all of your help and support! I would be completely lost over here in England without it. 

Happy mothers day to you! I still have to mail your gift so hold tight. 

Love ya!

Jess

Sent from my iPhone

On 13 May 2012, at 03:53 PM, >stacey wrote:

Hi honey,  I hope you are having a nice day today.  I just wanted to let you know how proud I am of you.  There is not a day that passes where I don't think your accomplishments, your poise, generosity, caring of other people who are important to you, strengths, beauty in seeing positive things, creativity, and so many other fine qualities.  I love you very much.

Happy Day to you. 

                Love Mom
                sent from my iPad 

My first grandchild.  A boy born on April 1st.

The following quilt was hilarious to make. OMG, I made so many mistakes. Cutting my fabrics rights side together and not getting the angles correct, trimming up my block too small for my planned pinwheel cornerstones with sashing. You name it, it happened.

My red and aqua stash

Something went wrong every step of the way. My tension was loose, then it was too tight, my machine kept skipping stitches. Every inch! Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I let my youngest daughter come home and try her free motion quilting skills on it (fabric painting according to her), mess with the tension, the bobbin holder screw, use incredible amounts of strange thread. Broken needles. The real culprit most of all was ~ Pressure ~ Pressure to get it done before this little guy made his debut.   All before I got my rear-end on a plane heading across the pond to the UK. 

I did it and guess what? I loved every bit of stitching, ripping and curs*#ing.

pinwheels, cornerstones and sashing didn't happen

Also a huge hug of appreciation to my son-in-law for serving our country so proudly.  

Favorite Color Combos

Pink and Brown are another of my favorite color combos for quilts. Used together they have such a nice old fashioned look to them.

Taken yesterday as the sun was setting gave my quilt a nice glow.

Here is my quilt in progress using my very high tech block labeling system to keep everything in order and in control.

All I needed to do is tear up some strips of paper and label them as needed.

It is free pattern that I found on-line. I like that fact that the block is floating and I didn't have to worry about chopping off my points.

I love the quilting it's called feathered curls. I am so pleased on how it turned out.

I used a solid cream muslin for the backing and a ton of pink and browns from my stash.

Another thing that I liked doing on this quilt was to twist the seams open on my four-patch units that I used for the border.

This quilt is going to my friend Fiona and she is my Treasure.

Sunshine

It's a beautiful day with a Carolina Blue sky near 80 degrees here in the south. I should have been outside enjoying the sunshine, but instead I had to finish this quilt for my UFO challenge.

After looking at my basket of unquilted quilt tops for years, and with the nudging from a friend, I decided to get 'em done. I am planning on getting 4 quilts per month to the DONE DONE stage.

This quilt was super easy peasy. Just 3 charm packs set on point with setting triangles.

Tuesday Treasure

When I was thinking about what to post today for my Tuesday Treasure today, I was stumped and a hard time. Then I got a lovely email from my dear daughter in the design school at her college and she showed me this

She loves surface embellishment.

Good thing she does, cause I don't.

She also loves "Instagram" on her iPhone which gives her photos a nice vintage look. My treasure today is that my sweet baby loves sewing and everything that comes with it. She loves to raid my stash of thread, fabric, notions and all things fun, funky and different.

Yippee! Maybe she'll take after me and be a quilter later in life, Ya Think?