Spring Crush

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds 
on the heel that has crushed it. 

Mark Twain 

Spring is on it way so they say.  The calendar says that it is here but the temperatures have not given much credence to that fact.  So to add a bit of hope in that direction I will share some of the flowers that have come and gone in my yard this month.

The crocus are such small delicate little things that they are easily missed.  We only have a few that show up but I love them anyway.

I have been busy at my machine this month and have gotten a bit done.  I have more to share later but I'm off to a shower soon.

I added borders to this top.  At first I wasn't sure I would.  I ran out of fabrics so that I had to make the last one scrappy.  I have just enough fabric left for binding and these will be all gone.  Yeah.  Now to decide on backing.

Remember I said that there was a project that was just demanding that I make it.  Well the top was finished last week and I trimmed the edges and got a picture yesterday.  What do you think?

I don't usually work with solids but I had been looking at this design ever since I bought the Hex-N-More ruler.  I pawed through my solids stash and came up with these.  I would have liked to make it a little longer but I didn't have enough of the light purple on the right.

This is the most modern quilt I've made.  My husband really likes it which is surprising since it has purples in it.

The pansies have recovered from the winter and are much happier now that it's almost time to replace them with something new.

My lack of blogging posts lately may or may not be related to my newest Crush.  Do you have this problem?

I've got to hurry and get ready and leave for the shower.  I'll have details to share later.

Spring News

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. 

Anne Dudley Bradstreet

I have good news!  Spring is coming to the South.  Yesterday and today the temperatures are in the 70s.  Of course tomorrow is to be colder and rainy but the long harsh winter seems to be coming to an end at last.  You may cheer now!

Misty even seems to enjoy the daffodils.

It's nice to see the hyacinths that David planted after they quit blooming last year did make it through the winter and bloom.  The tops of two of them were a little frost bit and they are a little small but that's OK.  You can see how they looked when I bought them last year here.

Definitely not as showy this year.

I know I haven't been blogging a lot lately but I have been on a cutting and sewing jag.  My head is filled with projects that I want to get made.  Of course a good shrink might have a few words to say about why I have been in the mood to attack fabric with my rotary cutter and chop it into bits.  LOL  I also have made a dent in the bin of fabric waiting to be ironed and put away.  Still working on that last step though.

I did get the aqua/teal Soul Searching block made for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Since purples and teal were my favorite colors for a number of years during the 80s and 90s I had a few to pull from.  I'm hoping purple and yellow will come up soon.

I got the 5 inch black squares cut on the Accuquilt studio too.  This project is now ready to go.  I put it aside for another one that was just screaming for my attention though.  It is going so fast that I should have the whole top done today if I can get back into the studio.  I'll let you keep guessing as to what it may be.  

And are you ready for?  Can you believe it?  I have not one but TWO finished tops!!! I told you I had been busy.  The border issues were resolved and now the question is which one to finish first so I will let you help with the decision.

TOP NUMBER ONE:

This was the original plan.  Star blocks are just two colors, a dotted print and a solid.  Two blocks of each colorway.  The border issue HERE, was resolved by eliminating the solids. It took a while to make up my mind about it though.  Take a closer look at the blocks.

TOP NUMBER TWO:

When I started this project back in June I realized I had enough strip sets for two sets of blocks since I was using so many colors.  As I was working on it the extra blocks just kept nagging me for attention so they got made too.

Again there are two blocks in each colorway.  I wanted the quilt to look a little different too so I went with a piano key border on this one.  Not my favorite border but I made it fit.  They can be a bit of a pain to get to the right size sometimes and don't expect the second side to fit just because the first one did.  Remember I mentioned the crooked jelly roll strips.  Grrrr.....

Here is how it turned out.  Solid cornerstones might would have looked better but then I would have had to decide which of the 8 solids to use.  To simplify matters I went with the dotted white background.

So which of the two do you like best?  Or do you think they are so similar it is a toss up?

By the way this is my 200th post.  Hard to believe isn't it!

Linking with:  Scrap Happy Saturday and Design Wall Monday and Linky Tuesday

Signs of Hope

Morale is the state of mind. It is steadfastness and courage and hope. It is confidence and zeal and loyalty. It is elan,esprit de corps and determination. 

General George Catlet Marshall

Look what popped up in my yard finally last week!

It has been a long cold and wet winter and it isn't over yet.  Any signs that it is coming to an end soon are welcome!  We still have some cold weather in the forecast so I am not holding my breath that it will be staying warm.  The weekend will at least be dry.  Rain is not expected until Monday.  I wanted to get pictures of these last week but it was either raining or my camera was in the basement studio.  I finally took this one with my Iphone.  It was cloudy so it's not the best picture.  It has been so cold that the daffodils are very short because they have just popped out of the ground and bloomed.  I still have many that are just coming up so I'll have more pictures soon.  This is really late for them.  The last two years I've had blooms the first week of January.

I didn't mean to be absent for so long from blogland.  The last two weeks I haven't been sleeping well and this week I have been hit with allergies.  I think it is from eating gluten, yes I know better, I lost my voice and have been dealing with itchy eyes, throat and drippy sinuses.  Yucky is how I've been feeling so I haven't wanted to share.

I have been sewing away and made progress on a number of projects.  There is even a FINISHED TOP!!!!

If you remember, this was made with a charm pack that I won.  I started with making triangle units and then played with them on the design wall.  I did add a few prints from my stash to finish it up.

I was puzzled about where to use the few large prints.  I wound up placing them diagonally in the rows.  I think it works OK.

The background are a variety of tone on tone cream prints.  I darkened the picture above so you might be able to see them.

I also finished up this top but I still need to add the borders.  I'll have a better picture when I get them on.

Linking with:  Crazy Mom Quilts AND Lily's Quilts