Tulips!

About an hour north of Seattle is the Skagit Valley, which is North America's largest grower of tulips, iris and daffodils.


The tulips are in full bloom right now, and we spent the afternoon oohing and aahing at their beauty.

It's hard to capture the enormous scale in a photo. There are 1,000 acres altogether. This is just one of many large fields.


Every once in awhile you find a rebel tulip,



Or a patchwork one.


How would you like your garden to look like this?


These tulips are grown for their bulbs, which are sold all over the world. The flowers, short-lived, are picked and tossed away.



A good reminder that what's important is often deep down inside and can't be seen.



Which brings me to my all-time favorite virtue.



Happy holiday weekend, everyone!

Bits and Pieces

I went on a road trip last weekend, and managed to get this quilted. It's called "Sujata's Basket," because it is! Sujata sent the basket block along with a scrap exchange last year. I was fooling around with monkey wrench blocks, and this is the result.


I used black #8 perle cotton and a sashiko needle. I love quilting with perle cotton.


My virtue word for the week. We quilt makers know all about this one!



A signature block for Victoria. (The color in this photo is awful. It's really not that pink!)


And the starter of a starters and enders quilt. I have a lot of 3-1/2 squares from years back, enough for a very large quilt.

The Virtues Quilt Project

I've been meaning to try out Tonya's letters, and got the idea to make a virtues quilt. Thought I'd make a word a week, and at the end of the year have 52 for a big quilt. But these things are so fun, I've made four this week! I think they look great with this fabric I got ON CLEARANCE at Jackie's online shop.

Have you heard of the Virtues Project? They've got a list of 52 virtues, with definitions and lessons on how to teach them to your family and students. Very inspiring.

If anyone wants to play along, you can post your Virtues Quilt Project over at the Unruly Quilting blog. As my son said to me, "Changing the world, one quilt at a time."