Another Finish!

"Contentment"  49" x 49"

I've been going through my pile of flimsies, thinking about the ones I want to quilt.

This one cried out to me recently.  

I put it together a year or two ago, with leftover blocks from five different projects.

The words came from instructions in Tonya Ricucci's excellent book, Word Play Quilts.

On second look, the original house block seemed a bit muddy.

So I decided to do a little "home improvement."

Hmm, not exactly what I was looking for.

The third time was the charm.  Now for the quilting.

After stitching in every ditch, I sewed thin matchsticks around all the letters.

Then I added easy back and forth designs and small stippling.

I used puffy wool batting so the letters would pop out.

The half-square triangles got their own simple flower shapes.

Dark binding popped the colors.

Wa-la!

Don't you just love finishing?

I surely do!

Road Trip Weekend

It was another road trip weekend, and I got a lot of hand sewing done in the car. This is the start of a collaborative quilt with my sister-in-law, Bonnie. The pattern is in Applique Outside the Lines by Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins.


Some girl friends and I went to Walla Walla, which is in the Southeastern part of Washington. The countryside is beautiful. You can see for miles and miles.



Can you believe how my friend, Joan, matches the scenery? She says she didn't plan it that way.


Here's some jelly bean art from the candy store.


I did find the fabric shop. They also sell hot tubs there.


Two of my favorite things, all in one place!



Going away, you think about your life from a new perspective. And this block pretty much sums it up.

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!