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."

Quilts for June

My mother-in-law, June, passed away last weekend. She was a very kind woman who raised four responsible, caring children. She enjoyed being with her family, fishing and contemporary design. Here are two quilts I made for her.



This one, made in 2006, features a block pattern from the Chicago World's Fair in the 1930's. The Chicago area is where June lived for much of her life.


The tag shows a photo of me quilting the quilt.



June loved Marimeko fabrics. I picked up this fabric for her at the Marimeko store in Helsinki a few years ago, and quilted it very simply.

I'm told she was wearing this quilt during her final hours. I'm so pleased that I could express my love for her with these quilts. Aren't we quilters fortunate in this way?

Happy Spring!

Look what sprang up at my house today! This is a group quilt from the very fun gals over at 15 minutes play. I sewed all the blocks together today. I had all these red petal shape scraps leftover from my Eyelashes quilt, and since it's a scrap quilt, and the first day of spring...

I did love the quilt before the tulips arrived. But many of you were good at encouraging me to go that next step and make it my own. I'm so glad you did! Now for some easy hand-applique.



Come to think of it, it's kind of a reverse of this quilt I made a few years ago, based on the cover quilt from the book, Georgia Quilts, by Anita Zeleski Weinraub.

I hope you're seeing spring blooms at your house too!

Back from NYC!

This weekend I got to go on a quilting retreat in NYC, hosted by the lovely and talented Victoria. She set up a perfect sewing space in her loft, cooked for us, shared all her scraps, and set a wonderful tone of warmth and good humor.

I made this quilt, which I think I'll call "New York Scraps." It's 72 x 80. I brought only a few solid fabrics, and used scraps supplied by everyone else.

Victoria and I did a trade, where she sent me this poppy, and I made this for her. Yes, those are buttons from old shirts on the white polka dots.

I sent her this piece of vintage fabric, and look at this exquisite piece she made!! I absolutely LOVE it.


Everyone was so much fun and so creative! Bonnie sat next to me and made these cool scrappy hexagons.


Karen was across the room, quietly whipping out these masterpieces from scraps.


Helen pieced together these colorful scraps and will soon be wearing a very fun vest.


It was great to see Victoria at work--cut, sew, cut, sew--then...

Wa-la! Like magic. She's completely amazing.


Kim made this cute owl for a future Halloween quilt.


Jackie masterfully put together a paper-pieced table topper, then played with Victoria's Mary.



I didn't get a photo of Jessica's new quilt, but she brought this HAND-PIECED finish to show. Incredible!

Here's another stunning show and tell, this one from Andrea.

Thank you, thank you Victoria and everyone. I will hold a warm smile in my heart from this retreat for a long, long time.

Sneak peeks

Sometimes tiny bits of a quilt make the neatest little compositions.



These are bits of a small quilt I'm taking to NYC and hand deliver to Victoria!



Shh, don't tell. It's a surprise!

Maybe I'll slow down and quilt them all by hand. Ha!

I've been hand quilting this little number all weekend,

and thinking about how much I love to quilt by hand.


It makes me slow down and contemplate the important things in life,



like friends and family,


warmth and good food,


safety, health and laughter.


And the encouragement and support of all of you!

Happy Birthday, Em!

Look what arrived in my mailbox last week! It comes from Em, the jubilant and talented quiltmaker in Utah who regularly dishes out love and happiness to all. I don't know why she picked me to be the recipient of this beautiful piece, but I'm so happy she did! It hangs in my sewing room, cheering me up everyday and reminding me of all the generous and supportive souls here in blogland.

If you get a chance, stop by her blog and wish her a happy birthday this weekend. You'll be inspired and entertained by her many happy quilts!



I'm still playing around with this group quilt from the 15 minutes play gals. I have a lot of these red petal shaped scraps leftover from the eyelashes quilt. Well, we've got to find a way to use those scraps. Right?