Barrister's Blocks

I completed two of the three recently featured blocks on Barrister's Sow-A-Long; will make the basket block when I have a bit more time.  I was so much in the mood to sew last evening, that I made these two before I went to bed!  I know they don't look like they go in the same quilt, but they will when it's all put together.

Everything is coming up in the garden - including weeds - so I have spent a lot of time there in the past week.  All of a sudden the azaleas and dogwoods are in bloom, too, and I must admit this is my favorite time for flowers in the garden.

For those who like to read and have a Kindle, I found quite a few books on the free list at Amazon.com that sounded good to me when I looked through them earlier this evening.  I ordered several!  I'm not sure how long they continue to be free, but if you are interested there is one about quilting (Quilts: Their Story and How to Make Them) and a great one for St. Patrick's Day weekend (The Myths, Legends, and Lore of Ireland.)

Now to get a few more things done before heading up to bed...

Happy St. Patrick's Day

It's well after midnight so I am going to wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day!  I will be out of town on my birthday so I am going to celebrate early and have a St. Patrick's Day birthday.  It will be a first ever - and one and only, but I have always loved St. Patrick's Day so I figured, "Go for it!"  Don't forget to wear your green.

Zentangles

At our February Quilt Guild meeting, we had a speaker about Zentangles.  They are something I had not heard of before and I am not someone who doodles so I wasn't sure what I was going to take away from this meeting.

Anyway, an online craft group that I am in frequently has ATC (Artistic Trading Card) Swaps so we decided to have a Zentangle ATC Swap.  Above you will see my first Zentangle.  It will soon be on its way to Australia.  No, I will not become a famous Zentangle artist, but it was fun.

Now back to quilting...



The Farmer's Wife

Randy at http://barristersblock.blogspot.com/2012/02/if-its-second-wednesday-in-february-it.html is posting a series about making the blocks from The Farmer's Wife.  I have decided to join in.  Take a look if you are interested.

I made my first six blocks today and here they are along with the fabric I will be adding to the quilt.  I am doing my own thing with the additional fabric.  My quilt will not look like the quilt in the book.  In fact, I would not normally be working in the colors you see in the blocks  I had fabric (shown at the center) that has the Declaration of Independence on it and the fabric you see towards the back picturing Colonial era money called "script."   Neither of those fabrics alone would make much of a quilt so I am adding some blocks from The Farmer's Wife and will "design as I go."  I'll continue to post pictures!

It was a beautiful day here today.  I should spend some time gardening tomorrow.  What a strange winter it has been.

StrataVarious

I finished this quilt a few weeks ago, but I am just now getting the picture posted.

I love to name my quilts and this one is StrataVarious.  I want to hang it somewhere in my house - just haven't decided where yet.  It is not a specific quilt shown in Louisa L. Smith's book Strips 'n Curves, but it is made in that style.  The copyright on the book is 2001 and it was published by C & T Publishing if you are looking for it.  There are lots of beautiful quilts pictured in the book to give you inspiration!

The other thing I made recently is a mug rug.  What a fun and simple thing to make!  I'm sure I will be making more. (There is some wrapping paper under the mug rug so that is why you see the odd shape.)

Happy Presidents' Day.  I thought the cherries in the fabric above were appropriate to post for this day.  George Washington lost out on having his own special holiday a few years back, but his birthday is on February 22nd if you want to remember him then.  Often I serve something with cherries on his birthday.  All accounts now seem to indicate the story that he couldn't tell a lie and admitted to chopping down the cherry tree was not true though.
I love to read about the U.S. Presidents.  How about you?  One of my goals is to read a biography or autobiography on each of the presidents!

Day After Valentine's Day

A Belated

I hope everyone had a Happy Valentine's Day yesterday!  I came down with a bad cold last week and still wasn't feeling very well yesterday so my husband and I postponed going out to eat until I feel better.

I haven't done any sewing since the first part of last week either.  Before I got sick I completed a quilt that I haven't pictured yet so I will try to get that pictured in the next few days.  The cold weather that showed up this week sure is conducive to sewing. 

Moving from Sow to Sew

I was hostess for a Theme Garden Seed Swap this month.  1,984 packs of seeds made it my way from all over the country.  My job was to divide them according to the 5 themes that each person listed.  Very creative themes and very creative ways to link the seeds to the themes!  It was fun, but since I was trying to get them all in and back out in about 10 days, that's about all I have done lately other than the essentials.

Here was my set-up. Yes, there were so many seeds that I was sorting them into grocery bags.



Here are some of the cute themes and some examples of the kinds of seeds they included:

For Salad Bowl one sender found a variety of lettuce that was Salad Bowl Lettuce!
The Children's Garden included Fairytale Eggplant seeds.
For Little Gems there was a Marigold called 'Lemon Gem.'
Jurassic Park got Sunflower 'Mammoth', Dinosaur Kale, Chile 'Thai Dragon' and  Salvia 'Purple Volcano'
There was The Great Race with Chinese Forget Me Nots, Watermelon 'Congo', Marvel of Venice Beans, Chinese Mantanghong Radish, Chinese Lantern and many more.
It's Not Easy Being Green included Tomato 'Green Velvet', Bells of Ireland, and Giant Lime Green Zinnia

Anyway, you can see it was creative and lots of fun.  With the 23 people who participated we had 115 themes.

Now for the part about "moving from sow to sew" - there are 3 quilt projects that need to be given high priority so that's where my attention will go for the remainder of the week.