Prairie Flowers

I got a few more blocks done.

I love these Bonnie and Camille prints, but no surprise there. I always like their designs. Other than that, I have been busy with other stuff—mainly work. I have one more weekend off before the shutdown starts, and I want to some major decluttering and cleaning in this house. I’ve gotten so slow at it, not sure if I can do as much as I would like to. 

We had an A/C guy over to look at the blower. Some contacts were sticking so he replaced that part and flushed the drain line. Bill asked him for a quote to replace the whole system. Turns out the blower is about 50 years old. No wonder we have problems with it. I think it will need to be replaced before we can sell the house. 

Fat Quarters and May Flowers

 I found some more fat quarters that I can use for my May Flowers quilt. This one.

I actually bought four half yards from the bolts thinking I could just cut my own fat quarters and have a spare of each. I was a little frustrated when I started cutting and saw I didn’t have quite a half yard. 

It’s fine, but it will be a little tight on the cutting for this pattern, especially if I have to do much straightening. But, I am happy with the twelve fqs I have picked out, and just need to figure out the background. I was planning on Kona snow, but I might like something with a little pattern.

Mother’s Day 2020

Happy Mother’s Day to all. This is the gift from my daughter.

I hung it today, and I’m waiting to see if we have any takers before I fill it all the way up.

We celebrated yesterday at Texas Roadhouse. I’m pretty sure that’s my mom’s favorite. That where she generally chooses to go. It was my mom, me, my daughter, and granddaughter, so four generations. It’s nice when we can all get together.

Prairie Flowers

Isn’t this the prettiest quilt?

 

It’s a kit from Quilter’s Patch using a Bonnie  and Camille layer cake and a Missouri Star pattern called Prairie Flower. I bought the kit a month or two ago, maybe during the Taste of Texas shop hop. I need to do a blog post about the shop hop. It was so much fun.

I started this kit a few weeks ago. I couldn’t sleep one night and got up about three and started cutting it out. I love the way the blocks look with the Bella solid background.

I don’t think it will be too hard to finish. The blocks are easy, and the decisions are all made concerning sashing, cornerstones, and borders. As long as I don’t get tempted to start changing things, it should go smoothly.

Birthday Gifts

 April is my birthday month and my friend Dave has his birthday a day after mine. Bill and I were able to get together for a night out with Dave and Alan a couple of weeks ago. Dinner at Joe’s Pizza and Pasta with a bottle of wine and good conversation. 

They gave me several “quilty” gifts—all fabulous—but this one is really cool.

Alan made these from a Lori Holt tutorial. They are project boards for making quilt blocks. The pieces cling to the quilt batting, and you can transport all the pieces from the cutting table to the sewing machine, then stack them by the machine for sewing. So cool. 

I always like handmade things the best. Don’t you agree?

Spring Blooms

 We had a really bad freeze in February. I’m not saying it never freezes here, but it’s generally a day or two a couple of times a year—if that. This year, it was already cold so the ground was colder than usual, and then we had temps in the 20’s for almost a week. I thought I had lost all of my plants. Well honestly, I was just glad not to lose any water pipes! I wasn’t sure what all would come back and what was gone forever. We had a good rain this weekend, and my Canna Lilies are blooming!

I’m not sure what’s going on with the Lantana. It’s pretty tough, and I think it will be fine once the weather gets hot.

The Lily of the Nile usually blooms in March, but here it is May, and I can see two buds.

A

A strange year for sure.

Nine Patch Square Dance

 I have been waiting for the border fabric I ordered to get here so I could finish this top. It’s the 2021 quilt along from American Patchwork and Quilting.

Look what came this week!

The pattern uses a narrow inner border of the background fabric, and then a wider one from one of the colors in the quilt. I’m still thinking about that inner border: do I want the off white like the background or red like the cornerstones? Either way, the outer border will be the black. 

Today would be a good day to work on it. Nothing but rain and more rain. I have been doing laundry and got the bathrooms cleaned. It’s hard for me to get motivated when the weather is yucky like this. If it clears up soon, I will have to get busy and get the grass cut. In the meantime, I need to make a decision on the inner border for this quilt.