Signs of Spring and a Finish

It started snowing Saturday afternoon and it came down continuously until sometime after we went to bed. this is what we awakened to Sunday morning. There was at least 6 inches of snow on top of the car, so much for spring. But wait, look at that nice blue sky and in the photo on the right I can see that the leaf buds getting larger every day.



 As for the snow on the car, the sun was out and the heavy snow slid right off with little effort and the streets were all clear as they had been plowed during the early hours. Today the snow around our building has diminished to the point of showing big areas of lawn.

 I finished the binding on the auction quilt from Quilt Camp 2013 and I went over it to make sure all the threads were trimmed and buried and I went over it again with the lint roller. I didn't want to put it on the design wall which is covered with threads and lint and I didn't want to lay it out on the floor so here is just one corner on the dining room table . I used the Kona Bone binding and I hope it will appeal to someone besides me.

These shots are of the  machine finished binding; the color of the border is correct in the photo on the left.

The lower photo shows 2 of the corners on the back. It looks like there is net or tulle over the fabric but that must be from the angle that I held the camera. I am pretty satisfied with my new method of sewing the binding to the front and then using Stitch Witchery to  fuse it down on the back before stitching in the ditch right next to the binding on the front. There was a 2 inch area, on one side, where the binding did not get caught on the back.  I stitched it down by hand rather than go over it with the machine. Maybe next time I will get it perfect, maybe not.

 I sewed my nine blocks of made fabric together this morning. I had auditioned several fabrics for the border and settled on a stripe that has all the colors used in the body of the piece. When I put it on the table to check for the size I want for the borders I could see that if I put any borders on at all it will be a rather awkward size to use on the table at a 90 degree angle. The two side corners would stick out a few inches but not enough to hang down. So, I am just going to bind it with the stripe. The colors remind me of Easter egg colors so I think I will finish this up and use it for a couple of weeks. It is nice and spring like so I might use it until I put out my patriotic quilts for the summer.

Anvil blocks

Saturday I was given a large piece of "made fabric" by Fran, one of the Basement Divas. She doesn't really like making fabric. I was only too happy to have it.
I cut some 4 inch squares and some 6 inch squares and I made one Anvil block.
This will round up the number of Anvil blocks with blue backgrounds that I am going to send to Victoria (Bumblebeans) for the cancer quilts that she makes. I had the Friendship group make blocks for me in October and I asked for half of them with blue background. I wasn't sure why I had only 11 when there are 12 in the group. Oh.....I had left out myself so I used Fran's fabric to make my block. Most of the Friendship group is in the Basement group and most of the Basement Divas are in the Friendship group. Fran is one of those who is not part of the Friendship group however her fabric worked out very well.



These are the 12 blocks I will be sending after I clean up all the extra threads and shreds. Everyone always does a good job of cleaning up their blocks but they have been in my sewing room a while and on and off the wall where they pick up threads left behind by other things that were on the wall.



Alas! All but a handful of leaves are gone from the tree. This will be the last tree report until spring unless the winter brings some really spectacular snow art to the trees.

Blocks

I finished my Friendship blocks yesterday. Two sets of red and white positive/negative blocks. It is a simple pattern but it requires precision. All it all it went together pretty easily, only a few sessions with the seam ripper. If these are going to be set block to block, I am glad that it will not be me putting them together; a lot of points there to match.




The sun is shining today and the view from my sewing room is cheerful with the yellow leaves against the bright blue sky.  The view from the living room is not quite so colorful; more bare branches on the other side of the tree. All summer we have much more privacy as no one can really see in our windows from the other buildings. The tree also hides the view of the parking lot for the other building in the summer and gives us shade which makes the AC more efficient. The bright side is now there will be much more light in our apartment which will be a nice change in the winter.

Friendship blocks etc

Friendship group was on Tuesday and it was my turn to receive blocks. I had chosen the Anvil block from "made fabric" and had asked for two 12 inch  blocks, one with a blue background and one with a lighter orange/yellow/gold background.
 I had asked for half of the blocks with blue backgrounds so I could send them to Victoria (Bumblebeans) for the quilts she makes with donated blocks for people recently diagnosed with cancer. I love these blocks. I especially find the block in the upper left corner endearing. It reminds me of myself; I will fix it before I send it. I didn't get blocks from everyone  this month, it was a very busy month for everyone. I will wait to get them all before I send them to Victoria.









Theses are the blocks in the other colorway and I love them just as much. I will  be keeping these to make a throw size quilt. I have one or two of my own somewhere but I didn't look for them because I won't be  putting these together for a while.

I have been quilting the giraffe quilt and it is on hold right now while I decide what I want to do with the background around the giraffes. I am not entirely happy with the echo quilting and I want to add something to it. That may require some unstitching. I took it with me to Friendship Tuesday and asked for suggestions. One of them was to repeat the chevron stitching from the zig zag fabric. I drew a pattern in one corner with my white Sewline Fabric Pencil (I love that pencil). I am still not sure what I will  do.

As I sit here and ponder what to do, this is the view from my sewing room window on this rainy overcast day. In real life the leaves are a bit more yellow. Those blue blurry spots are the raindrops on my window. There is NO blue in the sky today.

 This is the view from the living room of our second floor apartment. That close up view of the green leaves shows the leaves that come up and brush our window when the wind blows. There is much more yellow on the other side of the tree and the other maple trees around are all yellow, it must be the proximity to the building that makes the difference.

 This carpet of leaves under the tree is much thicker that it was earlier when I shot these pictures. It is quite breezy and all the branches are waving and the leaves are coming down like rain. Soon the trees will be bare and the lawn people will come and gather up all the leaves.
I will miss them.

"Peak" color was late this year in our area of NE Ohio. We thought that this year the color would be nice but more subdued, then, last Thursday, everything seemed to burst into glorious color overnight. Who would have expected peak to come the first weekend in November?

Tree update and a flimsy

This is my view today while sitting at my desk looking out the window. It is a rainy, gloomy day but look at that bright green grass and the water droplets hanging off the tree branch. In real life they sparkle, a little bit of  bling; that cheers me up.



 Here are some more tree pics.
Top right was yesterday, top left is today.Maybe the difference is not noticeable in the photo but I can see the difference in how the filling out of the leaves is filtering my view of the other buildings. The bottom left is a close up from another angle. The leaves are not so bright green now; they have more of a bronze color than they did a few days ago. I can see the little maple seeds starting to grow but it is hard to gt a good shot of them. The bottom right is the oak tree that is closer to our bedroom window and I can see the leaf buds. I am happy to see this tree thriving as several years ago the whole top of the tree broke off during a storm. It seemed like the tree could not survive but it compensated by growing its lower branches veeeeerrrry wide and in the last few years it has been growing a new top. In the summer there is not much to show that anything happened to it.

So.... here is my flimsy! I finished the piano key borders and sewed them on this morning. These are the real thing not virtual borders. There is a 2 inch inner border strip that really doesn't show but it made easier the task of sewing on the piano keys. I'm not sure how I will quilt it but I will use Kona bone for the binding.

Now it is time to clean up the sewing room. For the last two days every time I put something down it got lost in the mess. I had to resort to putting the quilt on my bed to pin the borders because both my cutting tables are pure ordinary disaster.

I always feel

more energetic and ambitious

about cleaning

when the sun is shining

but this

is not going to wait for the sun.