Snowy Bradford Pear

And then it kept snowing and snowing some more!

These are from Monday when it had started to melt!

Look at that rail!

Misty checks out the snow.

Should I use this for a Christmas Card?

I did finish this little 12″ square wall quilt. It was just in need of a little more quilting and binding. It is going to live at the nursing home in my 93 year old mother’s room. I hope it will make her feel loved.

I also finished making the triangle units for the quilt along.  I needed 192 but I made a little over 200. Never hurts to have a few extras.

Quilt Along Triangle Units

The Flower Garden Quilt is a nice lap size one.  When going through my stash I found a Susan Winget panel and less than half yard of a coordinating print.  My neighbor John works very hard maintaining the landscaping around the entrance to our subdivision.  He gets help from several other neighbors but for a number of years he did most of the work so I’m going to give this to him and his wife Jane. 

I like making fast quilts with panel prints.  I usually add borders and sometimes sashing around small panels.  This time I like the overall look of the small panel together and I didn’t have a print that would work any better around the smaller squares so I left it as a unit.  I added the words to the top and bottom.  These had been running along the selvage of the panel.  I used up the small bit of coordinating print for the top and bottom border and finished the sides with the green and small yellow and black gingham plaid.

I quilted it with the Gardenia panto.  This was the first time I used this design and I love it!  I’ve already used it on two customer quilts and I’m sure I use it again.  I didn’t have enough of the green for the backing so I added a stripe of the terracotta in the same fabric. This was a very soft homespun plaid and I didn’t want to add a print that would be a different weight.  I was pleased with both of these.  Can’t say that about everything I do ;-(

I have several quilt patterns I want to share with you soon.  These are some I have taught for charity quilting classes and are fast and easy.  I’m still learning to navigate in blogland so be patient with my efforts.

My first goal was to post something in the first week of the year and I’ve done it with a few minutes to spare!  More on my goals and thoughts on last year later.

I’ve just finished teaching a class a beginner quilters.  They have had the same ‘everything is new’ attitude about quilting.  It is so much fun to see their enthusiasm about quilting and to watch their skill grow.  They want to know everything and they want to learn it all now!  It’s been well over 30 years since I made my first quilt but I still get that feeling every once in a while about something new I want to learn in quilting.

I took the new quilters to the Lyndon House Art Musuem in Athens, Georgia to see the Women of Biblical Proportions Exhibit http://www.wobp.org/home.html a few weeks ago.  It was amazing!  What was even more fun was watch the ‘new quilters’ respond to the quilts.  50 quilts made by 47 artists in many different styles.  Taking a ‘fresh and new’ look at life occasionally is important.  While I looked at the quilts and answered questions about the different techniques used to create them I began to think about some of the things that I wanted to do with my quilting.  Then I began to think about why I continue to put off trying some of these new techniques.  I also have put off publishing my patterns, something I said I was going to do when I closed my shop.

Looking at my grand-kids growing and learning and changing so fast makes me even more aware of how fast time flies.  They are 7 months old already.  My shop has been closed 5 years now and I still haven’t published my patterns.  Recently, I have been working on some new designs, but I have several notebooks full of designs I created while my shop was open.  I read a quote I had written down from somewhere recently: “A goal is just a dream if you don’t write it down.”  So now how does this all connect?  I plan to use this blog to help me attain some of my goals.  Maybe you will be inspired to work on yours too….  because time flies.