Spring Is Here And The First Finish Of The Year

Spring is finally here.  The birds are singing and the sun is warming up the air all around.  How we enjoy going for walks!  The fragrant in the air is  so rejuvenating.   The garden has been calling me to go outside and I have no reason to say no.  I spent most days working in my vegetable garden and the area around the yard.  I prepared the soils and planted some new seeds.  To be honest, I'd rather spend time in the garden than being indoors.  Thank goodness I don't have a large property.  

Freesia cuttings

With rewards like these, I can be outside all day.

I did manage to finish my late friend's last project.  You can read about it here.   I've done it many times, but finishing someone else's project without a pattern is not easy.  I just took a deep breath, turned on my favorite music and went at it.  This project is different though.  While I was working on this project, I had mental conversations with her.  My thoughts were with her and I found things went along very nicely.  I didn't have to make complicated blocks, the pattern is very easy and I had to make only 2 blocks to complete the quilt top. 

Many good memories flow back to my mind, such as the many lunch dates we had and we would talk about art, many quilt shows that we went to together along with other guild members, how we talked and laughed while we were walking around looking at quilts.  Oh how she disliked beads and glitters on quilts!!   I thoroughly enjoyed the quiet time I had with her while I finished the whole piece. 

When the top was done, I gave it to her favorite longarmer to be quilted, expecting that I would get it back in couple days.   After dropping it off, my husband and I decided to enjoy the rest of that Saturday around that neighborhood.  Only a few hours later, I got a phone call that the quilting was done so we swung by to pick it up on the way home.  It couldn't have happened in a better way.  Now the binding and a hanging sleeve are done and it's ready to be delivered to a new owner.

I love this wonderful world of quilting where I meet so many wonderful people I call friends.  Quilters are nice people.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Margo

In addition to the linky parties on the sidebar, I also link up to:

Sew & Tell by Melva Loves Scraps

To Do Tuesday  hosted by Carol at Quilt Schmilt 

Put Your Foot Down at For the Love of Geese  (Thursday)

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

First Sewing of The Year: a Tribute to a Dear Friend

One of my dear friends who was an artist, a quilter and a teacher passed away last month.  She was a great friend and teacher.  She had lived a full life as a mother, a grandmother, a quilter and a teacher.  Her quilts had been accepted to many shows.  So many people had taken her classes and learned from her, me included.  She had wealth of knowledge to share and she did so freely.  I love her.  

I'm honored that the family has asked me to finish her last quilt top in the picture below as I got it.

Some rolls were done already.  I need to make 2 more blocks and finish piecing all the blocks together, which that's what I did last week.  Here's the final layout of the top.

Next will be connecting all rolls together.  I'm planning to add some borders to make the top a bit bigger.

Here's what on my design wall and what I'm working on this week.

Thanks for visiting and have a great week.

Margo

In addition to the linky parties on the sidebar, I also link up to:

Sew & Tell by Melva Loves Scraps

To Do Tuesday  hosted by Carol at Quilt Schmilt 

Put Your Foot Down at For the Love of Geese  (Thursday)

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

New Year, New Projects and More

 Happy New Year everyone.

I know it's a little late but I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year right here in my first post of the year.  Originally I was writing you from Bangkok, Thailand where I was vacationing and visiting my family and friends but I didn't finish writing then.  Now that I'm back home again and want to finish what I started.

Last month we celebrated Chinese New Year.   We had so much fun with many of my family who came over to visit.  The small children all got red envelopes with some money in it.  It is considered lucky money to start the new year.  

I did not sew anything at all, but I did get to play with some fabric.  I was able to acquire some linen fabric and here they are in the picture below.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them, but we shall see.  There will be a linen modern art quilt in the near future, I'm sure.

I also purchased some pearl cotton thread for some hand sewn and hand quilting projects.  

I will get back to work on the 'Adventure in Time' project.  I've been thinking about quilting it for the past 5 weeks while I was away.  I'm still not sure how I will go about it.  I guess, as the saying goes, I'll cross the bridge when I get there.

In a few days, I'll be going to QuiltCon in Phoenix, Arizona.  My quilt 'Off Kilter' is hanging in the show.   I hope to see a lot of wonderful quilts and quilters there.  Please say hi if you see me around.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week.

Margo

In addition to the linky parties on the sidebar, I also link up to:

To Do Tuesday  hosted by Carol at Quilt Schmilt 

Put Your Foot Down at For the Love of Geese  (Thursday)

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More  (Friday)