New day, new blog

I am going to start blogging again and hope to keep my friends up to date with my latest quilting projects, gardening escapades and life around our hobby farm.  With all the rain we have been having, my sewing machine has been purring while I have been stuck inside.

The quilt blocks pictured above were made for a contest at Tom's Sewing.  For every donated block with the theme 'think Spring', your name was entered into a draw for a new sewing machine.

Gee, I didn't win!  But, the blocks are being made into donation quilts so it was a worthy cause and fun to stitch the blocks with signs of summery flowers about to bloom! 

I have also been stitching together some Eleanor Burns, Orion Star blocks.  I taught a class last week to two of my regular students and this is one of the quilts that they wanted to make. The blocks are large and finish at 16" so, once they are made, the quilt will go together quickly and be a Quilt of Valour. 

One of my online quilting groups did a project that we called a weekend ONEder quilt.  Not only was it fun to make, it was fast, easy and a great way to dig into my scraps.  I have been seriously going through fabrics in my stash and setting some aside for selling (cheap!) to friends and guild members and as well, for cutting into strips to use in donation quilts.  Am trying hard to resist buying more fabric when I have lots upstairs!  This will be another Quilt of Valour and will be a project that I am going to teach at the guild in September when I do my 2nd annual QOV workshop.

This fun bag is a tote made from six fat quarters.  A group that invites me to teach a few times a year wanted to make tote bags and I gave them two options.  This one is fun, easy and can be made from those fat quarters that are sitting in your stash and you are wondering what to do with them.  Totally reversible, it is a project perfect for a beginner as well as an experienced quilter.  Makes a great gift as well! 

My funky flower quilt is a work in progress.  My Wednesday Diva group had a block exchange and we each made 11 blocks with one more needing to be made to complete the quilt top. The theme was 'bright' which is one of my favourite fabric choices.  It is patiently waiting to be layered, quilted and bound and I hope to get it finished this month as my name is rapidly approaching the top of the list on my Queen of UFO group.  We get two weeks to finish a project when we become Queen and, if we fail, we owe a penalty fat quarter.  Good motivation to get this finished.  It is better to finish than owe fabric!  

The sun is shining quite nicely now on the Pacific West Coast so gardening is calling my name but my peonies and poppies look glorious.  There are also some rosebuds forming so next pictures will be of my beautiful flowers! 

Have a great week - I know that I feel much happier with this glorious sunshine.