Won't You Be My Neighbor?

This week I finished my house quilt top - Domestic Bliss

This was a swap with Kelly, Susan and Robyn.  I first posted about it here.  What fun it was.  I am looking forward to quilting it soon.

I have a UFO from 2009 that I don't know what to do with.  Here is the post where it all started with the cupcake group.

Here is the Hat Box quilt:

Why am I not making this??  I have all the fabric in a tub and photos and still nadda, nuttin, zilch - for 6 years now!

I made these two blocks in 2009 and now I can't EVEN find them :(

I think I'm going to go through the fabric and shelve it and move on.....do you ever do this?

Speaking of moving on, I keep running across this in the sewing room.  It is my homemade stencil of the large baptist fan.  I think I can let go now that I have the real thing.

Thank you, Sheila for these super fun clothes pins.  Sparrows?  How fun are these?  Super Fun I think!  Thanks for thinking of me.

Saturday Susan and I are taking the train to NYC for the Empire Quilters Show.  Barbara Brackman is giving a lecture in the afternoon and I'm really looking forward to a quilty day in the Big Apple.

I guess that's it for now - Hope you are having a great week.

FFF - March - Supporting the Arts

Happy Friday!  Here's my Fun For Friday For March.

In Key West, FL I saw:

A painters stand on the beach

A street artist.  He made everything out of paper.  For $1.00 I got to see him turn the TV on and move his slice of paper pizza.

Chewbacca - just chillin' (ha ha in a fur costume) and having a drink from a sippy cup.

   

A fun bar where patrons sign dollar bills and tack them up.  How cool that no one takes them - hooray for fun people in Key West.  Nearly every bar has live music doing covers of Jimmy Buffet and Beach Boys :)

We visited Ernest's Home and the 6 toed Cats. Where I got this awesome pressed penny.  Is this art?  I think so.

Art I bought to take home:  A Christmas Ornament with real shells.

A sweet wren house I bought from the artist on the street.  I plan to hang this soon, maybe after the snow storm expected for today -

While missing coco on the cruise, I got this cute towel of a dog :)

My son, Andrew gave my husband (the coffee king) a Dunkin' gift card.  Can you believe his generosity!?!

Happy Spring - if you are lucky enough to be having one already!

Happy Tuesday

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

AQS had a great show in Lancaster.  I think it is the highest quality of quilts on display so far.  They don't allow photos to be shared on social media but click the image below to see the winners.

I was one of the many non winners at show and proud to be among them I can tell you!  There were so many stunning traditional quilts and some incredible art quilts too.

My friend Betsy took this silly photo of me at the end of the day.  My favorite part?  Jumping the white chain to get near my quilt.   What can they do?  It's mine, lol.

I've been working on my workshop samples for my Hex Vex class next month in NJ.  Here are a few:

I forgot how fun these are to make.

On a previous post a few readers (who were non-reply) asked about what I call my baby head fabric.  Jill and I bought it in several different colors because we just loved it.   I've had it for years and I'm not sure if you can still get it.

 Here is the selvage with the information.

I saw a new bird!  I have a very casual life list going and I had to look this fellow up in my field guide.

He is a Pine Siskin. In this last photo he was on to me and flew away.  Thanks for having lunch at my house Mr. Striped Handsomeness.

And this one is for Mary who always asks about coco.  She has weathered her week at dog camp (I call it dog jail) very well.  Too well, in fact.   After picking her up, she was 'over us' within the hour.

I wish she could learn to take it easy!  Have a great St. Patrick's Day.  Don't drink to much Green Beer :)

And finally thank you to everyone on FaceBook and Instagram that have sent me such nice comments on my Jubilee Quilt.  Your opinions mean more to me than any judges every would.  xo

Setting Sail Searching Sunnier Scenery

I know it is cliché to say "I really needed to get away....."  but it was never more true than this year.

Rich and I escaped the winter of 2015 for a week long cruise in the Caribbean aboard the MS Nieuw Amsterdam of Holland America.

But before we left, I worked up this little quilt as a Birthday gift for my friend, Diane of Persnickety Quilts.  We have been quilt friends for almost 20 years.  She sent me this block, which she appliquéd for my birthday a few years ago.

I machine quilted it with silk thread in the traditional echo style of Hawaiian quilting.  I almost went with a plum binding, but decided to stick with the perfect color theory combination of green with the red and cheddar.

I sued this wonderful New York themed fabric for the backing.  I hope Diane will forgive my free motion quilting.  I just don't practice enough!

On to the getaway.  Here we are docked in Key West.  It was such a fun port to visit.

While away I did a lot of this....

 Quite a bit of this...

A little bit of this....I'm basting here in the cabin so I can stitch on a lounge chair.

 A few rounds of this....

 And nightly dining with Herman and Harris who spoiled us at table 84.

And all too soon scenes like this were replaced

with scenes like this.

Fortunately I have a couple of wonderful things to look forward to:

I'll be a the AQS Show in Lancaster on Friday.  Say Hi if you see me and visit my Jubilee quilt.

I also learned before leaving that my Jubilee Quilt has been accepted to AQS QuiltWeek in Paducah in April and I've already made plans to go!  I'm so excited and thrilled.

I hope you have all had a great week too.  I'll share more travel photos soon.