Did you miss me?

A couple of you have contacted me over the weekend wondering what happened to my usual Friday post?  Well, check this out and you'll begin to understand.

 

The studio painting project has become something of an avalanche.  I got out alive but my camera is still buried in there.  The video is an experiment with my Kindle Fire -- sort of amusing, don't you think?

 

I have managed some stitching every evening for the past few days -- I'm making Brigitte Giblin's Nundle Dilly Bag (find it HERE) which is an English paper piecing project.  This photo shows my progress to date (phone camera this time).  My color/fabric combination is more subdued, perhaps more American, than Brigitte's pattern suggests.  I have to admit I don't get how to do that Aussie Bohemian look.  But I already have plans to make a second one by machine using Marti Michell's templates and the Set-In Piecing Simplified technique featured in my DVD and will take a stab at a more something fabric mix.

I also scored a "finish" -- my March pull for the 2016 APQ Resolution challenge.  My APQS George is not in the studio so I can work there unencumbered by the piles of treasures.  This is my son's Ohio BiCentennial quilt designed and pieced by his mother in 2003 which was coincidentally, Ohio's BiCentennial.  

 How do you label pieces that take 13 years to finish?

 I kept to my comfort zone quilting designs, arcs and straight lines.  I used the strategy for laying out the simple border design that I shared with you HERE.  Comforting to know that it works!

And then there was the weather?  Spring is in full swing after 3 weeks of cold days alternating with mild days.  The woods are calling me and there are new birds in my yard everyday.  Sunday afternoon, I worked in the garden all afternoon and witnessed a first (for me) ever event.  American toads found my garden pond three years ago and Sunday afternoon they returned! 

And I was there to see it all. 

These two embraced for 3 hours and left several hundred eggs along the edges of the pond. 

How could I stay inside sorting piles with that going on?

Can you see both toads?  I spotted the female first and then realized there was a second set of eyes -- the smaller male -- on her back.  They were still singing on Monday afternoon and "first of the year" migrant birds were showing up at my feeders -- pine siskin, purple finch, and yellow-rumped warbler for the curious -- so not much was accomplished.  Nice thing about stitching, it doesn't go anywhere while I'm off cavorting!

 

I hope you are enjoying the change of seasons in your part of the world!!

 

Mary Huey