Between the daily watering of my gardens to cope with the very dry weather here
and a week of happy days with my daughter and grandchildren visiting
I'm a bit off-schedule with this post but very happy with the results of the week! We had a glorious week of fun and made some wonderful memories.
This has to be my favorite -- a picnic supper with close friends and a "jam" session introducing my grandchildren to the joys of spontaneous music making!
My granddaughter has been studying the viola since September and the group ushered her into improvisation which was fun to watch. My grandson is always up for re-enacting (they live on the edge of the Gettysburg Civil War battlefield) and got right into the singing along.
I still haven't stopped smiling!
Happily, parts of the garden are responding to my effort -- the cucumbers are quite happy.
The red currant bush is just about to overwhelm me with it's bounty yet again!
And the black raspberries are going to be sweet if I win the competition with the birds to get there first!
So to have finished my DREAM BIRDS quilt is a bonus!!
I hung it out on the clothesline this morning for some beauty shots!
Most of the blocks were made by members of Hive #7 during the 2015 Stash Bee block exchange (read my original post HERE) organized by Alison over at Little Bunny Quilts using a pattern from Block Lotto -- HERE is a link to that pattern.
I shared the process for creating the setting of this quilt HERE.
The quilting is simple - a series of vertical graceful lines. Every third line has a few of these bubbles inserted for visual interest.
I started at the center of the quilt and as I approached the side borders I decided to rotate the lines by 90 degrees for a faux piano key look.
I originally bought this cheerful bird fabric for borders but decided it would overwhelm. Instead I used half of it for the backing (leaving half of it for something else)!!
This is the view from the patio of the quilt hanging at the back of the lawn -- made me think it would be fun to have a quilt hanging in the yard!
Nice backdrop for the quilt!
Maybe I'll try that for my next garden stitching gathering?
With this finish, I have managed to complete two of my six goal projects for the second quarter of the Finish Along 2016 -- I had hoped to do better, but the significant aspect of this finish (besides I love it) is that there was no date deadline -- that almost never happens.
Check out all the other FINISHES HERE -- very inspiring!!
It's Independence Weekend here in the USA -- I'm praying for a peaceful and quiet celebration for all of us.
Mary Huey
This quilt is WONDERFUL! What a great idea for a block. You can play with all of your favorite fabrics in this quilt. Love, too, how you used a low volume background. Congratulations on a wonderful finish. On behalf of the 2016 FAL hosts, thanks for playing along!
ReplyDeleteThat looks amazing!! Sorry it has taken me so long to check it out.
ReplyDeleteI think you made the right call moving the planned border to the back and using grey and white prints intead. Your decision leaves the bright birds as the focus, as they should be. The simple quilting is perfect too.
This is so fun! I love that you included the names of the birds. Thanks for the link to the tutorial for the birds.
ReplyDelete