Spring Blossoms and a Finish

Oh my gosh, my garden is exploding right now. Our property looks its absolute best in spring and fall.  We have gorgeous flowers this time of year, including iris, roses, clematis, peonies, columbine and coral bells. Once the heat arrives everything begins to look stressed and overheated (including me.) When fall comes along, all of the dogwood and maple trees give us a wonderful show of color. The property was the main draw when we bought this place, the house was definitely secondary.

After a recent rain, our roses just shimmered.

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So many gorgeous colors.

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Completely surrounded by six foot tall deer fence, we don’t have issues with the bajillion deer and rabbits that wander through our property each day.

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Up against the south wall of Ray’s shop we have a few climbing roses and this year, they are just monstrous. This picture was in the middle of the day and doesn’t do them justice. They are gorgeous. Ray had to actually reinforce the trellis they are on; it seemed like the weight could cause them to break away from it.img_20160503_5035

Back to the subject at hand, sewing!  Last week I shared a bit of a project that I was working on. It was a gift for my mom for Mother’s Day. She and I both like vintage pieces and I managed to swipe a crocheted doily from her house when I was there a couple of weeks ago.  I thought it might look pretty quilted to a simple rectangle to be used under a vase of flowers.

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Overall, I am very pleased with how this turned out. Because I was sort of creating without much of a plan, there are things I would do different the next time around. To make this, I made the quilt sandwich and pinned the doily to it. Using a zig zag stitch and my walking foot, I stitched around it in three places. First I stitched the innermost circle, moved outward to the next circle, and then I stitched around the first set of petals. Finally, I stitched around the outer edge. My mistake was adhering the outermost edge before I did the cross hatch quilting. I was constantly butting up to the edge of the doily. If I had left that edge loose, I could have stitched right under it, backtacked, and snipped my threads. It would have been so much easier.Lesson learned.

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After I stitched the doily, I began working on the framework of the FMQ. I did the little scrolls and loops all the way around the edge (leaving about 1/2″ to use for squaring up and binding). After the first pass, it looked too sparse so I echo quilted the little scrolls and loops. Were I to have the chance, I would add more detail to this section. It is a little narrow for the scale of the mini. Finally, I worked on the cross hatch lines. For this, I used my trusty Hera marker. Wow, I love that thing. I could mark one whole quadrant at a time and the lines stayed visible. No ink or chalk to deal with made this so easy! I made 3/4″ blocks in the cross hatch which worked out well.

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The binding came from my stash of vintage fabrics. Remember the story I shared about the wonderful woman in Downieville who gave me her mother’s fabric stash from 1940-1950? This piece was from that amazing gift. It is a sweet print that adds a pop of color to this mini. The fabric was only 32″ wide, selvedge to selvedge which confirms it’s age. (I have actually been dying to start another project with these fabrics. So many project, so little time, right??)

This mini was a sweet project and I think Mom really liked it. It fits her house just perfectly.

I will finish this off by showing you the baby geese that we have been watching. They live up on our pond and are just adorable. Ray took this shot from our deck with a telephoto lens.  The geese are very protective and no matter how quiet we try to be, we cannot get very close to the family.

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Linking to my favorites. Find the links at the top of the page under Link Ups.

 

Remember:  In celebration of their 5th anniversary, Craftsy will hold a great sale of kits and supplies beginning today and running through the 15th. Kits are a great way to buy coordinating fabrics at a wonderful price – even if you decide to use it for something other than the pattern it is sold with. Check it out here!

may craftsy

 

 

14 thoughts on “Spring Blossoms and a Finish

    1. Bernie Post author

      Yes, I did bring her roses and peonies. It is funny because we live fifteen miles apart but she is 1,000 feet higher in elevation so my yard always blooms first but when mine is shot from the heat, hers is still going. So her peonies and roses are just barely blooming but she can enjoy mine.
      The goslings are a treat. Usually they don’t have so many because we have lots of predators around. When Ray was taking the pictures over the weekend, there was a hawk flying back and forth above them and we kept hoping he wouldn’t swoop down to grab one. So far they have been lucky.

      Reply
  1. JanineMarie

    Your roses are so beautiful–especially with the raindrops on them. It looks like the spring weather has been kind to your area this year. I love what you did with the doily. My mother had a doily my grandma made mounted on blue fabric. It hangs in our living room. I have always enjoyed it but never thought that one could be mounted on quilted fabric. That really adds to the richness. I bet your mom was thrilled that you “swiped” her doily.

    Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      Thank you! I’m glad you liked it. I think I want to do another one, longer though – for a table runner. My thought is to find three small-ish doilies that are a creamy off white color. I want to quilt them to a solid cream fabric so it sort of looks like whole cloth? Know what I mean? I think it would be so pretty and vintagey looking. 🙂

      Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      Thanks Diana. Spring brings along so many pretties. Also loads of sneezing and mosquitoes but I am trying to ignore that part. 😉

      Reply
  2. Sandra

    SO MANY of us quilters have such a love of Mother Nature’s Spring Bedecking of her world don’t they? I snapped a photo with my phone, ha a few, at 50 mph because I wanted to capture the intense saturated colours of some crabapple? apple? GLORIOUS deep burgundy and pink trees on the way to the vet’s. Don’t worry; I wasn’t driving! I appreciated reading about your thoughts on the next time you do a project like this. It’s always good to record those, but to record them for others to read, and learn from, is so so helpful. So thank you. I like how yours turned out; that binding is perfect.

    Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      Sometimes I am concerned that I sound negative when I list the changes that I would make on a project the second time around. But really I just think it helps to think through and see how I would improve on it. Always learning something, right?

      ….. And I’m very glad you weren’t driving while you took HR crabapple tree pictures! ?

      Reply
    1. Bernie Post author

      Thanks Christine. Spring is one of my favorite seasons, spring and fall really. I’m not a huge fan of the heat of summer! Hoping our mild weather holds on for a bit longer!

      Reply
  3. Muv aka Lizzie Lenard

    Hello Bernie,
    Using the doily as a centre piece for a quilted mat was a great idea for a present for your mum. I love the colours!
    Interesting to see that you have all your roses out and think of them a spring flowers! We are still patiently waiting…
    Thank you for linking up with Free Motion Mavericks.
    Love, Muv

    Reply
  4. Jyothi

    Love those flowers. Aren’t those water drops beautiful???? your photography is very good. adorable quilting too :-).

    Reply

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