More Flower Baskets

I've been outside most of the last couple of days working in the gardens. Today I started outside early because I knew it was going to be a very warm afternoon. It is 85 degrees right now. I've been planting lots of flowers so maybe in a month or so I'll have real flowers ready for some baskets.  For now I have settled for Flower Basket quilt blocks.  Now I only need to make 10 more blocks to reach my goal of 50. 

Some of you asked about a pattern. I drafted my own. Last year I googled "flower basket quilt block" or something like that and ended up with the above image but when I went to click on the link my antivirus program popped up with a message that the site was malicious. So I didn't go there. I did like the block so I copied off the picture and wrote my own notes that mostly pertain to cutting.  I don't really need assembly instructions. 

Some of you leave such lovely comments but are "no reply" which means either you don't have your email listed with your google profile or you don't leave it in the comment. I'd like to reply to your lovely comments but can't if I don't have an email addy. So anyway, thank you if you have lately left a comment on any blog post.  

And sew on...

 

A Little Top

It's a flimsy!

40 x 42

A few years ago someone gave me the center print as well as several other different ones. I'm not sure if it's a panel or border print or what. It look like the prints were yardage and not sold separately like panels. Well, anyway, I put those in a box and for quilt awhile I have been throwing in pieces of fabric as I come across them that I think will go well with the different centers. 

I'm not good at making medallion quilts because I can't ever decide what to add for borders. For this one I made some six inch scrappy square in square in square blocks. I think I used to have more frog prints in the box but must have taken them out last year when I made a green and pink frog quilt.  

And I added some plain borders too - a couple of brown and white polka dots and a yellow one.  I tried to use colors and novelty fabrics that matched what was in the center. 

Here's three of the other centers. I'm working with another center.  I'm hoping to empty that box of centers and fabric pieces this month but am not going to beat myself up if I don't. I have lots of gardening to do. 

And sew on...

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

 

..."In Every Wood In Every Spring There Is A Different Green"...J.R.R. Tolkien

 

Green, specifically forest and sage green, is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) color for May. I'm going to use all greens because I have a lot of RSC projects in the works so I'll make some of my blocks this month and when the RSC color is lighter and brighter greens I'll make the rest of my blocks. 

I have a giant tote of green scraps. I took out the solid scraps and any scrap chunks (larger than a six inch square and smaller than a Fat Quarter).  Then I sorted the rest of the scraps by width. If they did not fit nicely into any width category or pieces were small they went into crumbs or strings or a pile to be cut into squares.

5 inch width pieces were cut 5 x 9.5 and made into Horizon blocks for donation quilts I'll make near the end of the year.  That light one on top right might be too light and may end up in the orphan pile but for now it's going into the block collection. 

5 inch squares in jewel tones got made into Chips (Economy Blocks). The corners are trimmed and made into Quarter Square Triangles (QSTs).  As I come across five inch squares in jewel tones I put them into the project box and make them into Chips at the same time I make the RSC colored ones. 

The rest of the five inch pieces I cut into a square if possible. Some of the longer pieces I cut in half to use when I make my blocks from 2.5 inch scraps. From the bright green 2.5 inch width lengths I cut four squares if possible for Indian Hatchet blocks when I'm ready to make those.  If there was a 1.5 x 5 piece I cut it into pieces 1.5 x 3.5 pieces for a new project and then I had postage stamp sized pieces left for my postage stamp collection. Any 2.5 inch width pieces that were left that weren't long I cut into squares and/or 1.5 x 2.5 inch pieces for Legos. 

That does it for the 5 inch width green scraps. Next I'll be working with the green 3.5 and 2 inch scraps. 

It's A Finish!

It's a finish!

63 x 80

I finished the top last October.

It was inspired by a quilt at Blue Elephant Stitches.

Over a period of more than a year I cut scraps into 2.5 x 3.5 pieces for this quilt. I tried not to repeat fabrics but that's not to say that I haven't. 

Light, medium and dark. Sometimes it is difficult to decide the value of some fabrics. 

I've found this type of quilt with lots of fun fabrics to be a hit with hospital and hospice patients. 

No matter the age patients and visitors seem to like to play I Spy and sometimes smile or laugh at what they find. 

I quilted it on my DSM with vertical and horizontal lines in gray thread.  The binding is scrappy. 

The backing was a gift from a kind soul. 

And sew on...

Finished Or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

 

Wednesday Wandering

Last year I cleared an area for a cutting garden. I have several beds laid out mostly for annuals. One bed is for tulips. I was not planning on tulips for the cutting garden but last Autumn my husband bought me a dozen bulbs each of 8 different varieties. Of course I got to plant all 96 bulbs but now he gets the job of trying to keep the deer and rabbits from enjoying them. 

There are different heights, different colors, different heights of tulips. Some even have variegated leaves. 

It has been so cold, windy and rainy off an on so I have not yet gotten around to cutting any tulips for a vase since they started blooming. And so far I think only 8 tulips have been munched by deer and rabbits. 

The Virginia Bluebells are starting to open. 

The Grape Hyacinth are blooming in the fairy garden. 

I'm glad to see the Hellebore has survived the rabbit attacks. I just love Hellebores. 

The Fritillaria are in bloom. The deer and rabbits don't bother this variety as much as they do the Michaelmas Fritallaria which were eaten to the ground before they ever started blooming. 

I have little patches of this type of daffodil here and there in several grassy areas. I did not plant them in the grass - evidently the fairies did at one time. 

In the veggie garden some of the hills of potatoes have some leaf growth...

And the Sugar Snap peas have sprouted along a couple of trellises (as well as the dandelions, I see). 

Most of the seeds I winter sowed in February have sprouted. 

A lot of the seeds I winter sowed need cold stratification. I've been winter sowing seeds for a number of years. Most of the ones I sowed this year will go into the native wildflower area. 

In early April I sowed the brassicas - brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli - in water jugs and most of those seeds have sprouted. 

We had heavy rains yesterday and I woke up to a cold 37 degrees so even though  it will be sunny today I don't think I'll be able to work out in the gardens. And then rain is predicted for the rest of the week I think.  

And so it grows. 

 

Two Different Anvil Blocks

The AdHoc Improv Quilt (AHIQ) blog prompt in January was "Pick A Palette".  My comment on January 4 to that blog post was "Funny. The other day I was watching a Gardener's World special and one of the presenters (Arit Anderson is her name I think) was dressed in lime green and orange. Although I like most colors those are the two colors I would have to say I would list last as colors I use or would ever in a million years wear. But, wow, it was a striking combination of colors and I even said to my husband -- I should make a quilt in those colors. "Ok", he said. The giant and very old topiaries in the garden she was visiting were awesome too."

So...I don't really like lime green or orange by themselves but, like I said, worn together the combination was striking. - almost a "can't take my eyes off of you" combination of colors. 

Well, anyway, I decided to challenge myself to make a quilt with lime greens and oranges - not my favs on the color wheel - and make a quilt I might just like if not love. 

So I dug around and came up with a few different fabrics in those colors and finally decided on a block - an eight inch Anvil block.  Let's see what happens. 

Meanwhile, while researching the Anvil block I found a six inch version I like.  I'm making this version with some homespuns and plaids and civil war repro scraps.  The Anvil blocks will alternate with 6 inch (finished) HSTs in the quilt. 

And sew on...

 

May Baskets

It's May so it only seems appropriate that I work on some of my basket UFOs - May Baskets! 

 With the addition of these six flower baskets I now have 32 basket blocks that finish at 9 inches

. I think, if I read my notes correctly, I was planning on 50 blocks set on point. So maybe in May I will complete 18 more baskets. MAYbe!

Hmmmmm, I spy a problem in one block- a drooping daisy.  I think that will be easy to fix. And I think I need to find flowers that are a little more colorful to fill the next batch of baskets. I've been using florals from the 2 inch width scrap bin but the pickings are getting slim there so I may have to go pick flowers elsewhere. 

Do you remember making May baskets when you were younger to hang on the neighbors' doors? We made construction paper cones with string handles that I think we filled with lilacs. But my lilacs here are not yet blooming so I must not be remembering the flower we used correctly. Growing up I only remember lilacs and peonies between our house and the neighbor and trumpet vine on one side of the garage and tiger lilies and hollyhocks on the other near the alley.  Maybe we filled the May baskets with dandelions! I see they are blooming now.

I need to dig out my other basket UFOs-- an unfinished medallion, with baskets, in center a baby quilt inspired by a vintage one in cw repros that needs quilting, and some Grape Baskets.  Stay tuned! And sew on...

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework