A Pretty Quilt and WIP Wednesday: Zen Garden

Since today is Wednesday, I'll start with a Work-in-Progress: my Zen Garden art quilt.

I have slowly been adding more beads to the gold "structure" area

and the blue "water" area. Even a little sparkly fishy!

Next up is the last of Teresa's quilts that I finished quilting yesterday. This one has lovely Moda fabrics with floral and cross-stitch motifs. I got to do my favorite kind of quilting...flowers, leaves, feathers. We selected King Tut "flax" cotton thread.

This quilt has a pieced back, with patchwork perfectly centered. I tried my best to keep it centered by pinning the top and lining together at the center, and then putting pins where I should start the top. It is really hard to keep it centered, though, because the quilting draws up the backing. It looks nice on the back, though, with the quilting really showing up.

In other news, when I walked Maggy yesterday, I discovered that my street is now a cut-through street connecting us to Rogers Road. They finally removed the barricade at the former end of the street. You can still see the bent-over red sign that warned you to stop. There are only about four houses built so far in the new neighborhood.

The new road still needs a little work, as the manhole covers are still sticking up. You rusted-fabric lovers would have fun with this one...I love the "quilty" design, and who would have thought of a manhole cover named "Dancer?" I didn't actually know they had names!

And while you were draping fabric over rusty items, there is an old rusty fence over an old family cemetery in this neighborhood. I would not recommend draping fabric there to be rusted...just not respectful...but it is a very attractive fence.

Yesterday when I was eating lunch on my front porch, I was startled to see a great blue heron fly by just beyond the porch rail. I think he was pond-hopping and was considering a stop in my little garden pond. These birds can have a wing-span of almost seven feet, and are often seen in inland ponds as well as in coastal marshes. Here is a picture borrowed from the Internet that looks exactly like what I saw from my porch rocker.