Pretty Spring Quilt

Finished quilting Marge's beautiful top.  It is rendered in springlike colors of white, green, and purple, with a luscious border of roses.

It looks like windowpanes, especially pictured just below my windowpanes!

She wanted an overall design, so I did leaves and flowers in a yellow-green Signature thread called "Pear Green."  Marge was almost as pleased with the back  as the top.

I had a lot of trouble with the tension on this project.  Sometimes that just happens, but this one might have been caused by a perfect storm of tone-on-tone backing that was not pre-washed, tightly woven white cotton on the front, a somewhat scratchy batting, and perhaps that color of thread.  Places on the back looked like they were "flat-lining."  In other words, the bobbin thread was just kind of lying there, not pulled in to the center of the quilt by the top thread.

Lots of picking and re-sewing later, it turned out pretty nice.

Here are some more  photos from yesterday's walk.  Wouldn't this quilt look great on display by any of these spring landscapes? 

Dogwood and Azalea Time

It's still March, but our Southern Spring is in full bloom.  There is just nothing prettier than the combination of dogwood and azalea...especially when combined with graceful architecture such as in historic Wake Forest, North Carolina.  What a difference a day makes...beautiful sunshine and blue skies.

The campus of Southeastern Baptist Seminary is looking lovely.

It used to be Wake Forest College, back in the day when Arnold Palmer played golf for the Demon Deacons.

If you are not into pastel shades, azaleas also come in brilliant reds.

This lush green lawn with the dogwood trees and azaleas makes me think of the landscaping at The Masters golf tournament in North Augusta, South Carolina.  That is coming up on April 5.

My own personal back yard is looking inviting.  But, I've got things to do!

Spring Has Sprung

For the past two mornings, we have had thunderstorms, followed by warm sunny days.  The cherry trees along our driveway started blossoming while we were in Asheville last weekend  They look rather brilliant against the dark sky.

I like to walk on the greenway nearby after a big change in the weather, so I loaded up the dog while it was still misting a bit, and headed for the greenway on the other side of Rogers Road.  The center of the traffic rotary on Marshall Farm Road is looking very spring-like and pretty.

I knew that volunteers had planted daffodil bulbs along the greenway last fall, but had not seen them yet because I have been avoiding the sounds of the earth-moving equipment and logging station on Rogers Road.  But, today I thought they might not be working due to the rain.  Wrong.

But the daffodils look great in big clumps along both the paved and wooden walkways.

I was on the lookout for deer who might be out and about after the rain.  Sure enough, I saw a "white flag" heading to the thicker woods within minutes.  I thought that would be it, until I spotted this doe and fawn on the other side of the greenway a few minutes later.

Can you see them?  They stood and posed for us while I took about ten pictures.  Kasey is very good about freezing in place when we encounter deer so they don't get spooked.

These appeared to be a doe and her fawn, sort of nuzzling each other in a Disney moment.   I just love encounters like these!

There was a lot of water cascading over the rocks, and I let Kasey go in for a dip despite just having been groomed on Sunday.  As soon as the sun came out, it really got warm and she had her fur coat on, after all.

The dogwood are starting to open up.  Usually it is mid-April when the dogwood trees and azaleas are in their glory, but we are really ahead of the game this spring.

Yesterday was my husband's real birthday.  We went out for dinner at The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant, with Dave and Emily.  But I had to have at least a little birthday cake for him at home. (Courtesy of the local Harris-Teeter Grocery store.)  We will enjoy that tonight.

I have a beautiful big customer quilt to start on today, so I better get to work.  Pictures tomorrow, maybe!

Virtual Quilt Bee

Today I will share some pretty quilt projects that the Whacky Ladies exhibited at Show-and-Tell last week.  I love Show-and-Tell, don't you?  Please pardon the photos---it's hard to take good ones as they are being passed around a living room and briefly held up. 

The Whackies met Thursday night at Irene's house in Rolesville.  By the way, a tornado passed through Rolesville on Sunday...I live only three miles from there.  We had no damage, but a house was pretty torn up on North Main Street.

Janice started out with her projects.  The first is actually a Cyberbee "Big Blocks' swap project.  She and three others made the large daisy applique baskets.  She has used wool felt for the applique.  This is going to be a stunning quilt!

Janice also worked on a UFO Double Wedding Ring project.  I love this pattern, but have never attempted it, with all those curvy little shapes to piece.

Jean made a quilt for her cousin's fiftieth birthday.  The theme is beer!  She has used a commercial print, some patches, logos, photo transfers, and quotations like "Save Water!  Drink Beer!."  She got some flattened beer caps with holes drilled from mixed-media artist Michelle Bonds. I think he will like this gift!

I like the mug of beer she made for the label.  She used Angelina fiber to make the foam.

Marilyn belongs to a church that makes quilts to give to each baby when it is baptized.  Her very own first grandbaby is being baptized soon, so she volunteered to make his quilt. (In addition to the other ones Grandma has already made for him!) It features a print with cute little monkeys.

Jean now has a rival as Applique Queen in our bee. Our new member, Lori, is working on a beaded Baltimore Album quilt with a Halloween theme.  I believe it is a Block of the Month.  We are all dazzled by her work.

I mentioned last month that our guild, The Capital Quilters Guild of Raleigh, had Martie Michell as our guest speaker and workshop teacher last month.  Sharon took her log cabin class, and has finished the top she began in class.

When we came back from Hawaii, I was surprised to see that spring had arrived!  In my yard, the camellias and forsythia are in bloom.  Many of my neighbors have lined their driveways with Bradford pears.  Some of these plantings are now twenty years old, and they look spectacular!

I also had to snap of this huge forsythia at our neighbors' the Hutchinsons.  Charlie's grandmother used to call this shrub "Yellow Bells," a perfect name!

Look What Happened When I Was Away

I came home from my brief trip last week to find that my cherry trees had burst into bloom! These are Yoshino cherries along the driveway. Yoshinos are the same trees originally planted in Washington, DC along the National Mall and Memorial Parks.

I also have a weeping cherry close to the house that started blooming the same day.

Too bad the weather has been ugly for the past few days- cold, gray, and windy and rainy. I would love to be outside working in the yard.

All the spring bulbs have come up, like this pink hyacinth. It is right by my front steps, and smells divine.

And I love the grape hyacinths. You can plant a few of these little bulbs, and they will spread out like crazy.

Today will be a good day to stay inside and get some quilting done. I am hoping to finish the yellow floral quilt today and take some photographs to show you. It is the perfect spring quilt to go with my flowers and blossoms!

A Bit of Springtime

Heading to the North Carolina mountains again this weekend. I will leave you with a bit of spring from my yard here in Wake Forest...

and a magic link to bring you instant springtime where you live, even if there is snow on the ground...

http://www.procreo.jp/labo/flower_garden.swf

And don't forget to leave a comment on my April 3 post to enter the Come to the Islands Tropical Give-Away! The drawing will be April 14, so leave a comment before midnight on April 13. Be sure to leave your e-mail address if you are not a blogger. I have gotten several lovely comments from people that I have no way to contact. Check back on Tuesday, April 14!

Flowers in Color and in Black and White

When I created the black and white still life for Lesson One of Think Like an Artist Workshop, I was thinking to myself, do I really want to create black flowers? Normally when they turn black, it is not a good sign, LOL. Then, in the mail the other day, there was a flyer for this quilting book:

Maybe I was on to something! While on the subject of flowers, here are some more spring pictures for those of you longing for the snow to melt and temperatures to thaw.

This handsome fellow (a mockingbird) was perched atop the loropetalum bush in full bloom in my front yard. Thanks to my friend, Jean, for identifying this shrub for me when she visited on Wednesday. It is in full bloom now, and has really brightened up the gray days of this rainy week.And here is a last shot of the cherry blossoms before they all drift to the ground, with the loropetalum in the distance.

My earliest daffodils have faded now, but with many varieties, they continue to provide sunny spots of color throughout the yard. These are below one of my garden feeders- OOPS, it looks empty. A chore for this morning!

I like this double flowering variety next to my front steps.

These are candytuft (Iberis) and grape hyacinth against a backdrop of dwarf crimson barberry.

On our morning walk yesterday, I noticed that the Carolina Jessamine is blooming wildly in a vacant wooded lot. And the first of the dogwoods is now blooming. My favorite time of year here in the South is when the dogwoods and azaleas are in bloom.

Unfortunately, as soon as the dogwood trees blossom, so do the pine trees. The dreaded yellow dust of pine pollen is already starting to cover automobiles, lawn furniture, sidewalks and streets. My formerly slate blue porch chairs turn a sickly chartreuse, and so does the seat of your pants when you sit in one. With the current ban on washing cars and hosing off landscaping due to the drought, I guess we will all be seeing sickly green for awhile. At least the rain will help not only the drought, but also the pollen removal. Here are the beginnings of pine pollen forming a sickening scum on the surface of our little garden pond.

Well, after all this nature talk, I am inspired to get back to quilting The Green Man, which I started yesterday. Hope to finish the quilting today and start the embellishing!