Project Linus Day

Finished quilting up this cute little Hello Kitty top for Project Linus:

 

(the bottom color is the folded over backing)

All of the big squares have a different Hello Kitty print:

panto is called I Love It

  

Butterflies were everywhere today - very pretty to pose for me:

 

sitting on a bottlebrush tree bloom

Quilts of Valor Meeting

I was able to make it to my Quilts of Valor group meeting this past Friday and had a lot of fun catching up with what the ladies have been working on.  Several quilts came back in from the volunteer longarmers, including these:

This one was made from blocks made by volunteers from all over.  There was a Challenge from the Quilts of Valor Foundation and another one from the FL State Fair.  These blocks were assembled by a member of our local group.  She did a great job (as did the quilter!).

Wouldn’t the design of that last one make a great scrappy for any occasion?  Linking up to Quilting is more fun than Housework’s Oh Scrap!   Feel free to jump over and see other scrappies at her site, just for fun.

My thrill of the week (not) was coming across an alligator whilst walking my dog and day dreaming as is my custom.  The dog stopped and I looked over to see what she stopped for  -  we were about 10 feet from a 5-foot alligator that was apparently leaving the cypress swamp to visit the pond across the road.

We beat a leisurely, albeit a trifle hasty, retreat backwards to a safer distance (and me without my camera or phone, of course) and he slinked away back into the swamp with a little hiss acting annoyed that we had interrupted his sojourn.  But a skittish alligator that didn’t stand his ground and was willing to run away is a good alligator in my book.

The following day we saw him on the bank of the pond, so apparently he made it safely across the road later.  This time I had my camera, but when he saw my shadow he went into the pond.

Good alligator!

Thowback Thursday

I received a blog comment about a quilt I made back in 2010 called Stars of Avon.  The commenter had her settings on “no-reply”, so I hope she gets to see this response.  This is what my finished quilt looked like:

The quilt was revised from a pattern of the same name from Quiltmaker Magazine, Mar/Apr 2004, designed by Avon Leekley of Culver City, CA.  I made mine smaller and modified it to include my own scrappy borders.

The above info is for you, Karen!  Thanks for your nice comment.

And this is the sneak peak of the Quilt of Valor that is on the frame being quilted today:

The meeting is tomorrow – I hope to get finished!

Yard Work and One More Top

I’ve been working in my neglected yard recently and haven’t been sewing much.  I did finish sewing the blocks together and adding the borders to this little top with the baby animals.

I first showed the beginning of this top when I was auditioning the sashing to go with a scrappy quilt (see this post).  But the sashing looked much better with these fabrics from my stash than the other scrappy so I guess it was meant to be …

I am linking up to Oh Scrap! from Quilting is more fun than Housework so they can see the finished top.  Once again, the stack of tops is getting tall and I need to get to quilting them!

My yard is beginning to look much better with some much-needed mulch and some new annuals.  I’m trying out this Angelonia that promises to attract butterflies and can tolerate the heat and humidity in Florida:

 

Not in the ground yet - and this area needs to be mulched - always something more to do ...

All of the websites say these plants attract butterflies, but none tell you which type of butterflies.  Those “sticks” on the left and right in the photo are the stems of my milkweeds that the monarch caterpillars have been devouring the leaves and flowers of.  That’s what I plant the milkweed for, so go ahead and munch away little guys!

Frame Friday

Just took Angry Birds off of the frame - quilted with Stars and Clouds:

 Then I printed some labels:

The plan is to get two quilts bound, a bunch of quilts labeled and a box off to Quilts Beyond Borders next week.  It can be done!

Lazy Sunday

I’ve been goofing off.  I know, it’s difficult to tell since I’m retired and goof off a lot anyway.  I forgot to pick up April’s Project Linus tops to quilt the two for this month so I’ll have to get over there tomorrow to get those.  And it’s been a bit warm to pull weeds and get new mulch.  What?!  It’s only going to get warmer?  There goes that excuse …

But I did get my little Angry Birds top put together with the border on.  I have the backing ready to go and the binding cut, so there will be a UFO finish for Stashbusters this month and it’s #3 in the Numbers game so I’m on track for that, too.  That’s something.

We did see an unusual bird in our pond – a Roseate Spoonbill.  They aren’t uncommon in this area but where I usually see them is in the boggy the waste areas and ponds around golf courses.  This one might have been pushed down here by the controlled burn in a Preserve northwest of us:

We had rather large ash bits raining down on us due to the prevailing winds all that evening and maybe this guy took refuge:

He (she) didn’t stay long, but it was welcome to stay as long as it liked!

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

Here’s what’s in the works today:

Needs borders to bring it up to size.

And speaking of Angry Birds, this is the pileated woodpecker I saw yesterday:

(He wasn’t really angry … more like hungry …)

16-Patch Scrappy Grows

In my last post for Oh Scrap! I showed my 16-patch with a setting I really didn’t care for.  So I decided to test drive an alternate block that used up some more scraps:

I was liking the look of this one, so it grew:

And grew:

And then I noticed that I had inadvertently made two identical orange blocks – bummer!  I had intended to make one of those pink …

So one block will change but I think I like this look much better.

PS  That one tan/cream block is much happier in person!

Linking to Quilting is more fun than Housework’s Oh Scrap!  Check it out to see more ideas for scrap quilts.

And what’s happening in the garden?  Not much gardening but the monarch caterpillars and butterflies are back.  My niece and nephew work for Catepillar so I never know what the real spelling is – I’m just glad to see the little butterfly-makers back eating my milkweeds!

A Time of Renewal

Frame Friday

Just dropping in to say what's on the quilting frame today:

This is the scrappy that I wrote about in this post.  The panto is called Tiger Swirl.

Happy April Fool's Day!

May you be Prank-Free today!