Spring and Snowballs

Here are some beautiful hyacinth bulbs I bought last week.  It was amazing to see them bloom before our very eyes.  Their scent brings to mind a next-door-neightbor I had growing up.  She had hyacinths planted in her yard.  So I called to see how she was doing.  She is old, but fine!

 

Here are some snowballs.  They finish at 4" square.  I finished the runner below a while ago.  These are ever-so-slightly larger.  I sewed these three rows together to see if the size was what I wanted.  It was! 

Another difference in this one is that I'm alternating a light gold snowball with a dark fabric one.

On the runner (pictured below), I hand quilted two diagonal rows 1/4" apart through the center of each block.  Also, all 4 corners on each block matched.  The matched corners were too stressful and time-consuming.  On my new quilt top (which I foresee taking years of scraps to piece to get up to size), I am not matching corners.  The quilting remains to be seen.

I finished another big top except for the outermost border today.  See it on my secret blog because it's, well, a SECRET!!  Email me if you want the URL.

~Joan

Snow and Snowball Runner

Yes, we got tons of snow. Here is my little birdfeeder outside my sewing room window. Strange phenomenon today...usually birds of a feather flock together. That is, I have rarely seen more than one species of bird at the feeder at a time...today was different! I saw five different types at once on it with another on the hook waiting for an opening. The snow must have covered a lot of the available food for the little feathered creatures. Glad I got a big bag of bird food at Aldi's last week. Looks like it might come in handy.

My hopeful machine quilting plan for the baby quilt never happened. I got it pin basted today. But I can't find the thread. It is a light lime green. I have a spool of machine quilting thread that color (imagine!) but I can't find it.

I really like this snowball runner. I didn't get pictures yet of my other two runner finishes, but I'm showing this one again. Some day I'll make a whole quilt of this size "ball". I like the way these turn out looking round. I've seen some with corner triangles that are too big and make the balls look strange to me. Next time, no matching corners. And half light and half dark, just to mix it up! The blocks finish at 3-3/4" square, so this is about 11-1/2" x 34" I'm heading upstairs to put it on our sideboard.
In other piecing news, I am working on my last two rows for the Texas Braid quilt. I still have not received the promised bricks from Arizona, and I'm going to wait for them. I was so disappointed that I could not find my quilting thread that I wanted to sew on something for a little bit, so I worked on the Texas Braid. I love working on it...so easy and striking of a design.

Another day of being snowed in tomorrow. We have a house guest tonight. One of the young men who attends college with my daughters also works at the same restaurant as one of them. The roads were too dangerous for him to get back to the dorm, so he is staying overnight here. Interesting turn of events.

~Joan

Promised Kathie a Picture

I was reading Kathie's blog and saw that she just pieced a little snowball quilt. Hers is blue with white snowballs and so cute. I am nearly finished handquilting this little runner. I started making the blocks because I was going to make a sampler quilt, then I decided I should not take on another big time-consuming project. Aren't you proud of me? So I used the blocks to make this runner instead.

Nearly finished with the quilting. I did a double diagonal line (1/4" apart) through the center of each snowball. One line would have taken half the time, but it is so small! This has been my YMCA project for about a week. I work on it after I finish my circuit on the exercise machines and am waiting for the others in my family. No problem for me to wait! More hand quilting time.

~Joan