Becoming One with my Sewing Machine

Every once in a while, I get in a zone when I'm machine quilting.  Tonight was one of those times.  With any kind of luck, this quilt will be finished by Sunday night.

Update on the charity quilt

The first week in July is quickly approaching.  Fortunately, though, the quilting is moving along nicely....now.

I was having a lot of issues with the tension of the bobbin.  And, it was being compounded by the weight of the full size quilt. Tonight, though, I made great progress.

Quilting in progress...

The center is finished for the most part.  Now, I just need to tackle the edges...

Learning a new stitch...

Yesterday, I saw something and went, "wow, that would look really cool in a quilt."  And, common sense abandoned me.  As if I don't have enough UFOs (unfinished objects, not the flying saucer) around the house, I now have another quilt in progress.  In case you are keeping track, that means that I have the 2012 charity quilt, the elk quilt, the Coca-Cola quilt, the purple quilt, the peacemakers quilt, and I think one other quilt in progress already, and here comes quilt number 7.

The good news is that I can make this one largely with scraps.  While I'm not ready yet to show the overall design, I will say that it involves embroidery.  I've been embroidering for years, but tonight I learned a new stitch: the open chain stitch.  I like it...

An example of the open chain embroidery stitch

And now, it is time to get some sleep.  I started a new contract on Friday and after having five weeks off, getting up early has me tired out.

Spring flowers...

This morning, while Geff was raking leaves down in the horse shoe pit, I cleaned out around the roses and and fertilized them.  I really should have cleaned out around them earlier.  I was amazed at how many buds are already on the roses.  We did lose one rose over the winter, but the others appear to be healthy.

After cleaning out around the roses, I decided to get some close ups of some of the flowers that are already blooming.

There are the irises.  The previous owners had planted them, and while I initially didn't really care for them, I've come to enjoy how beautiful they are.  I think that there are just yellow and purple plants now, but I am going to keep my eyes out for some white iris plants like our neighbors have.

Purple iris

A couple of yellow iris flowers

And, while I've forgotten the name, this little xeriscopic flower always makes me smile because it reminds me of a daisy...a very short, small daisy.

The only other plants blooming right now are the dianthus.

A lacy pink and white...

And, a beautiful red...

Another Finished Product

Yesterday I was finally able to deliver a project that I had finished a while back but have not yet posted about:  a baby quilt.  It was started back around the time that I did the penguin quilt.

When I asked about a theme, I was told that she likes giraffes and he likes frogs. And, I knew it was going to be a baby girl.  Giraffes, frogs, and pink.  I wasn't sure initially what I was going to come up with, until the day that I saw the perfect fabric.  First, there was the giraffe print:

The perfect giraffe print for a little girl's baby quilt

While I couldn't find the same type of print for the frog portion, I did find a fabric that had the right colors with frogs...

And, the frog print...

Together, it became the following quilt (which is admittedly upside down in this photo--oops!):

The finished quilt...