Fruit of the Workshop or How not to Have a UFO

Our guild sponsored a workshop two weeks ago. It was to learn to make flowers using Shelley Swanland's creative answer to making cathedral window on the machine. It wasn't that hard once Shelley explained it to us and all thirteen of us finished a 12" block. Now I plan on making this quilt in the future, but I didn't want this one block to become an UFO, so I finished it and made it into a pajama bag for soon-to-be new niece, Linda. She and Peter are getting married Aug 1st. You can view Shelley's work at http://www.shelleysstudio.com/ Enjoy!

Spring in Bloom

Spring has arrived in Riverside. We've been having mild days with sunny skys and brisk breezes to keep the days from getting hot. My seeds are sprouting ever so slowly (no rain to speak of), but two perennials are making a fine show in our front area. Here are a cascading bridal wreath and a bougainvillea. I may have to start some seeds in pots cuz it's hard to keep the bed moist for the 7 -14 days it takes for them to germinate, and then I'm off to Puerto Rico in 4 weeks so how would my little fledgelings do?

From a Distance

I've finished another quilt - my first UFO for the year. If you are new to quilting - ufo means unfinished object, and boy, do I have a lot of those. My goal this year is to finish 12 of them. One a month, and I'm already 3 months behind so I'm going to have to go into high gear here. I call my latest "from a distance" because from a distance 'the quilting doesn't look too bad - LOL. I consider myself still a novice quilter and this one because of the size and the fabric was a real challenge. It is for my friend, Torre. She gave me the cross stitched blocks, my mom assembled the top. I then removed 2 blank middle squares and added 2 more cross-stitched ones in their place and then quilted it. The back is all white except for the binding - kind of looks like a whole cloth quilt. Book-wise, have been doing my schedule C and all that entails, so no time for reading. In my kitchen garden, I have freesias in bloom, the chrysanthemums in bud, a stock blooming, white geranium, alyssum, felicia, and one lovely rose all in bloom. Spring is here in Riverside. Has Spring reached you yet?