Happy Easter

Will the real Easter Bunny please hop forward?

Quilting Class

I have really been enjoying my first quilting class lead by the wonderful G, above. She's a great quilter and a fabulous teacher. Thanks, G for all your wisdom.

During last week's class we pin basted several class members' quilts.

Many hands make fast work!

E, Teacher G, and L are checking out J's quilt getting ready for the pin basting.

G, J and A are lining the quilt top to create the "sandwich" with backing fabric and batting.

This one is G's. S, G, and J are checking to see that the top is centered on the backing. It's wonderful to see how the same quilt blocks can look so different with our various fabric choices.

We did six blocks for this sampler quilt: rail fence, Jacob's ladder, log cabin, nine patch, square and triangles, and variable star. This assortment of blocks gives you many challenges: matching corners, "points", straight quarter inch seams.

Lots of hands at work pinning A's quilt.

Gma La La's sampler: I did three extra blocks to make a throw sized quilt.

I can hardly wait to get it back to my home and cuddle up with it in front of the TV!

I still have a little more of the hand stitching on the binding to finish before our last class on Monday.

My favorite block: "Squares and Triangles."

I machine quilted it with simple straight rows of stitching.

Sunshine Playtime

Hooray for the sandbox, now featuring sand!

Miss C busies herself taking little cups and shovel-fulls around the yard.

Today it was warm enough to have water outside, too.

Put your hands in the sand; wash them off in the water; repeat as necessary.

Hands are the best scoops.

Then one must run.

A lot.

A Quilt to Show and a Quilt Show

This photo shows my latest quilt with the binding still unfinished. It's finished now

and in a box waiting to be mailed to B'Ham.

The quilting is a little wonky, but it feels nice. It's a "rail fence" design.

The turquoise print binding really finished it off.

Here's Mrs T deciding where all the squares should go for a quilt for her.

I love the colors. . . .

It's the next project. . . .

Lancaster, PA

Quilt Show

I saw examples of how it's really done! Wow, such work-woman-ship!

I just wished that you could get a little closer to each beautiful work of art.

They featured a series of quilts from my corner of the world,

and I felt at home with quilts from Bellevue, Olala, Aberdeen, Portland.

This is one:

I'm really in to this!

Leaving

I'll be leaving the right hand coast in late June. It's hard to comprehend, as I love being with my family here, and I need to go home. My good friend J will arrive on June 29 then we will drive back west.

This has been a rich and heart-full almost-two years; I totally have loved watching Miss C grow and change. I've been telling her the story of the day she was born. Thinking about how that tiny infant has become this two and a half year old with her own strong ideas about how things should be delights me. I am so fortunate that I have been able to take time for the adventure of living here.

I thank all of you who have helped to make it happen.

West Coast Company

A gutsy friend came for a long weekend from "out west" (as they say here!) B and I had fun exploring and art museum-ing despite the "Nor'easter" with buckets and buckets and buckets of rain. People think Seattle is rainy, but this was horrible: flooding, trees falling, wind, the whole thing. And we carried on.

Friday we visited the Amish country near Lancaster with a stop for a buggy ride and lots of time at the quilt store and museum. We had dinner in a historic tavern with the locals; and finished off the evening with a movie. Driving in the dark and rain was not fun, but the rest was wonderful.

Saturday we visited the Barnes Foundation museum. So many impressionist paintings that you see in books live on the walls of the Barnes. It was a treat to view the collection with my artist friend. http://www.barnesfoundation.org/

Sunday on our way to Longwood Gardens, we stopped at the Brandywine River Museum which is full of three generations of Wyeth's paintings. Dinner at a Turkish restaurant, and a visit to Mr T's shop.

The Please Touch Museum took our Monday before taking B to the airport. She played the walk-on piano from the movie Big, and rode the carousel.

It was wonderful having a good friend from home be here to visit. She brought daphne from her garden and a box of "Oh, Chocolates" for me to entice me back. Just hearing about Spring is enough!

Thanks, B.

(And, of course, the rain stopped on Tuesday and the weather has been warm and sunny.)

Connections

So, last weekend we went to the "Sounds All Around" concert with members of the Philadelphia Symphony. We came home with a little chart of the instruments that were featured: flute, snare drum, trumpet and cello with bow. Miss C asked what that long thing was, and I told her. Later she pointed to it and said, "That's the cello and that's the tie."