how many pictures of tulips do you really want?

I have lots of things I want to write about, like some fabric orders I got, a few bags I've been working on, etc. But I went on a breakfast field trip with my friend Megan and her daughter to D.C. yesterday. I wouldn't have even known to go see the tulips if it weren't for this post on my friend Charlotte's blog. (if you like photography, she is amazing!! - and don't compare our pics - she's a professional, for obvious reasons!)

Have I mentioned how much I love this city and how beautiful it is?

The Netherlands Carillon by the Iwo Jima Memorial was a gift to the U.S. from the Netherlands in thanks for the aid given during and after WWII (didn't know you were going to get a history lesson today, did you?)

Next to peonies, tulips are my favorite flowers. So if you tire of tulip shots, I won't be offended if you leave now. . . .

oh! You're still here? Okay then. I don't know the names of all the varieties, so I came up with my own.

Blood Oranges

Lemon Creme

Blackberry Sorbet

Frilly Pink

Dutch Master (the Dutch liked to paint flowers)

And just in case you made it this far, here's a non-tulip shot. These red bud trees are lovely - they bloom near the end of the cherry blossoms and carry us through until the dogwoods are open. They are so shockingly purple from a distance and pink up close.

and this has nothing to do with flowers - we just had a foggy morning the other day and I wanted to see how a pic into the sun would turn out, kind of cool, huh? I'm always fascinated with the silhouettes of the bare trees in my backyard.

I promise, the next post will have something to do with flowers on fabric. Most likely with a gratuitious Amy Butler shot.

earth day!

That mother earth. She's pretty amazing. I love gardening. I don't do much except put seeds and plants in the ground. Rain, sun and dirt - they do the rest. It's a fun cheap experiment that you get to eat!

This year I'm toying with spring veggies. Like peas.

And red lettuce and broccoli.

And lucky me! My tarragon from last summer came back! It's my new favorite fresh herb.

Mother nature, she's pretty too.

how are you today?

Thanks everyone for the love on my quilt for the quilting festival. It's been so much fun to see everyone's beautiful work. And I'm still not done - it's going to take me all week to get through the posts! I'm getting so inspired! I have about a half dozen quilts started in my head. Maybe I'll have a new quilt to share come October.

******

This is what I was looking at yesterday afternoon.

I think it kind of explains the funk I've been in the last week or two. Anticipation isn't always a good thing. Not to mention the fact that 3 out of 4 people have been sick at my house. With 2 visits to the ER on Saturday night - mostly because it was Saturday and where else do you go when you need to see a doctor and can't wait? It's not as bad as it sounds, but I am tired. And miraculously, I have managed to stay well. It's a good thing too - who would have taken care of us!?

*******

Look at this sad thing. Do you know what it is?

It's my ironing board cover that has definitely seen better days. I have a whole long story about my awesome iron that had to be replaced 3 times in the first year. Thank goodness for warranties. It had a little overheating problem as you may have guessed. And then last week I was running my hot iron over the cover to get some gunk off and it totally ripped. Laaaaaaame.

But, it did get my rear in gear to make this that I have been putting off!

It turned out so cute! And Jacquie said I could count it as one of my spring to finish projects. I did it today in less than an hour. I read a few tutorials a while back and then just took a chance. My cover wasn't the same kind as this tutorial so I had to wing it a bit. I was definitely not very precise, but I had to get it done so I could work on some more of my UFO's. And really, I'm probably the only one who will notice any imperfections, right?

Besides, isn't that a sweet Alexander Henry print? I got it at Joann's - I know! Shocking! I'm thinking about making some appliance covers out of it for some things in my kitchen too.

So maybe I was in my pajamas until about 4:00 today - at least I did something productive, right? oh yes, and I baked some of these. (Thanks Penny!!)

*****

This bag is going to be part of a baby gift extravaganza that a friend and I are putting together for another friend. I really like this fabric too (also Joann's). It's bright and fun and I hope to take some better pictures once we have the whole package put together.

This is the third UFO completed. Yay! Now I just need to put the zipper in my duvet (even though I've been using it) and finish up a few other bags....

a group effort - quilt festival 2009

Welcome! If you are joining me from the 1st Annual Bloggers Quilt Festival, I'm so glad you stopped by! Make sure you visit Amy at Park City Girl to see all the quilts and be entered in some excellent giveaways! And yes, they involve fabric!!

I'm a relatively new quilter with only a few quilts under my belt. I'm currently working on this, which will be my favorite for sure. Until I start and finish the next one!

So to choose my favorite finished quilt for the festival, I picked this one. Not only is it cute, this little quilt has a great story!

click to get a better view!

When I was about 12, I embroidered these blocks for a church project. I don't remember how long it took me, but I'm sure it was a while. The idea is that they would be made into a baby quilt for when I grew up and had my own kids. Well, you know what happened. They sat in my sewing box for about 20 years (that long? really?).

Well, when I got pregnant with my first, my mom and I decided to resurrect the old project and breathe some new life into it. So we went through her stash of 40s reproduction prints and decided to use a lot of different fabrics so it would be more gender-neutral. So we cut out the sashings, and I managed to sew that main part together.

Then my mom took over again and she put on the borders.

My Aunt Mary quilted it on her long-arm machine, my mom sewed the binding on, and I handstitched it down.

I finally finished it a few months before my SECOND was born. (Remember that procrastinating problem?) Even when we got it all put together it still took me forever to sit down and do the handsewing. I really didn't think I would enjoy that part very much - it's grown on me since.

Thanks so much to my mom who helped not just with the sewing and cutting but with the overall look of the quilt and to Mary for doing such a great job on the quilting. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and it's so cute I'm not sure I really want anyone spitting up all over it. So for now it's hanging on the wall in the playroom.

What's funny (or sad, you decide) is that it took over 20 years, 3 people and many locales to get this thing done. Here's a list of the places it's been worked on:
embroidery - Annandale, VA
Sashing cut - Draper, UT
Sashings sewn - Oceanside, CA (thanks Allyn for letting me use your machine back then!)
Borders sewn - Draper, UT
Machine Quilting - Tooele, UT
Initial binding sewn - Draper, UT
Final handstiching - Stafford, VA

At least it started and ended in Virginia - but sheesh, what a trek. I am kind of glad we didn't put it together way back then - I think the fabrics we had available to us recently make it really cute - who knows what 80's influence would have been at work had we completed it back then! But I love that I have something that my mom, aunt and I worked on together.

a recovery group for procrastinators anonymous

I was glad to hear that I'm not the only one who tends to put things off!

I was heartened to see Jacquie of Tallgrass Prairie Studio inspire us to finish up some of those unfinished projects!! Thanks for the motivation! You can go to her blog and grab her button.

I already finished a couple of unfinished projects this month. One of them being this scarf. (which I can't seem to take a decent picture of...)

I first saw it on Penny's blog late last summer. I purchased MKCarrol's pattern and took it with me on my trip in September. Then I realized I had taken the wrong hook - so the pattern was too big. So I had to take it apart and start over.

Then I made another huge mistake and had to take it out and start again. I had put it down for a while because I was frustrated with it. I picked it back up again in October when my mom came to visit. We were looking at the pattern and we realized that I had been using US stitches with a UK pattern. So again the size was off. But I had just finished off my first skein of yarn and wasn't about to do it all over. Again.

So it's sat sad a lonely all winter instead of keeping my neck warm. It's still been cold here so I decided I needed to finish it so I could still wear it this season. So, if you are still reading you will see how good a procrastinator/rationalizer I really am!


******
Amy at Park City Girl is hosting a Bloggers Quilt Festival. Post your favorite quilt through a Mr. Linky on her blog starting this Friday! Fabric shops are lined up for some giveaways as well!

Maybe I'll host a giveaway too. . .

happy spring!

and belated Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! I just wanted to share a couple of nifty egg ideas, um, for .... ahem, NEXT year. :)

There's always the traditional PAAS egg dying kit. Fun! and a blast from my childhood. But now there are 9 colors or something - I almost didn't have enough containers!

I saw this cute tutorial at V. and Co. for fabric covered eggs - and it was pretty easy! Although if you look at the orange egg you can see it wasn't put on an orange egg - I would spray the eggs white next time if my fabric doesn't coordinate with the egg color.

Now, do you remember this post? I love the idea of paying it forward. Well, because I responded to a similar post on my friend's blog she brought me these lovelies the other day!

Don't ask me how she did it. It has to do with silk ties and wrapping the eggs with them and then some fabric and then boiling them with vinegar and water... all I know it that they were the coolest eggs I've ever seen!!! And they made pretty darn good deviled eggs too.

Okay, I just googled silk tie egg dye and there were a ton of references. And, as I suspected it's from Martha!

This is as close as I got to a family Easter picture.... hmmm, I couldn't even get one of my two kids together. I'm not sure getting a group shot is possible. . . at least he's smiling!

procrastinators anonymous

I have a problem. My name is Amy, and I'm a procrastinator.

I think I've mentioned it before. I have a bit of a procrastination problem. It's gotten much better, there are some things that I just do when they need to be done. Like unload the dishwasher, vacuum, laundry - because I know how to do it and it HAS to be done.

However, I've learned something about myself in the last couple of years. If I have to try something new, do something I'm not sure I can do *perfectly* the first time or have any apprehension about at all, I stall. A lot. Does anyone else have this problem?

This is my first quilting bee - I was assigned January and wasn't sure what to do for my own block. I got some beautiful blocks back from others but I kept putting mine off. Now that I've done two others, I decided to get mine done. Then I ran into a problem, my wonky log cabin got a little too wonked. I wasn't sure I had enough fabric left to square it up to the right size. So I put it aside while I mulled it over. For, like, another month!

And then when I finally did finish it up, I redid one side four or five times. Ugh.

And I finally picked a bird to put on it. I still have to top-stitch it down. But I really like how it turned out.

Hooray for the Virginia state bird!! I've always loved them.

Now if I could just figure out my sashing. I'm trying out something like this - but I'm tweaking it of course. Which means coming up with the pattern myself. Which means, I might procrastinate just a bit. Hopefully, I won't put it off too long. . .