Spring in spite of it all

Hello from a socially safe distance, everyone! It has been a weird and stressful week here, but in spite of that, I've been outside walking (alone, I swear) and it turns out that spring is making a valiant effort to break through. This makes me super-happy. There are some things the virus can't change, after all.  No daffodils on my property yet, but there is a lot of periwinkle and some smaller bulbs.

I know this isn't a quilty picture to start with, but I think we all need something pretty:

Pink magnolias from my neighbor's tree! I miss our property in Delaware, and everything that we had done outside. I know we'll get there with this property, but I am so ready for flowers! I think I will plant myself a nice magnolia tree when it's finally time. All of our remodeling and landscaping has been postponed for now. Darn those communicable diseases, you know?

This week I forced myself to sew every day for stress relief, and I finally got the binding put on a finished quilt. Yay me! Want to see the quilt? Here she is:

Yahoo! This is a ribbon star quilt that I put together from blocks that I swapped with friends in a quilt group that I used to belong to.  I didn't make any of the blocks, but they are lovely together, aren't they? It's nice to think that the blocks I made are in other people's quilts, too.

I quilted this myself with a walking foot. I just quilted straight lines along the ribbons in the piecing, all across the quilt. This was not very creative and was a little boring to do, but it made a nice cross-hatch design on the quilt. It also kept things nice and cozy. This quilt is about 62 by 70 and is at the upper limit of the size I can actually handle myself. Someday I will get myself a longarm, but today is not that day.

Hand stitching this binding to the back of the quilt kept me sane this week, that's for sure. The binding is a pale blue batik from the basket o' bindings that I make from the backing trimmings of a quilted quilt. It was just about a foot short, but I stripped in another piece that matched it so nicely that I couldn't get a picture.

This quilt is a donation, bound for Bernie's Mercyful quilts project. I have another one for her, too, but it's not bound yet. I should have gotten to these long ago, but I think we all know that the actual quilting part is not my favorite part of making a quilt. Still, I'm embarrassed that it's taken so long.

My favorite block

I hope you all are hanging in there with our current crisis and are staying healthy. It's a challenging time, that's for sure. I hope everyone has something fun to do this weekend, too. Go outside! It's nice there. I'll be working some more, then going for a walk around the neighborhood and video chatting with the grandkids. I miss being with humans, but I have the hubster, and thankfully I like him and we get along. I'm keeping good thoughts for everyone!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Brag about your Beauties, and Finished or not Friday.