Friday, March 18, 2022

First flowers of spring

 Hi everyone, and welcome to the weekend spring begins-- hurray! It's been a long winter, and I am glad to see the end of it. At least I hope we've seen the end. Winter never seems to want to leave, and could still surpise us once or twice. But check out what is blooming on our hillside:


Yes, it's first daffodil of spring, and I am very, very happy to see it! And here's something else I'm happy to see-- a finished quilt:


There's a chance that this quilt has been done for a little while and was waiting for a binding, but that's not really relevant, is it? This is a quilt I called Cactus Flower, and was a pattern by Sharon Holland called Saguaro. I made this as a part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge last year. Unbelievably, I finished it last October and now it is a cozy finished quilt!


I really love how this turned out. It looks much better than expected, though it is really different from Sharon Holland's cover quilt. This quilt is all scraps and looks like flowers to me. I do love flowers, you know. It's quilted with Omni thread in a color called Cheesecake, and I'm telling you this because I now want to quilt every quilt with this color! It looked really yellow on the cone, but it blended really well with every color in the quilt. I really do want to use it for everything.


I long armed this quilt with a panto I got from a friend. It's called Loose Leaf from Urban Elements and I have had many quilts finished with this pattern. It always looks great, but there's a twist with this one. My friend wanted the pattern to be a different size, so she ordered it to be 10 inches, thinking that she would get it printed with two 5-inch rows. Well, no. She got one 10-inch row. So this is Loose Leaf in a really big size. But it went really fast and made the quilt nice and cozy!


The backing here is a neutral piece that I got somewhere and used up on this quilt. It's not exciting, but you can see the quilting nicely. I dithered on the binding, but then I just bound it in the same fabric as the border. It makes a nice frame and isn't distracting from the quilt's flowers.


This quilt finished at just about 65 by 65, and I'm donating it to Mercyful quilts for the Hands 2 Help Challenge. I really enjoyed making it, and it finished off light and soft, and I think someone would really find comfort in it. Everyone deserves beauty and comfort, especially at the end of life.

 
And that's the story of this quilt! Next week is spring break for me (happy dance!) and I have a longarming appointment to finish off the quilt that met with disaster from the messed up tension last month. It took forever to pick out all that bad quilting, and even longer to get all the stupid little bits of thread out of the quilt, but I think I should be able to finish it off this time. And I have another one I hope to finish, too. Just a ton of things happening, and those machines will be churning away!

Everyone have a great weekend. Hope you have warm breezes and some happy flowers coming up where you are, too! And just a note that Hands2Help signups start Sunday, so be sure to come back then!

Look at all those daffodils coming up!

Sharing at Finished or not Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, soscrappy for RSC22, and the Patchwork and Quilts linkup at Quilting Patchwork Applique.

21 comments:

Elizabeth V Kelbaugh said...

Great scrap quilt and interesting simple block.

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

I guess with using a long arm you must check the back of your quilt every now and then for bad tension - not something I think about with hand quilting. It sounds like it was a horrible job to pick it all out.

Sara said...

A very pretty finish, and will be loved by whoever receives it. I'm hoping winter is finished here too, although we mostly just had cold and wind, with very little snow. However, I know NOT to rule out an April snow storm either.

But we've had a couple of lovely spring days this week to enjoy!

Alycia~Quiltygirl said...

Yummmm cheesecake... that just wounds amazing!
Your quilt is beautiful!! LOVE the colors!

Kathy S. said...

Congrats on your gorgeous finish. I just printed a similar pattern this week called Anvil. I really like how you made it into flowers. Woohoo for spring!

MissPat said...

This will indeed be a comfort to someone. No daffs here yet (just buds), but the crocus exploded this week(we've had 2 +70 degree days in the last week). Of course, it's going back to the 40's next week, but at least the end of winter is in sight.
Pat

Quiltdivajulie said...

Well done on this latest finish and hooray for sending it along to Mercyful Quilts. We had daffodils blooming everywhere until the last cold snap with 3" of snow. Now only a few are still standing while the others are face down in the dirt (sad).

Kathleen said...

Congratulations on your finish! Always feels good to be declaring a finish on a Friday!

Linda Swanekamp said...

Beautiful finish! Love the outdoor quilt photo shoots. My daffodils are up 1", kind of sad yet. Someone will adore this quilt.

KaHolly said...

Mari, it finished up beautifully, and will bring much comfort. It’s the perfect size.

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

That's such a pretty quilt, Mari! I just noticed the stars that form where the leaf points come together - that's always a fun surprise. The quilting looks great. I'm so impressed with your new skills in that area!

Ivani said...

Congrats on a beautiful finish, Mary. I can see flower cactus on it... So pretty!!
and also great quilting !

Jocelyn is Canadian Needle Nana said...

Mari, Cactus Flower is a beauty!! I love it and also love that thread you used for quilting lines. How nice to get it outside in the spring air for a photo shoot too. Raining here so our snow won't be around much longer though a while before blooms. So nice to set my eyes on yours!

Bernie Kringel said...

Good morning Mari - I am feeling so lucky that this beauty is headed to Mercy. Wohoo!! Thanks so much. The size is perfect and that larger scale quilting makes it appear soft and cozy. I really love the pattern and colors - well done. I am a fan of matching the binding to the outer color or border. I think it acts nicely as a frame and keeps the quilt focused on the pattern. Enjoy spring. Or daffs are fully blooming and today calls for rain - which we always need here.

The Joyful Quilter said...

What a lovely RSC quilt finish for Mercyful Quilts by way of this year's Hands2Help Comfort Quilt Challenge, Mari!! Enjoy your break and...
Happy Spring!

Linda said...

What a lovely quilt you have finished. It will be a beautiful gift.

scraphappy said...

What a fun finish! Your longarm quilting is beautiful. The thread did blend nicely and the binding finishes it all so well.

LA Paylor said...

daffodils! we had the cutest tiny variety of them in MD
snow on the ground here still, luckily adding to the moisture for trees and bushes to come back. Our last frost is usually at beginning of June but it was such a long hot summer we might have an early spring this year.

piecefulwendy said...

Such a pretty quilt, Mari. I'm sure it will bring comfort to someone! I love the variety of colors and fabrics!

JanineMarie said...

Yea for daffodils!! And cactus flowers. I love when one of your quilts pops back up again all done. Love the panto! Wonderful quilt for Hands2Help. And wonderful you for taking on the H2H project this year.

Sandra Walker said...

What a beauty of a quilt! I know Sharon's Saguaro design and love it too. As for pale yellow thread to quilt with, yes!! Angela Walters first got me onto it and it is just FABULOUS, blends over all kinds of colours of fabrics. Awesome donation quilt, just wow. Wow for daffodils. Ours here have buds but are not opening yet, and with today's gale they are sure not opening up tomorrow either!