Spring in the Woods

I have another finish! Yeah, there's been rather a surfeit of them, hasn't there?! Several deadlines have had me sewing furiously over the past few weeks. This is the March challenge that we, as Island Batik ambassadors, were given, to try a new technique.

I took some time to think of just what I hadn't tried; quilting for the past 20 years has had me trying pretty much everything. In full disclosure, I bought the 10° wedge ruler probably 15 years ago for a class that a guild member was giving on wedges. I went to the class, sewed the strips, cut a few wedges, and the class ended. So did the making of that quilt. Not a stitch since. It lives in a blue plastic bag. I made a wedge of pieced fabric a few years ago by using the degree lines and a folded technique. What happened to that test block? It lives in the orphan block pile. So I decided it was time to bring out the ruler, for which I paid good money, and revisit how to use it. Besides, Christina Cameli's new book had caught my eye when it first came out. Great excuse (like I need one) to buy a new book!

A new book and a glass of wine go hand in hand. Literally!

The fabrics I used in my project were provided by Island Batik, the Thermore batting by Hobbs Batting, and the Aurifil thread by Aurifil. I still go 'pinch me!' when I write sentences like that.

So what did I make?

This stunning (yeah I said that about my own project) table centrepiece, going to a very dear-to-me person! Stunning due to the fabrics which are drool-worthy, stunning because of the threads used to quilt it, stunning because it looks pretty complicated.

But it isn't. Not really. Christina's book is well-written. With quilting books, unlike fiction and non-fiction books, I do not read them from front to back. I leaf through, gazing in rapture at some of the quilts, maybe scanning a pattern here and there. Then I go back to the intro and read it.  I usually start reading, probably more like scanning, some of the 'how-to' chapters, but I need to DO as I read, so I will then pick a project (that could take a few days, as it did in this case). Then, when I'm making the project, I go back and read very carefully, usually several times, as I am constructing, the 'how-to' chapters. Her book is terrific, because it is like she knows how I operate! Within the instructions to this pattern (which btw is for an entire quilt, which I plan to make and Rose knows why) she tells you what page to refer to of the how-to chapters. 😇 I highly recommend her book, and no, I was not given her book, or asked to write a review.

Here are the fabrics I chose to work with from my Island Batik box of goodies:

The forest green is from the Alpine Jingle line, the 6" pieces and the purple lined up are from the roll-up stash builders, and the rich pink/greens piece is part of the extra pieces we received for use in projects. I had to do a little different way of cutting the wedges because of using pre-cut strips, but I did have enough. I mainly wanted this to be greens because the person I'm giving it to loves green. I wouldn't have had enough greens but I thought to added in a couple of blues because a couple of them are a blues/greens blend, and that was when the spring idea came. I had already known I'd make the diamonds in the purple and pink.

Carefully following her method and tips, I cut my wedges and sewed with a precise 1/4" seam on Tillie, my 1951 Featherweight. When I laid the first wedge down to see if it did measure 60°, was I tickled pink to see how very little I had to trim!

I followed the instructions for further trimming to make the triangle blocks that get sewn in pairs to make diamonds. In pretty short order I had my top.

I just had to take a stained glass looking photo!

Here it is on the kitchen floor so you can see the fabrics better:

Don't you think it's kind of cool that the runner is diamond-shaped, and that the wedges form a diamond, thanks to the purple and pink diamonds at their bases? Well, I do!

Because it's destined to be on a table, I figured the Hobbs Thermore batting would be the ticket. This is the third project where I've used it and I am still so impressed with it! It sticks as well as cotton to cotton does. Bella sure likes it. Had designs that this could be another pouffé for her to repose upon.

For quilting inspiration I looked at how Christina had quilted her quilt and used some of her motifs, circles being the main one. To get fairly nicely rounded ones, I used the Sulky spool of thread and a bobbin to trace two or three of the arcs as a general guide, (high tech I know), ensuring I had seven in each wedge. I drew out the first few. Drawing is always a good precursor to FMQ. After the first few wedges, I just winged it, free-motioning the majority of each of the seven circles in each wedge. I did find that I liked to trace that first large one.

Here are the circles in alternating wedges of the purple diamond blocks:

and feathers à la Kathleen of Kathleen Quilts, in alternating wedges of the pink diamond blocks:

I did back and forth lines and elongated figure eights for consistency between the circles and feathers in both pink and purple blocks.

For the diamonds, I did an Angela Walters design using my walking foot:

Hot off the 'press':

YESSS!

Truth tea: I then had to lie down a ruler and square it up. Squaring up means ensuring I still had 60° angles. I was a little nervous but this is what happened:

YESSS! (again)

Very happy.

I used a pretty green Aurifil I received in my Island Batik box of goodies for the olive green wedges, and to sew on the binding, which I sewed to the back and flipped around and top-stitched to the front. I used the olive green for the binding since it was the only green I had yardage of, but the rich green provides a nice frame to the vibrant colours in the quilt. I also used two different Sulky rayon variegated threads in the wedges and a Sulky metallic in the purple diamonds.

A shot of the label, appropriately blanked out name (with a green pice of beach glass!) of the recipient who prefers to remain anonymous in QBL. I always do both a cloth, write-on label and a sew-in mmm! quilts label.

The backing is a stitches-themed fabric, perfect for this sewing wizard of a person. When this goes live, I will have: given this gift which I love so much myself, to her, and met her at a random intersection chosen by both of us as a meeting-up point. My Easter weekend travels take me to within a couple of hours of her home, and she will have come east to meet me, where I will stop for a morning coffee and chat and HUGS! Big hugs! AND I get to meet one of her darling fur kids, "a silvery blue Staffie in the hot pink harness" (ahh like my darling boy who is safe with Dayna but would have loved to meet her Staffie).

This blog has brought me worldwide friends.  And I am honoured by their friendship. Humbled by them taking the time to read my blog, to comment, and to offer pieces of themselves to me. My heart swells with love for this girl, who does not blog, but who has reached out to me, at first mainly through my posts on my beloved Rocco, but then also through our shared love of all things Laurel Burch, and of course, through our love of sewing. I cannot WAIT to give her this runner! I don't know what excites me more: meeting her in person, hugging her, meeting her Staffie, or giving her this. What a blessed day I have to look forward to!

One last outdoor shot on our deck:

Quilt Stats:
Pattern: a quilt from Christina Cameli's Wedge Quilt Workshop made into a table centrepiece
Size: approximately 40" long by 20" wide
Fabric: Island Batik various collections
Batting: Hobbs Thermore
Backing: from stash
Quilted: on my Bernina, walking foot and free-motion
Threads:  pieced with Gütermann cotton; quilted with Aurifil 100% cotton and Sulky rayon variegated and Sulky metallic


Linking up:
Crazy Mom Quilts
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
TGIFF at Cheeky Cognoscenti
Busy Hands Quilts

Thanks to Tish for linking up my post while I'm away for the long Easter weekend. 😘

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I Like/Love #14

This is the second 'I Like' post in March, bu this is because I missed doing one for February. I honestly could write one of these each day, as there as just so many times I smile to myself or to the world, or my heart swells a little with gladness about something. Sorry if I sound like a goober, but it's true.

1. I like beach glass, and I am loving creating stuff with my finds along the shore of Lake Erie, particularly Seacliff Beach which has a great supply of it.

Here's another shaped bowl that I'm working on. It's addictive, much like doing a jigsaw puzzle, where you tell yourself, "I'm just going to fit in a couple more pieces..." and half an hour later you've fit in 10. It's a slow process that needs patience: finding the right shape, working on a small section at a time or risking the pieces sliding around in the glue and not staying where you'd carefully placed them!

2. I love locally-grown produce. Living in Essex County, also known as the Sun Parlour, means we are surrounded by locally grown veggies and fruits. In fact, just this year, several greenhouses are now growing strawberries year round! Here is a recent container I bought of Kingsville Campari tomatoes, labelled in the store as 'candy' tomatoes (love that):

Sunset is owned by the Mastronardi family for four generations (and yes there's a winery owned by another Mastronardi family; lots of Italians in this area).

3. I love pussy willows, and seeing these on March 15 outside my window made my day!

4. I love music. This, like my love of nature, comes back again and again in these posts. I especially love live music. On March 17 we had the pleasure of spending an evening at Caesar's Palace Colosseum to see Carlos Santana. He will be 71 this summer, and wow, the man can still play, his supple fingers strolling and strumming across the strings of his guitar. Whether it was that driving Latin/African drumbeat that gets you in your solar plexus, wild racing across the strings, or the plaintive melodies of a ballad played violin-like, he had me, well, the entire audience in his very capable hands the entire night. I loved his message mid-point: "No walls, no boundaries, less religion, less politicians, good energy, let it move you, bring you together!"

Caesar's Palace, Windsor, lit up in green on my left, taken from inside our SUV, and then looking to the right out my window, a nighttime view of downtown Detroit that never gets old. I didn't notice until I edited the photo that there are two Canada geese on the grass in the Detroit skyline! And yes, for those of you who don't realize it, I took the photos from the SUV in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and literally across that river, the Detroit River, is Detroit, Michigan, USA. And it's north of Windsor, just to mess with your mind! Another music like is that a week after this concert, I thoroughly enjoyed this year's Juno Awards on CBC TV, and I am no fan of awards shows! Makes my heart swell to hear and see all the Canadian talent.

5. I love a fancy latte from time to time. I especially love a Caramel Coretto from Second Cup.

Sadly, there is but one in Essex County, but we stopped to grab one ahead of the concert. I knew I'd need the hit of caffeine as the concert only started at 9 pm! Second Cup is very similar to Starbucks, which we do have in Canada as well, but my personal preference is Second Cup. I do like Tim Horton's too though, but they can't do a latte like these guys or Starbucks for that matter. I also LOVE the fact that I hadn't been for several months, and wasn't sure how much was left on my card...well! Score! There was enough for both coffees and then some, yippee! The third like in that photo is my handmade coffee cozy, a free pattern from Fat Quarter Shop, made with Henry Glass 'Better at the Lake' fabrics that I was given for the Desire to Inspire Challenge I am so proud to have been chosen for.

That photo also has my mad love: my newly renovated kitchen that has taken the better part of a year. We, no, MacGyver just installed a couple of new lighting and fan fixtures, and I will be giving you the entire lowdown on it very shortly!

6. I love our beautiful planet, I am deeply worried about its welfare, and try hard to make my footprint as light as possible. I did honour Saturday, March 24's Earth Hour, setting aside a project with a looming deadline, and living by candlelight, both real and battery-powered flame.

A nice ambiance no?

I won't be able to respond in a timely manner to comments as we are off on a short trip, but I'll do my best!

Postcard from Sweden Step 4

How did this come up so fast? That feeling has nothing to do with the rather full plate of things I have on the go right now, no. It's all good though. Two weeks ago, at the last link-up, I had 20 links! That is stupendous whenI think back to when Helen of Midget Gem Quilts and I first said let's do this together... and what if we invited others?

So Step 3 was to sew all those HSTs into a top.

Sunshine on My Shoulders

Another one to check off my Q1FAL List! Argh; this post was supposed to be written this morning but this day just went off the rails! How does that happen?!

Sunshine On My Shoulders (literally ha!) in the setting sun

I had hoped to take the quilt out to Point Pelee National Park for its final shoot, set against what I'd heard was spectacular ice. However, MacGyver had another idea, which didn't work out because of high waters and no public beach access, so he took me a little further along the lake, by Wheatley, to this beach, Marentette Beach, which actually did say 'closed' but I could fit under the barricade no problem...so did he with just a small eye roll! Which provided the above shot. He did a good job of hiding his feet, didn't he?!

30 Quilt Designs Challenge Second Draw

I did the second draw last night. Each person that had submitted any number of designs from 11-20 got that many numbers and then I did the Random Number Generator on the total. Velda of Freckled Fox Quiltery was the winner! There are 16 participating this year, wow! A few have not quite kept up, and a few have joined in just within the last week or two!  The final draw is April 15 for 30 designs, so if you have fallen a wee bit behind (I, myself only have 19) it's not too late to catch up. All those who complete 30 will be entered. Remember to add colour, and to design a quilt, not just a block, so we see what it would look like as part of a quilt. 😉

Here are four collages of recent designs. I've included the Instagram name of each quilter, in case you want to follow her!

Aren't they all just so very fabulous?!
Thanks so very much to Melody of The Red Hen Shop for being my main sponsor this year. She has donated three prizes, two $15 gift cards for draws 1 and 2, and a $50 one for the final draw!

Darla is my second sponsor for the challenge this year! She contacted me, wanting to offer a prize, and I said, "Sure!" She is offering a $25 gift card to her shop, Clinton Modern Creative, which will also go out to someone in the 30 completed designs category!

And, finally, I have a Craftsy's Dutch Garden charm pack that I am going to send out, with a copy from my Craftsy store (affiliate link--remember to check out their fabulous SALE; I wouldn't steer you wrong) of my Blue Skies & Sunny Days pattern to a third winner in the final draw! One of these days I will get oh, the other four patterns all typed up, just needing EQ diagrams, and into my Craftsy and Etsy shops... A huge thank you to all those who are participating; it means a ton. 😍 Now I'm off to write the post on my done and dusted aunt's quilt! If you want to see what Dutch Garden looks like, check back in a couple of hours for that finish post.

UFO Progress

I thought I'd pop in to let you know what's going on in the 'many irons in the fire' world of mmm! quilts these days. This post was mostly written on Tuesday, with a couple of items to finish up Wednesday morning before posting. Unfortunately a rather wicked persistent headache put the kibosh on my plans, which means this is getting posted Wednesday evening!

UFO #1:  Rainbow Scrap Challenge
I've caught up on my blocks for March and made the second one for February. If you recall, I did not have much in the way of purple scraps with me in Florida. March's blocks are the light and lime green ones. Here they are all together for the first time. These are definitely eating up some 2.5" squares! I am cutting 3" squares from bigger scraps  to make two at a time HSTs.

Postcard Swap Finish

Welcome to TGIFF!

A little over a month ago, Patty of Elm Street Quilts decided to host a Postcard Swap. I decided to join in, because, well I wasn't very busy in the month of March....snort.😂 I quite like mini quilts, and wanted to push myself a little in the creativity department. I like challenges. You got one word from your partner, and you gave one word as a clue to what you'd like.

I won't tell you the word I got for my partner, nor who she is, because it just got mailed off today. Was it a fun project to do! I did a little detective work on her blog to get a feel for her personality and quilting style. We are similar in several ways, and although I'm not familiar with her blog, I will be following her from now on.😁

Here is my postcard!

Again, I wish the camera could capture the glint of light on the Sulky Holoshimmer thread I used on the ocean section.

What is amazing to me is that the scene I chose I drove right by in the summer of 2007, and I may have stopped for a photo surprisingly close to this breathtaking spot. These huge rocks rise up out of the Pacific all along the coast, so unusual. It took a little bit of digging, but in about 10 minutes, I located the photo album (pre-iPhone photos and all digital) of that trip! MacGyver's anonymity is preserved with some chunks of beach glass, LOL. (Yeah, I have yet another beach glass bowl in the works.)

August 2007

I used an image off Google as a starting point, and took a little artistic license with it, adding in the shorebirds and the evergreen tree on the side, typical of this region of North America which has stunning ocean scenery in front of you and forest vistas immediately behind. I am no artist, but if I have an image to look at, I can usually produce a fairly reasonable copy.

I used my drawing to make the pieces for the appliqué by tracing what I'd drawn.

I made the base by piecing the sky to the ocean and then doing a gentle improv cut and sewn curved seam to add the sand.

From there it was Crafted Appliqué for the rest, oh how I love this method. You can still get Lara's book on Amazon. I save my appliqué-ready scraps between wax paper and place them in a ziploc bag for future use...and I have actually used pieces in new projects, like this one!

The tree and one of the monoliths came from a scrap from testing blocks for a Canada's 150th birthday quilt for Cindy of Stitchin at Home, and the birds from scraps from the walleye potholder I made for my husband. I prepared some black pieces for the other monoliths.

I layered the piece with one layer of Thermore by Hobbs (great thin batting for mini quilts) stitched around the appliqué shapes and then FMQ-ed the entire piece. Those birds were TINY! Cindy knows I start to twitch when I have to appliqué tiny pieces. But it was worth it. I free-motion embroidered their feet, and, as the fabric was only 2-3 threads thick at the bills, I added free-motion embroidery there too, to stabilize and define them.

Here are the threads I used, lovely beautiful Sulky rayons, all 40 weight but one 30 weight, and one Holoshimmer.

I can't show you the back, because I wrote her a message, but it's a piece of plain white. There's a layer of stiff fusible batting between the Thermore and the white fabric, making a total of four layers. I statin-stitched around all four edges with the beautiful variegated turquoise rayon, once loosely to hold everything together, and then two more rounds at 0.5. My mmm! quilts label is on the postcard back.

So that's my second finish this week! My first was the Cat-eye-doscope Plus quilt for Cheryl and Paige's book release blog hop. This is SUCH a great hop, such a great book, two terrific quilter/authors.

Update Friday March 16:

I spoke with Preeti (by iMessage) yesterday and she asked me to do her a favour in memory of her sweet precious friend, Angel, who, so very sadly, passed away yesterday. In my haste to get the TGIFF post up before I went to bed on Thursday night, I forgot to do her small request, that has the power to become huge, much like Bernie's doll quilts...

First, please read Preeti's post from yesterday. I hope you will also read the link to Angel's quilt, either by clicking there or from Preeti's yesterday post. It is strange how The Universe puts things in our path... Preeti had reached out to Amy of AmyScrapSpot, wondering how her multiple-disabilities 3-month-old baby boy, Axel, was doing, but hadn't heard in some time. Yesterday, yes, yesterday, the very day Angel died, Amy emailed Preeti back about Axel. Are you seeing a triple A-team here?  Preeti's profound sadness over the loss of Angel has now been channelled into doing something good: helping Amy with Axel's medical expenses. Amy's sister started a Go Fund Me page, (I know how DEEPLY appreciated these pages are, where people donate, anonymously or not, whatever they feel appropriate, since one was set up for my own grandson after his too-young father died last June), and Preeti is asking if you would take a moment, read her post, read Amy's about little Axel, and donate a small amount. As she says, "If 300 people gave $10 each, we'd meet out goal." I know quilters have humongous hearts, and I know that my post will see a lot of traffic this weekend, since I'm not only hosting TGIFF (and leaving it open a wee bit longer, sorry guys, made an executive decision; don't fire me) but I'm linking up my postcard finish with the other big Friday finish parties. THANK YOU for keeping my belief that there is inherent good in this world that gets my spirit so down a lot of the time.

What have you finished this week? You may link up your blog post, Flickr or Instagram post using the link up below. Remember to visit a few blogs and spread some quilty love and encouragement. Please include a link to this blog post and/or the TGIFF button, so your followers can come here to view all the great finishes! You never know, you may have your quilter ADD kick in, and have to go DRop Everything And Make It, aka DREAMi! (Come back for that link up on the last Saturday of March; see sidebar for the button which will take you to the explanation post.)



Linking up to the Friday Finish parties in QBL:
Crazy Mom Quilts
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Busy Hands Quilts

An InLinkz Link-up

Postcard from Sweden Step 3

Here we are at about the halfway point! By now you should have paired and sewn all your HSTs together and trimmed them to size.  Or not.  Perhaps you are assembling the quilt as you go, either in rows, or in blocks of four.  I have done both, and think I prefer in blocks of four because of being able to spin seams when pressing and avoid lumps where eight triangles come together.

We interrupt this blog post to say, "GO Corbin Watson!" He's the goalie for Team Canada's hockey team in the Paralympics and is from Kingsville! They've won all three of their games so far and play again tomorrow. I'm so happy that the Paralympics is getting more attention these days; IMHO these athletes have more heart and determination than 'regular' athletes. 💖😍

Ideally, if this is the halfway point, I should have 10 of the 20 rows sewn together. Well, I have not quite half that amount...what a good example am I? I have been rather busy of late! Here is my progress so far and I am loving it:

Here are a couple of tips that I have discovered helpful:

1. I label the HST pairs with a fine tipped marker within the seam allowance.

This way when I press them, I don't have to worry about pressing painter's tape, or a self-adhesive label, or having it fall off. Trust me, I've done this on many many quilts over the past 20 years, marking within the seam allowance, with never an issue.

2. I press to the side, 'the dark side' to quote Angela Walters and Jenny Doan, lol, and this ensures all these seams nest beautifully. Pinning has been minimal. If you spin the seams, as in unpick a stitch or two within the seam allowance where the seams join, something Carrie Nelson (think Moda's blog and Schnibbles) is well-known for, then you can press them all in the same direction, and the bulk is reduced by half.

Love those cute teeny pinwheels that form!

Okay there's my HSTs sewn together step NOT complete, but I'm going to keep plugging away between my other projects, 😉 and eventually I will have a quilt top. Let's see what your stitched HSTs look like by linking up your quilt progress below.

For the Postcard from Sweden schedule, click here. Remember there is its own page under the tab Quilt Alongs at the top of my blog page.

An InLinkz Link-up

Modern Plus Sign Quilts - Cat-Eye-doscope

Welcome to my stop on Day 3 of the Modern Plus Sign Quilts Book Blog Hop. This is a terrific book, great ideas for new twists on Plus Sign quilts, lovely photography, and excellent instructions.

When I first heard that Cheryl had a book coming out with Paige, I right away emailed Cheryl, asking  if she was considering doing a book release hop, could I be a part of it. I've been a fan of Cheryl's designs for some time. She won my very first giveaway on my blog a few years ago. 😊 Of course she said, "Of course!" I wasn't the only one who wanted to be a part of the hop; there are 40 of us; that's love for you!

Once In A Blue Moon

I am often late. There, I said it. However, work-wise, I am on time, and I am also known for keeping to deadlines, the very important ones, that is. Thus, it is with a red face and downward cast of eye that I admit that I missed the important deadline for posting my mini quilt challenge which should have been done in February.

Note that I was provided the fabric by Island Batik, the batting by Hobbs, and one of the navy threads by Aurifil. Without further ado, here is my mini, 'Once In A Blue Moon'!

I Like/Love #13

February was a blink, and I did not write my monthly gratitude post, the first Thursday in March was Throwback Thursday on my blog, and so here we are today.

1. I like the sound of the vacuum.
Especially when I'm not the one running it. 😂 My darling husband is, without even being asked. He knows I've got a couple of irons in the fire, pots on the stove, quilts in the works. Besides, he does often vacuum anyhow.

2. I love my friends, my family, and Mama Nature.
(common theme in these posts, no?)
This has been a bit of a tough past couple of days... Remember this photo I took on December 23 and wrote about in my December I like/love post?

I mused about this making a great Christmas card, photoshopping out the patio chairs legs of course, and how I recalled cardinals being messengers from loved ones... Naala had just passed away. March 4 would have been her 11 birthday, so she's been more on our minds/hearts again. My dear friend Helen, of Word Weaver Art, (please go check out her wonderful blog and stunning pieces of art) delivered on my musings.

Not only did she 'photoshop out' the patio chairs, she zoomed in on the 'Glimpse of Red' and she added Naala's paw prints, symbolizing she's just outside of view for now... It hung in Florida, was carefully bubblewrapped back up and transported to one side of my feet in the SUV ride back home, where it now hangs in our kitchen, which is where I first took the photo. This blog has changed and enriched my life in unimaginable and numerous ways. I thank the Universe for bringing Helen and me together. IRL aka In Real Life, very soon, we both hope, and visualize.

More friend time of the IRL kind was had in Florida, with family time in Nashville a couple of weeks ago.

The first photo is of a wonderful canal-side restaurant, Farlow's On the Water in Englewood, FL where we met up with John, Janette and Eddie, friends from the Catskills in New York. We had a wonderful day, walking dogs, visiting and enjoying the warm sunshine. The Tabebuia trees were in full bloom when we left, both pink (not pictured) and yellow. Glorious! Also glorious was a weekend in Nashville, courtesy of Dayna's fiancé and his sister, for Dayna to shop for a wedding dress, which, if you read a prior post, was a successful venture. That is me in Franklin, just outside of Nashville, under a gorgeous... um cherry? tree. Ahh!! the magnolias too, which were just opening, one of my favourite trees. The southern magnolias weren't out yet, those with the fragrant dinner-plate-sized blooms. It was so strange, in a good way, to leave hot steamy summer weather in Florida, go to mild spring weather in Nashville, back to Florida for a bit, and now in early chilly spring here in southern Ontario!

3. I love teaching yoga.
I'm so glad to be home, despite the flurries we had yesterday (nothing stuck) and again today, as I type, (stuff is sticking...not a fan). My self-esteem got quite the massage at yoga on Sunday, and again in my 6 am Tues/Thursday classes, as my students showered me with hugs and words of love, and 'missed you so much', upon my return. 🙏

4. I love dessert.
I don't let myself eat it daily since I passed 40...which was a while back. Once or twice a week, though, dessert of the home-baked kind especially is welcome! This, however...

in Nashville, in the district known as 12 South, was the stuff of dreams! A cupcake ATM?! Best. Cupcake. Ever. No lie. Wonderful weekend as well.

5. I love reading.
I finished a great book out of the library, Weekends With Daisy by Sharron Luttrell. If you love dogs, and even if you don't consider yourself a doglover, you will love this book as it is about so much more than looking after a puppy-in-training for a service dog. Daisy lives Monday to Friday with Keith, a prisoner who was selected to be a puppy trainer, quite the privilege in prison. He and Sharron share the raising of Daisy, where Sharron learns as much about herself, and about how to approach life in general, as she does about being a dog trainer. I also read two more No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books, and am currently engrossed in two books, The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham, fulfilling a personal goal to read at least one classic this year, and Voyager by Diana Gabaldon, re-reading it as I watch season 3.

6. I love water.
I am blessed to live less than two minutes' walk to Lake Erie.

You've seen plenty of photos of her on my blog, and I don't plan to stop anytime soon. This was a couple of days ago. There was a bad snowstorm a few days prior to us getting home, and me taking this photo. You can see some of the wet stuff still plastered, ha, like icing, (see what I did there) on the side of that tree. It does something to my soul, my spirit, seeing, gazing upon, listening to, smelling, water. The birds were busy, both flying and fishing.

7. I like water, and kayaking.
We always make time for a couple or more beach walks. Below is the one along the midway point of Manasota Key. Beside it is a photo of a sea urchin I spotted on the shore of Bird Key, which is across from Sarasota where we were walking dogs, a certain one swimming his heart out, with one of the best men in my life, John.

The bottom two photos are from our kayak outing this year. I hope one day we can get either a tandem kayak or two individual ones. For now we rent. This year we kayaked in the intracoastal water between Englewood and Manasota Key, through Lemon Bay and down to Stump Pass, about a 3-mile round trip. Those are the bottom two photos.

8. I like chain-piecing.
These two projects are my Island Batik project for February (I know....rather ashamed that it's late, but IRL took over QBL much to my annoyance) which is blues and violets, and Postcard from Sweden, the large HST Kona Thistle I believe, going through the machine. Let's see if I can do both without reverse-sewing...so far so good.

9. I like learning.
This week sees the start of the New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop, with us behind the scenes getting to know each other, working on blogs, doing 'homework'. As a first-time co-host, I'll admit I'm nervous, but excited, because it always has a positive outcome when I try something new, when I face a challenge. In April and May we will be doing some hopping to new blogs in QBL, with some pretty attractive prizes up for grabs for readers of those new blogs!

Linking up with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color where you can visit several other people who regularly write these I Like/Love posts.
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