Dogwood Picnic

Finished Scrap-a-Palooza quilt #4.  This is the second scrap-a-palooza quilt for me.  I am loving the series!

I finished it last night, but wanted to wait until this morning to post, as I was struck with a great idea as to where to take an outside picture.

So this morning, just after 8:00, I walked across the street to Southgate Residence, a senior citizens' assisted living residence.  This is one of the many pink magnolias in our town.

I loved Cynthia's picture of her Two-Color Woven Quilt, and with the pinks and greens in this second dogwood inspired quilt, I knew I wanted to lay it on a lawn too.  Her picture also inspired the final name for my quilt.

I copied her, too, with the straight line quilting in the coloured squares to emphasize the woven effect.  I did 4 passes, two 1/4" from the seams and two roughly centred.  I had a hard time figuring out how to continuously quilt this to avoid too many stops and starts.  I didn't want to travel stitch across a bar.  In the end, I mostly travelled across the 1/4" line of stitching, not always being successful with hitting it.  I just tried to not stress about it too much, hoping the overall effect would take over from the imperfections.  "Close enough is good enough" is what Angela Walters repeatedly said through the Dot to Dot Quilting class on Craftsy, and I tried very hard, fighting my perfectionist nature, to do just that.  After all, it's not a show quilt, and it's only my 8th quilt on the Avanté.

In the white squares, I knew I wanted a filler.  In the first row, I did a different one in each square, thinking it would be a perfect place to practise FMQ, much like I did on my Perky Purse quilt.

I opted out of this decision after I did that first row for two reasons: 1) I felt the thread, an ivory Madiera Polyneon, looked almost dirty on the white fabric, and 2) your eye would perhaps go more to all the busy quilting in the white squares and not see the weave.  So I quilted all the straight line quilting with the polyneon, and then went back in and quilted an open meander, Leah's "Wandering Clover" with a white Sulky rayon.  After washing, both threads sunk into the quilt top quite nicely, but I do think having the one unifying meander in the white squares was the right design decision.

Close-up of Wired Feather and Growing Sprouts

However, I DO love the looks of all those designs in that top row!  I tried out one of Leah's latest FMQ designs, "Growing Sprouts", as well as an older one, "Wired Feather".  I also like the looked of "Modern Art".  These last two I got from her two books; they are so handy to just flip through and see what grabs my fancy.  I read the written instructions, and then if I want to see her do the design in action, I go to her website. 

The back.  Ancient fabric from a sale at (choke) WalMart.  My husband and I have boycotted them for more than 10 years now, however, (so that tells you how old this fabric is!!!!) due to their business practices.  I had a stack 'n whack quilt in mind for this and I have enough left still that I might still do one...that or use it to start another scrap quilt, like Paula's Triangle Quilt Along at The Sassy Quilter.

The label, pieced again as an integral part of the backing.  Sorry the lighting seems too bright here to read properly.  You get the idea.

Rolled up!  Mmmm.

It was a perfect morning.  And I cannot get enough of magnolias.

Ever.

Reflections on Another Winter in Southwest Florida

It's hard to believe that 4.5 months have gone!  Dayna says to stay until May 1, as the spring is very slow coming this year after the worst winter in recorded history in the Windsor/Detroit area.  However, we have already put the wheels in motion, so to speak, so departure date is April 16.

I finished another book two days ago, and when I entered my usual book summary in my Word document I keep on books I've read, I decided to count up just how many I'd read since we arrived here Dec. 1.  Seventeen!!

Here are most of them; two I gave to Goodwill as they weren't worth keeping, one was a neighbour's, And the Mountains Echoed, and that same neighbour has another, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.  I was pleasantly surprised.  I also read several quilt magazines (love getting them secondhand at guild meetings for 25c and less) and browsed through two quilt books I bought.  I'm well into Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and really really enjoying it.  I am going to keep a notebook handy from today's reading on, as he mentions so many places that I hope to see in Savannah next week.