And the happiest of Spring days to you too ~

Vibrant red is my leading color on the first day of Spring...overshadowing all the rainy gloom we had in the winter solstice. 

It's My Party....an art quilt

It was a meeting in early 2019 when Sharon tells us that being president of the quilt guild allows her to send out challenges to the group and that her next challenge will be entitled "It's My Party......and I'll cry if I want to."  A song sung by many but Leslie Gore made it a memory for me.  Art quilt completion date and hang date is set for May.

I was in no mood for a party on that particular cold, dreary January day but being the trooper that I am,  came home and started working on ideas.   Let's see....what parties can one have in May.  Well, there is May Day where kids dance around the pole and Cinco de Mayo celebrating the Mexican heritage of many and of course, Mother's Day.  But my mind kept going back to an outside garden party with flowers in full bloom.   A tea party idea was out of the question as was a fish fry or steak cookout!

The final idea was off-the-wall-wild!  Flowers can have a party in the garden....can't they?

Step one was to make a background using minuscule scraps one on top of the other with raw edges exposed.  Flowers, leaves and stems were then appliqued onto the background in random fashion.

















 Hand quilting and flower head embellishing came next for the final meow.



 Yes, it's a wild flower party and we're having a blast getting dressed up in style.

Hand-dyed in orange, these tangled threads made the perfect flower's head for a standout in the party crowd.

Here's the statement made for the quilt label and maker acknowledgement:

It's My Party....a wild flower party hosted by Crissy the Mum and attended by Rosey, Violet, Lily, Daisy and Iris.  Black Eyed Susan sent her regrets.  Zinnia served Rosemary her Sweet Violet tea and Aster brought her favorite Ginger snap cookies to pass around to all.  We like them wild at the wild flower party where there's no room for tears. 

Marty Mason

May, 2019 

.....and then there were crumbs ~

Having a goal is a good thing here in my room.  A couple of years ago, I was in a workshop taught by a fabulous teacher, Sue Welton, who loves diddling in thrift store finds with her special delight being men's shirts.  Blogged about here at Quilters' Guild Acadienne.

Friends and I collected shirts for a couple of seasons and shared pieces parts of each shirt with each other.  It was a great way to share so not too much of the same shirt showed up in each of our quilts.

Not having a good plan, I hung on to my shirt stash about as long as I could but finally realized there was a goal niggling in the back of my head - get rid of that stack of shirts since the space was needed  for other fabrics.  Those shirts had value so they couldn't be given away!  But,  I was growing tired of pushing them around from one fraction of the shelf to another. 

I started depleting the shirt stash with the challenge thrown out by The Root Connection....you can read about that quilt here.   I even used the shirting to piece the backing and still had leftovers.  There was nothing left to do but to start another quilt.  Luck be with me, I found this little jewel of a pattern at The Quilting Digest.  My shirts worked wonderfully in each paper pieced log of this log cabin.





What was left?  I filled a little zip bag with the scraps crumbs and along with the printed pattern  tossed it as one would a bridal bouquet out in the group of quilters at our Thursday sew day.  Life is soooooo  good.

Unconventional and Unexpected Quilt-a-Long

Remembering the collection of thrift store cotton and linen shirts that needed to be cut and sewn! When Sujata Shah at the The Root Connection enticed me into this quilt-a-long, I new exactly where to go for just the right fabric.....thrift store shirts.....cotton and linen.   Yes, the Unconventional and Unexpected lives in my house. 

OH HOW FUN this one was to complete.  Inspired by a quilt found in Coal City, Alabama, quilt maker and quilt pattern unknown, made with scraps of cotton and flannel....page 51 in Roderick Kiracofe's Unconventional & Unexpected (American Quilts Below the Radar 1950-2000).

With each improvisational pieced block, I  remembered how Grandma would sit and sew all her scraps together.  Remembering her humbleness and how thankful she was for her good life.   Her surroundings were not filled with riches, but her life was rich with inner peace and love. 

What's New?

February wasn't my typical month.  While there was some sewing going on, it wasn't so much in my usual setting, but in a hospital and rehabilitation center.  You see, the HuMan in my life had a stroke early in the month and is now recovering beautifully.   We are home and he is going through out-patient rehabilitation.   Life continues to be good as we take one day at a time and make it the best day we can.   

So, what's sewing on?    Quilting, whether by hand or machine,  continues to be my therapy....and it was very therapeutic to get the binding hand sewn on these three quilts as I sat and watched as he continued to heal.   I knew there was a reason those quilts were stacked in the closet ready to grab and stitch to completion!

Yes, we foresee a most favorable outcome and consider this just a toe stub or a slight dip in the road. It was eye-opening for both of us and some life style changes are being  made. 

TTFN