flowers — Page 283

Finished

April 15, 2013 at 8:30 am by Claudia

quilt-back

Done.

I finished hand stitching the binding late on Saturday, after working on it all afternoon while watching the Red Sox. I don’t hand stitch very often and I’m not very confident about my skill, so it’s slow going for me. But it’s done!

This quilt has been four years in the making. I originally pieced it in 2009 when I was working far away from home in San Diego for 6 months. After I brought it home, I did nothing with it for 3 years. It wasn’t until I got a bee in my bonnet at the end of 2012 that I started to put the quilt sandwich together, pin basted the sucker, and then started the hand quilting process while, this time, Don was away in San Diego.

I was determined to finish it before I leave town for Hartford. And I did.

I’ve been playing with it upstairs:

quilt1

Oh, you queen sized behemoth, you were very hard to maneuver in my small sewing space! This just might be a good reason to never get a king sized bed.

Before you say, “But Claudia, you have one pattern on the headboard and then all those patterns in the quilt,” remember that I like a lot of pattern. You’ve seen the rest of my house, haven’t you? I have no problem mixing patterns – maybe it’s my British heritage. I like all those cozy British cottage living rooms with an abundance of pattern. I promise not to go crazy with the pattern love.

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quilt2

You look pretty at the end of the bed.

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I love you.

Pretty in the bedroom, isn’t it? Well, it’s only there temporarily because it’s traveling with me to Hartford! Yep. Why, you ask? Two reasons. One: Don, though he loves and appreciates it, won’t love it like I do and I don’t want to leave for Hartford and not be able to see it for 6 weeks. Two: Duvets, duvets. Remember my post about them? I don’t like duvets. This trip I am staying at the hotel for 2 weeks, then I’m moving to the company apartments for the rest of my stay. Both places have duvets on the beds. Do. Not. Like. So this time, instead of throwing the too heavy duvet off the bed and then shivering because a sheet isn’t quite enough, I will have the quilt. See? Doesn’t that make sense?

And I can look at my pretty quilt. And it will make my temporary lodgings more home-like.

Don and I were going to try to take a photo of it outside, but it’s too gosh darned windy and cold and gray out today. Spring? Are you there? Will you please come for a few days before I have to leave on Thursday?

firstdaffodil

Some comfort: our first daffodil has opened up. It’s right on the edge of the woods. Such a beauty!

Quilt details: Design inspired by the Snowball Quilt in Kaffe Fassett’s book, Museum Quilts. Many, many of the fabrics are Kaffe Fassett designs, along with some from my stash, border fabric is by Jinny Beyers.

Happy Monday.

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Forsythia Friday

April 12, 2013 at 9:20 am by Claudia

Clearly, Don’s a hit. He’s a charmer, my guy, and he’s a good writer. Part 2 is coming, but he had to go into the city yesterday and didn’t get back until late, leaving no time to compose his post. But take heart: Part 2 will most likely be on Sunday, as A Favorite Thing is always scheduled on Saturday. I’m so glad you’re enjoying his take on Prague and filming in Prague. Wait until he reads your comments! This all might go to his head. There will be no living with him.

Don is the type of guy that everyone loves. Including this girl:

isitdad

Waiting for Dad to get up. Is it him? Oh, please let it be him! Sounds like the old Vicki Carr song – do you remember it? “Let it please be him, oh dear God, it must be him, it must be him…” A little over the top, Vicki; you might want to think about therapy. Nevertheless, I remember it vividly.

The last couple of days here have been rainy and gray. Today? More rain. April showers are alive and well here in the Northeast. But I won’t complain – at least it’s not snow. I clipped a few branches off of the forsythia bushes that are in our woods and brought them inside to force a cheery yellow bloom.

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We need some flowers around here.

I’m leaving in less than a week and have to start making lists of what I need to pack. Thank goodness we can get there by car and I don’t have to worry about packing and shipping boxes. I get excited about the work, but sad about leaving my family. There’s always a push-pull nature to our kind of work, which often involves going out of town for extended periods of time. This summer will be especially tricky. I get back at the end of May. In June, Don leaves for 5 weeks in Williamstown, MA. He returns at the end of July and will be home for one day when I take off for Hartford again for 6 weeks. I’m glad we’re both getting some work and I’m certainly glad that someone will always be here with Scout, but it ain’t easy.

binding

I sewed all the binding on yesterday. Bulky queen sized quilt in my little sewing space = a pain in the tush. It took some intricate maneuvering and more than a few curse words. But I did it! Now I’m hand sewing the binding to the back of the quilt.

Then it’s done! Ta da!

Happy Friday.

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Surprises in the Mail and in the Soil

April 8, 2013 at 9:02 am by Claudia

You all know my sister, Meredith, right? She blogs at Mereknits and she is an amazing knitter, crocheter and crafter besides all that other stuff: mom, wife, occupational therapist, wonderful person. She is my sister and she is my friend and we are very, very close. So, the other day, I opened the front door and there was a box on the front steps. It was from Mer. Hmmm.

I opened it up and this is what I saw:

sweater

Isn’t it beautiful? It was for me!

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I had been just about to leave the house to run some errands, so I quickly tried it on (it fit!) and took a photo of myself in the bathroom mirror with my phone and sent it to her. (I will not share that photo with you, my friends, as the mirror had not been cleaned and you can see the toilet in the background.) I ended up wearing it that day because I love it so much! There’s a story to this sweater: Mer wrote a post about it called “Can a Sweater Knit Itself?” Go over there and read it. She tells it much better than I could.

It fits like a glove and when I showed it to Don via Skype he said “Va Va Voom!” Thank you, sister!

Yesterday, I started the long project that is the Clean Up of the Garden and Yard. Oh my. It was windy out there and I, of course, did too much. But it felt good being outdoors, raking up the seemingly endless amounts of leaves and twigs that are covering the garden beds. It’s been a long, cold winter here in the northeast, but plants are coming up here and there.

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Sedum Autumn Joy – always one of the first plants to peek through the soil

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Daffodils. Will I see them bloom before I leave? I don’t think so.

As I was raking, I saw the hint of a green shoot poking through the leaves in a section of the garden bed where I didn’t have anything planted. After I removed the leaves, I saw this:

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~~Four~~ Five plants. What the heck?

Then I remembered something from last year. I added that new garden bed to the other side of the house. It had previously been grassy there. I was digging in a section of the bed, getting the soil ready to add a new plant, and I found some bulbs rather far down in the soil. I had no idea how long they had been there or what the heck they were, but I took them over to the big garden bed and planted them, thinking what did I have to lose? And promptly forgot about them.

hyacinths

A little yellow due to lack of sun (they were completely covered by the leaves) but they look like Hyacinths to me. What a wonderful surprise! When I took them out of the other garden bed, I noticed that the bulbs were not pointed in the right direction, so I made sure to do that when I replanted them. I have no idea how long it has been since these bulbs have bloomed, if ever. We’ve lived here almost 8 years and the guy who lived here before us did absolutely nothing to the property (he was a weekender) and he lived here for four years.

These are the little garden miracles that make me so, so happy.

Temperatures are supposed to be in the sixties this week! Positively balmy for our part of the country. Don is on his way home, just got an email from him – he’s waiting for his connection in Zurich. He won’t get home until late this evening. Scout and I are very excited, indeed!

Happy Monday.

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Finished

Forsythia Friday

Surprises in the Mail and in the Soil

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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