Gardens, gardens and more gardens,

I have completed one quilty item, but it is a challenge and can't be shown yet.....but soon.   I have been working everyday in the gardens!   I needed it...I love my gardens and I was spring starved since getting home in March for Florida,   It makes me happy to work outside and make our property "landscape lovely".    Here are a few of my favorite new things the past few days,

I'm trying a living wall.   Not completely confident yet that it will hold up, but we shall see in time.

This is my most favoritest new planter.   I love this lady and the plant is perfect for "hair..

My husband picked out this heart shaped planter.   The lantana fills it right now....it may need to be thinned out later.

These plants were all over in Florida.   I think they are a "Ti" or something like that.   I brought one home.

2 more things from the zen garden.   Buddha playing his lute and a planter that looks like it tipped over!

Another UFO quilt off to the quilter!

As part of our guild UFO challenge, another one is finished and off to the quilter.   This is one of Anita Grossman Solomon's patterns...I believe called the Old Italian or Old Italian Tile...I forget exactly.   I started piecing it her method from her book and them a guild member showed me an easier and more efficient way to cut and piece.....hence, not all the blocks matched up exactly whe piecing rows,   I squared exactly, was very proud of my exact squaring.....but still some mismatches,   But.,,,as they say,,,,for a a galloping horse it probably doesn't show,   This will most likely be a recliner quilt...my favorite colors, of course!

Circular Motion.....a quilt of circles and angles.

I saw the pattern for this quilt (Rythmic by Sew Karen-ly Created) and was so taken by its contrast of colors and use of circles and angles. I knew I wanted to make it, but mostly I wanted to make it to do the feather quilting.  It was a great learning experience.....far from perfect, but it's done!   Piecing circles was hard, joining all of them with multitude of seams was hard, but the hardest was the binding.   I am most proud of the quilting...totally free motion and unmarked!

This is center of the quilt, feather wreath

I learned to free motion quilt feathers upside down when needed so as not to bunch the quilt in the machine.   I think you would have a hard time determining which is which....right side up or upside down!

And, the center diamond shapes!

Sunroom....day 2

And this is the progress tonight.....the south wall of windows is out and studs are going in.   I can't believe they world today, I don't think the temp ever got above freezing!   I wouldn't be out on the sunporch today anyway,

Sunroom!

The sunroom is my favorite room in the house.  I love and crac the light...and it feels like we are right outside!    Its all cleaned out and ready to be renovated,   Day 1 brought in new insulation and new fan/light.  A slight repair is needed in ine corner,   And.....now it stops because of course we have to have a return to winter.   So no windows can come out and be replaced until the precipitation stops.   But....at least it is underway!

Amherst Quilt Show.

Yesterday I went to the Amherst guild quilt show near Buffalo.   It was a wonderful sunny day (which was long overdue) with a couple of good friends.   The day was easy and relaxing and a stop for ice cream topped it off just perfectly.

There were more than a few quilts that caught my eye....but here are a few!

Ina Randall is one of my favorites from that guild.....this is her take on the ever familiar beach scene so many of us do.   She uses some unusual items.

The modern quilt movement is big right now and they had several of them,   The big part of this movement is the use if negative space.   Some used it quite well, others.....not so much.

This "orchard" was my favorite:

Another favorite because of color was this one.

And a couple of others...just because I liked them.

I liked the use if circles for the tree in this one,

This is a wooden puzzle made by one of a member's husband,   It is an auction item and sure to go for big bucks!

Finally.....this was my favorite "do not touch the quilts" sign!

Finished quilt for guild UFO challenge

In preparation for our quilt show thus year, my guild, Museum Quild Guild (http://museumquiltguild.com) is hosting a UFO challenge.  We could sign up for 5 quilts. For each one we finish, we are eligible to enter a drawing for a prize.  This week I finished my first one.  

I had the center done for a long time but couldn't decide how to finish it.  The center uses some sun printed leaves.  I purchased the specially treated fabric from bluesunprints.com, laid leaves on the squares and left in the sun for 15 min.  The part not covered darkens and the leaf print occurs under the plant leaves. 

I could not decide the border but had seen an idea somewhere where the one border was apiqued leaves and the rest was pieced.  I used the technique called "piano keys" for the other 3 borders.  It is pretty heavily quilted!   I added some beads to highlight the leaf quilting on the appliqués border. 

Merry Go Round quilted table topper

I found this pattern in Florida along with some gorgeous purple fabric.  Slightly over 1 yard of fabrics completes this table topper.  I had great fun quilting this as it was my first project on my new sewing machine!!!   This pattern would be fun to use to change out the table topper according to seasons or holidays!!!

A new sewing machine is the best toy ever!

My old machine didn't  owe me anything. It has been a workhorse...and I do work my machines a lot.   Lately it has been giving me more grief than pleasure. So when it proceeded to act up this morning. My husband said "enough", and so we went to my favorite shop in Penn  Yan, NY and bought a new one!!!

It wasn't a total surprise as I had been looking.  While the old one was fixed and has more years of life, it now will become my "second" one which I will use for retreats, classes, traveling etc.

Visit to Mt. Dora and my purple house,

One of our trips while in the south was a lovely visit to the city of Mt. Dora, Florida.   It is a cute little place by the lake and it was a lovely day to walk around and take in all the little artisan shops.

This was in one of the shops..I want to do this in my backyard!

Eating outside in nice weather is always a treat.

The bottle brush tree that captured my attention.

Finally.....anyone who knows me, knows that this house has my name written all over it....Purple Love!!

Crystal River and Blue Run

Today's trip took us to Crystal River.  What a cute little town!  I wish we had known more and had planned to explore more.  On the way home we stopped in Dunnellon at the Blue Run River trail.  This is my favorite picture of the day.

More inspiration......more quilts than I will do....

We took a trip to beautiful Rainbow Springs!   This is another long time attraction and park falling on hard times and being run into the ground because of the mega parks like Disney!  I have seen several parks on this trip and find it very sad that natural beauty is being tossed aside for some "man made, money grubbing" mega park.     Many of my photos are closeups designed to be inspiration for future art quilts.   So you might say I could find this anywhere.   However, I believe when you allow yourself to be surrounded and taken in by the beauty of a place, you notice things you might never see on a casual walk by,,,,say....a tree stump, or some dead and drooping palm leaves. 

First some overall shots down the springs, into the water....the most beautiful clear blue water I have seen since Bermuda!

Closeup of the dead palms I mentioned,   Look at all that color and texture!

The tree stump mentioned above!

Even a row of canoes is interesting.

Finally...a waterfall while walking out of the park!

Oops,  a few more.....this is us......enjoying the time in the south....

  

Inspiration is everywhere!!!!

On vacation and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of photos later, I have much inspiration for new quilts.  Here is one from today taken at Silver Springs State Park!