My Spring Blooms Mini Quilt arrived yesterday!

Isn't it lovely?

It came all wrapped in fabric and a bow

from Rebecca who lives in

Little Mountain, Queensland Australia!

This little quilt is beautifully done and features

3 braided fabric strips that are artfully color

coordinated, blending from winter whites to glorious

golds, into blue skies and finally the greens of Spring!

Then hand appliqued Brodrie Perse butterflies were applied

and lovely machine quilted feathers are

cascading on the side corners.

The back of this little quilt has gorgeous fabric

and already has a hanging sleeve attached!

(sorry Brenda....I didn't do that on yours!)

And of course.....a lovely label!

Best of all I got a great letter from Rebecca telling

me about her family, her homeland and her hobbies.

She is a Longarmer too! How cool is that?

In case you are reading this Rebecca I just want to

say Thank you! You put alot of work into this little quilt

and it will be loved.

I especially love that it came from Australia.

I've had the priviledge of visiting Sydney many years ago

and really enjoyed seeing your country and meeting

up with some very friendly quilters!

I've already signed up for the next swap!

and you can too by clicking on the bright

and cheerful SUN in the right hand margin

of this page!

Spring Blooms Mini Quilt swap update!

I'm nearly finished with my little quiltlet for the

Spring Blooms quilt swap.

Machine embroidery was done yesterday as well as the

machine quilting.

The person that I am sending this to requested a primitive style using no bright or light colors.

I hope that I have fulfilled her wishes.

This was a stretch for me as I really like to work with brights and batik fabrics.

All I need to do now is to hand sew a button, binding and label and I'll be all finished.

The techniques used on this pieced and appliqued quilt are hand embroidery, machine embroidery, yo-yo flowers, mock trapunto and longarm quilting.

Another project that I am working on is one I found in the most recent issue of Quick Quilts. There were quite a few fun projects in this issue including this one for quick placemats.

The placemats were two different styles.

I made the one that is pictured in the back.

You had to go on the website to get the pattern for

this placemat, but they also gave directions for napkins

and napkin rings.

Here is the link to the site:

http://www.quiltmag.com/sewing-projects/quick-quilts102-placemat-variation-napkins-napkin-rings/

My placemats in progress:

I grew up in a little town in Ohio called The Plains. At one time we had this enormous garden where mom and dad grew all kinds of veggies. Unfortunatly I didn't really like many vegetables back then. I keep hearing about how tasty a REAL tomato tastes. Not like those store bought ones! As I posted several months ago, my daughter and son-in-law bought me one of those Topsy Turvy tomato planters. I didn't have much luck..the tomato plant died within weeks. I started thinking about what I had done wrong and I think it was that I used regular ole dirt in the planter. The dirt packed in there so hard that they poor ole roots didn't even have a chance to grow! So I am trying again...this time I used Miracle Grow Moisture control potting soil.

Wish me luck, I'd sure like to have some tasty homegrown tomatos!

It may take a miracle!