Flamingo Flimsy

The morning is getting off to a slow start. I've already spent more time than usual reading email and checking in on Facebook, and then more time than usual on my embroidery project. There's no hurry, mind you, but I do have some things I'd like to accomplish before the day ends. Getting dressed, for one thing.

Yesterday, I sewed these blocks into a flimsy.

I'll admit I thought this day would never come. This is one of my oldest UFO's. It was started November 8, 2012, which seems a lifetime ago. The background flamingo fabric is the first fabric I purchased when I started creating a stash. It would have been right after Mike and I returned from a scuba diving trip to our favorite diving destination, Bonaire. Bonaire is one of the so-called ABC Islands of the Dutch Antilles. The ABC Islands consist of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao, and they are located about 60 miles off the coast of Venezuela. 

You might be wondering what flamingos have to do with Bonaire. As it turns out, Bonaire has flocks of wild flamingos living on the island. They can be seen flying overhead occasionally, which is a little disorienting. One hears their wing beats and looks overhead expecting to see geese flying by, and there they are. Flocks of flamingos are known as a "quora" or a "flamboyance". I much prefer the second term, don't you? 

They tend to hang out in this salt lagoon in Washington Slagbaai National Park.

You can see them walking through the water occasionally dipping their beaks to pick up shrimp.

If you look in the lower right-hand corner of that image above, you can see an egret, apparently the only one inhabiting the island.

We've also seen pelicans and wild parrots in Bonaire.

And this odd bird. This would be the Tufted Scubaman Bird.

And this cat bird...or bird cat.

But I digress. 

First, I sewed the blocks together. I accomplished this by first sewing three of the palm trees upside down, and then sewing the blocks together in the wrong configuration. You might think it would be a simple task, but it required as much ripping as it did sewing. Oy.

Then, I added the purple stop border.

I'll use that same purple for the binding. And then, I added the candy stripe border, and it was finished! It ends up at 56 x 64 inches.

It was finished in just a nick of time because a few minutes later, we headed off to see Tina Fey's movie Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot...which we loved. I can recommend it.

Today I'll try to piece together a back for this quilt. I think I can pull it together with the fabrics I have left from the front. For one thing, the outer border is 7.5 inches wide. In the process of piecing the lengths of fabric together for the border, I ended up with eight bonus triangles, that I can use to make a couple of pinwheels. Somehow I'll get it pieced together and large enough to cover the back.