Friends are Flowers

It seems friends are the only flowers we'll be seeing if this rain doesn't let up. It's true there are blooming trees all around town right now, including our own flowering plums.

Man, we could use some sunshine though. We're expecting better weather by Wednesday, and it can't come a minute too soon. For now, I'm making my own flowers with this block of the Friendship's Garden quilt. This one is called "Friends are Flowers." I just finished it this morning.

These are the two blocks I have completed for this quilt.

Next, I'll be tracing out the next block for the Sundress quilt. I started this while we were on the road, and so none of the blocks I've finished so far were trimmed. This morning when I got it all out of its box, I decided to go ahead and trim the finished ones to size. Here they all are together.

I'll be tracing out the next one later on today.

Yesterday I was busy cooking, cleaning, and getting ready for our family dinner. We had a wonderful time visiting last night. Despite the day being so busy, I still had some time to make this little mug rug for Mike. I substituted the words "Let's Go!" with the vanity plate Mike has on his yellow car.

Now this is all finished except for the top-stitching. I'll do the top-stitching once Big Bertha comes home from her annual maintenance. (It's been two weeks. Geez! I'm starting to wonder if she's gone on walkabout or something.) Anyway...my friend Rosemary asked me for clarification about where Sher's Creative Space patterns can be found. You're no-reply, Rosemary, and so I can't answer you personally. I'm hoping you'll see that you can find Sher's patterns on Craftsy right here. She has some cute ones for cars, trucks, cats, campers of all kinds. I've purchased several of her patterns, and they're nicely done and easy to follow.

While the kids were here last night, we had a visit from this fellow. He's listed on our cheat sheet for birds we might expect to see in our backyard. In 16 years at this house, it's the first time we've seen the Varied Thrush.

Isn't he a handsome fellow? I had to take my picture through the window, and so it's not very good. Here's a better one from the internet:

(Image Attribution: By Eleanor Briccetti (Varied Thrush - Vancouver Island) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

So that was kind of fun seeing a new bird while the kids were here.

As for today's sewing...you might remember I've set up categories for myself. Today I'm going to check off the Charity Quilts for Kids category. It can also fit under the "Scrappy" category. 

My goal is not necessarily to get through all the categories in a single month (although that would be nice). Rather, I'm trying to do something in each category before starting over again. I have a dual purpose in choosing the Charity Quilts for Kids. It'll be a way to use scraps and donate to a good cause, but it'll also make a good quilt to practice my free motion quilting in preparation for moving onto the FMQ category. I'm working toward starting to quilt the Quiltmaker's Garden...the quilt that has haunted my dreams for so many years.

Yes, it's on the road to a finish...but not just yet. I need to practice my quilting before I tackle it. It's sandwiched and ready to go. I've just been trying to decide how to quilt it. I'll be quilting in some details, but also choosing an all-over design. That's the one I need to practice before I get started on it.

So you can see there's much on the agenda. It's starting to feel as if we're back in our little rut here at the Three Cats Ranch...a very comfortable place to be.