The sun came out and dried up all the rain...yes that happened last Friday. Glorious sunshine almost every day since. Temps are a bit cool and there are frost warnings at night. It is shivery still in the shade, but the sunshine makes up for it. Daffodils are blooming and the tiny leaves are appearing on trees. Several of the indoor plants are budding. I'm itching to get these outside.
I began stitching this applique block during the Coronation. I thought it a little tiara like. A dresden block for my next Rainbow house, a pink one.
I'm surprising myself with the bright colours I am using in this Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL. I usually prefer much more subdued tones. But this is fun too.
And here the neighbourhood is coming together. Technically I've stitched 5.5 houses so far if I count my Butterfly test house. These are large at 16 inches.
LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color's prompt this week is what is our favourite music style. I usually listen to classical piano, cello, or violin in the mornings when up early. Often when I'm writing these posts. A couple times a week I ask google to play me old time rock and roll and I dance to it. This always cheers me up no matter what is happening and I know all the words to the old songs. So it's not only good for the body, it's good for memory too. Sometimes I surprise myself by enjoying something modern right out of the blue. Like a very young Chris Martin singing a song he wrote called Yellow which I love.
I heard from many of you about taking the no fabric buying pledge, but some of you are qualifying that with perhaps if a new line catches your eye, or you need more neutrals, :D, etc. Yes, that's a hard pledge to keep as the new fabric lines are always more beautiful than the ones before it seems.
How to control stash...I never thought of this but I read this suggestion for how to cut down/control adding to stash. Buy quilt kits. More and more of the fabric stores are putting together kits with the fabric and pattern, no need to purchase more. For instance, as long as I've been blogging, I've received the Connecting Threads catalogue and they always have a bank of quilt kits; they go on sale at different times of the year and are quite a good bargain then.
Likes and Free Stuff Too
Sassafras Lane Designs' free pattern section includes this one -Mini Patchwork Orange.
Red Thread Studio has quite a selection of unique stitching items. One is this project for embroiderers designed by the wonderful stitcher Helen Stubbings. This one is called Stitch Therapy 365, a tiny design to stitch quickly for each day of the year.
I found this link to a bank of free patterns by wonderful Kim Diehl...so many lovely designs. Some so simple but creative too. At the ME Quilt Shoppe. I couldn't grab a photo because each links directly to the pattern. I noticed that Kim's borders are all different and it would be a great spot to explore border choices if you need that.
At Bonnie Sullivan's site All Through the Night, I found lovely free patterns. Take a look around at what Bonnie (sister of Kathy Schmitz) has been creating. Here is just one of the pretty patterns Bonnie is generously offering.
I was so happy to read that the state of Oregon has deployed firefighters to Alberta, Canada to help them fight the fires that have been blazing there for weeks now. Story is here. It is always enheartening to read about cross border alliances between countries. Helping each other as best we can is the way it should be.
And on that hopeful note, I'll end my post today. Happy Weekend all.
