It's A Beautiful Summer Day!

 It's time for the April "Another Year Of Schnibbles" Parade!  Do you recognize these flying geese from my post last week?  This month's pattern was Summer Day and I made mine with the new Hello Luscious fabric line by Basic Grey.  I had a little trouble deciding on the background fabric for this one.......who knows why, I was only deciding between some different shades of white, after all!  Finally, I went with a slightly creamy white with subtle flecks of light green  and I'm really pleased with the result. 

The Fit to be Geese ruler is one of my favorite quilting tools, so I was thrilled to see that this lovely pattern designed by Carrie Nelson contained flocks of flying geese.  She included all the information needed to make the geese the using the Fit to be Geese ruler, or using the more traditional method.  This quilt was a breeze to make! 

     

More Summer Days are on the way!  The April Schnibbles parade will be on Sherri's blog and Sinta's blog too, at the beginning of May.  Stop by and visit them to see many more beautiful versions of Summer Day!

They're Here!

Here's a picture of the new additions to the Carolina Wren family living on our lanai. Three hatched last Thursday, and I'm not sure when the other two hatched.  Do you count five birds too? We weren't really sure, but five is what we see in the picture.  The nest is wedged in between an inner pot and an outer decorative pot for my Christmas cactus, so it's hard to see.  I waited a few days to take a picture, so I wouldn't disturb them when they were really small.

The adult birds go back and forth with food from early in the morning, until late at night.  I put some sunflower seeds near the nest, but no one is eating them.  But beetles and worms in our area should look out!  That seems to be their food of choice.

Copper is outside sometimes, but the Wrens don't mind.  They just go right past him.  When he lays right under the nest they do seem to yell at him, which he is oblivious too. I just let him in so he stays out of the way.  Those little ones get noisier every day!  At first you couldn't hear them inside our house, but now there is no doubt when Mom or Dad have arrived with some food!  I'll be sure to keep you updated on the new family!  

What Is That? Wednesday

Any ideas?

Frog Hugs And Quilting!

I've been quilting away for my friends Mary Pat and Karen.  They made this sweet frog quilt to cheer up a friend, and they asked me to do the quilting. 

The quilting design I chose was a swirling vine.  I didn't want to quilt over the frogs, and this design allowed me to go around them easily. It also went with the playful look of the quilt. 

Aren't those frogs ridiculously adorable?

I thought the bright green variegated thread would really add to the whimsy of this super fun quilt!

More swirl quilting!  I know there are plenty of pictures in this post, but there were tons of good ones so I just went with it!

I have no doubt this happy quilt will bring good wishes and cheer to the recipient!

I'm In B.O.M. Rehab

Sinta had a the wonderful idea to start a Block Of The Month Rehab group and I decided to join in! Working on neglected B.O.M. projects and posting progress reports on Mondays sounds like a great idea to me!  I know I need the help and support of other quilt bloggers to get through my stack of B.O.M.'s.

While looking for one forgotten collection of B.O.M.'s, I ran across these bright blocks from a B.O.M. program at my LQS. Since these blocks say spring and summer to me a little more than the blocks I was looking for, I decided to start my quest to do some finishing here.        

All of these blocks are finished, but if I remember correctly, I thought one of the blocks just didn't look like it fit in to me and for some reason I wasn't willing to change it.  I think that was the problem that put a halt to my progress on this top.  Can you guess which block it was?   I'm pretty sure you know!  I don't know why I had trouble getting rid of it and moving on.  Maybe I just wanted to stick with the plan of that particular B.O.M.  Well now, many years later I still don't like it and I don't think I'd ever like this quilt with that particular block in it. Do you agree?  I think a visit to my stash and maybe to my LQS is in order to replace the offending block.

Here's the stack of B.O.M.'s that I originally had in mind for a Rehab project. I did eventually find them.  I would have spread them out a little more for the picture, but I realized that I already had then labeled in order of where I wanted them placed in the quilt, and I'm not willing to mess that up!

I know this post doesn't show any progress on a particular block, but I'm happy with just locating a few long forgotten projects and starting a plan! To see lots of inspiring B.O.M. progress be sure to visit Sinta's blog soon!     

Blog Friends

My blog friend Izzy was kind enough to to give me the Liebster Blog Award!  Thanks so much Izzy!

 Izzy, from Dizzy Quilts, was one of my first followers! We started blogging about the same time and I've really enjoyed keeping up with her inspiring quilt projects along the way. In the first days of my blog, when I saw I had a follower that I did not even know I was thrilled!  Thanks for being there Izzy!!

                             

  Well, I did a little research, and I found out that liebster is German for dearest or favorite. The Liebster Award is all about highlighting smaller blogs and spreading blog friendship. This award can be given to bloggers with about 200 followers. What a fun way to learn about smaller blogs that may be new to you! 

No one is obligated to accept the award or to pass it to anyone else. It's just a fun way to bring some extra attention to smaller blogs that you enjoy reading and find inspiring. 

This is what you do to pass it on-

1. Post about your award on your blog.

 2.Thank the blogger that gave it to you and link back to them.

3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

4. This is the difficult part....choose five of your favorite blogs with less than 200 followers to recognize.

5. Let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

There are so many great small blogs out there, I could have come up with a long, long, list. 

After lots of though, I've decided to pass on this award to bloggers that I met at the very beginning of my blog. Some of the bloggers who inspired me to keep writing and sharing, even when I wondered if anyone out there was listening!  They are........

Candace at Wraggedy Patches

Linda from The Quilted Pineapple

Annie's Ort Quilts

The Joyful Quilter

Bridgette from Applique Time

Please don't feel any obligation to pass it on!  Just know that I appreciate your friendship!

Visitors

I know this isn't the best picture. Sorry. It was taken out of my kitchen window.

There has been lots of activity in my Christmas Cactus in the last few weeks! Surprisingly, a family of birds has moved in! About two weeks ago, we watched them bring twigs, Spanish Moss, and pieces of palm bark to the Christmas Cactus.  When we looked closer, we saw that they were building a nest between the decorative outer pot and the inner plastic pot that holds the plant. For years I've been meaning to repot this Christmas Cactus, but I never quite get around to doing it.  I was also a little concerned that if I repotted it, it might not bloom at Christmas. Now I'm really glad that I didn't!  Procrastination can pay off! 

Copper says, "Yikes!"
 
Is that some dog hair used as nesting material?  I've been wondering if the birds thought this nest location through all the way, on our back lanai with the kids and Copper so close by..........it's even Copper height and he's out there quite a bit........ but it looks like they know exactly what they are doing!  Even using Copper's fur to build their nest.  I'll keep you posted on the progress!

Easter Binding Not Easter Bunnies

I was determined to finish the binding on this Easter table runner before this Easter, and I did it! This project has been hanging around for awhile.  You can read about it here and here. The binding was a hurricane project for last hurricane season......June through November......, but luckily there were no hurricanes, so I forgot about it until last week. What's a hurricane project? Here in Florida we are in Hurricane Country, and I like to have a hand project set aside, along with all of the essential emergency supplies and snacks of course, to keep me busy during those long, boring power outages. 

Since the original plan was to have this completed for last Easter......which obviously didn't happen and that's why it got put in the hurricane project pile......I really wanted to make it happen this year. How could a table runner become a UFO, twice?   When I got it out last week, I was happy to see that I had used scraps from the top of the runner for both the backing and the binding so I had managed to use as much of those beautiful Easter fabrics as possible.

 After I finished up the binding today, my son and I made a carrot cake and planted some spring flowers. Now I'm off to make the carrot cake frosting and the Hash Brown Casserole that I'll be taking to our friends' home tomorrow for Easter brunch. What special treats does your family enjoy on Easter?  

Have a wonderful Easter Sunday!

A New Bag

Earlier in the week, my friend Mary Pat and I swapped bags.  I gave her the one you saw in this post and she gave me the amazing bag you see in these pictures.  How did she make that cool flower that hides the snap closure for the bag flap? I just love it! 

 Lots of handy pockets to keep up with everything. And these fabrics are from her beautiful Hawaii stash.  I'm so excited that she used some to make the bag for me! Thank you so much Mary Pat! 

After the April Schnibbles Parade, my blog friend Jackie was kind enough to point out this post out to me.  I was so flattered and surprised to find my Bibelot quilt on the blog of Moda Lissa!!  Wow!  What a week!  If you go over and check it out, be sure to look at the post about quilting tools below the Schnibbles picture.  Definitely worth reading! 

Well, as I write this my iron is heating up and getting ready for me to work on yet another bag!  LeAnn sent me a fun swap package yesterday and I'm going to spend the afternoon working on the bag I'm making for her.  I hope you have a chance to fit some sewing into your day too!