First Day of Spring

March 20th was my father's birthday and so it is a bittersweet day for me as it is also the first day of Spring.

 Today started out raining and now the skies have turned a lovely colour of blue and the flowers are showing off their colours.  The rhododendrons always flower early here on the quay.

 I'm not sure what this flowering bush is called but the blossoms are very fragrant.

 The crocuses have been in bloom for quite some time and now the second wave are blooming.

 Ah  Spring, don't you love it?

National Quilting Day

Thursday morning my friend Rita and I decided to go across the border and do some shopping.  One of our first stops for the day was at Tangled Threads in Lynden Washington .

 I believe this building used to be a school and they have redesigned it into a quilt shop just beautifully.  As you can see it had been raining earlier, and the skies were grey but everything was to change once we crossed the threshold of this shop.  I love the sentiment over the front window.

 This front area of the shop is just alive with bright colours and inspiration.  As you can see for a Thursday morning the shop already had some shoppers.  I love that pink and yellow quilt on the wall.

 Here is a closer picture, they call it their 5 yard quilt.  The gal that made the top was there and shared that it only took her four hours to make it and she ended up with two pieces left over of about a quarter yard each!  I may have to go back and get the pattern.  They had kit bundles made up and you could mix and match your fabrics to make the quilt your own.

 This is their batik room, hm.. that small quilt in the corner looks interesting.

 They curved all the straight edges of the churn dash block and gave the quilt a 3-D illusion.

Another room of some fun fabric, dots and stripes galore but hey what is tucked up into the corner of that shelf?

Oh my gosh a PINK Kenmore, is it not just too cute!                                                                              

 Also in this room was a love Sphinx Singer in great condition.

 Coming out of the dots and stripe room is a Christmas corner, love the red lights along the ceiling.

Just down the hall is the Wicked Stitch of the West, Shirley was on the phone talking with a customer but she let me take some pictures of her collection.  She is a long arm quilter with a great sense of humour.  I may have to make a trip down and have her do a quilt or two for me.

 A Jim Shore weather vane witch.

 We also dropped into the Antique and Craft sale at the fairgrounds where I was fortunate to get a lovely collection of friendship signature blocks.  I have to take some pictures and will post them at a later date.  Back home to check out the Spring blossoms.

 Wait a minute, a budding Rhododendron?

Here is a full bloom blossom...but it is early March not May!

Another favourite wintering bloom of mine, I'm not sure what it's proper name is but it has a lovely scent.                                                                                                                                                        

Now off to do some quilting, enjoy your day.

Mary Lou Weidman Cow Parade and a hoochy tree swap!

Mary Lou Weidman along with Mel McFarlane co-authored a book called Out of the Box with easy blocks.  One of the blocks is a cow quilt.  There is currently a Cow Parade at Back Porch Fabrics in Monterey, California.  The purple quilt was made by Rebecka Schaffer and she called it "She Eats The Meadow Flowers."                                                                                                                       

 Mel was kind enough to send me some pictures taken at the shop.  Mary Lou Weidman in standing in front of Connie Donaldson's quilt "Frosty AMOOsement."  Above is Joanne Corte's "MOOey Fiesta."  To the right is Patricia S. Woods' "Dia de los MOOertros."

 Here is a different view of the gallery.  I've visited this shop before and always admire the displays they put on.  On the left wall is Mollly Evangelisti's "Boo MOO,"  Peggy Baldwin-Clayton's "And The Cow Says BOO."  On the centre wall is "ChoCOWlate" again by Patricia S. Woods, Rebecka's quilt and below it is "Miss MOO La La at the MOOlin Rouge" by Sandy Fisher.  On the far right is my quilt "The Cow Jumped over the MOOn."

 This my quilt, I wish I had put some buttons on before and after the words....

Mary Lou has a yahoo on line swap group and these were the flying geese trees I sent off for the exchange.  The rules were soft turquoise for background along with polka dots for the geese and stripes for the tree trunks.  I used three different fabrics for my backgrounds and am pleased with the results. 

 Here is a close up of half the trees.

Here is the other half.

 Here are some of the ones I received back.

 Here is the rest of the orange ones on the left.

 Plus three of mine back, we had one person drop out and one person was counted twice so we got an extra one back.  Are these not all wonderful!

Many thanks to all the ladies who participated and especially Mary Lou for her wonderful sense of colour and design in inspiring us to work outside the box.