Spring arrived officially at 0915 this morning!

Yesterday I took this picture thru the window of my lobby, today the day is cold and grey.  Last Monday I was going to do a blog post and my computer decided to do a Window's update.  It would only load to 77% and then stall despite repeated attempts.  So I took it into the same place I did about two years ago and they had a back up so I didn't get it back until late last night.  Then I realized they had my power cord.  Good news, it's all loaded and hooked up again.

Remember the mug rugs I made in February?

I did a test of how I would machine quilt them on a scrap of muslin and batting to check the tension on a machine I've never used.

 I checked the reverse side and everything looked good.

 I also tried a mirror image as I made two with the vase on the left.

 The back also looked alright.  I may just trim and bind these with some fun binding.

 Test driving over, let's get started on the actual pieces.

 Unfortunately I didn't check the backs until I did all four.

 One I could live with and the other three I reverse sewed.

 Lesson learned?  Always check your piece before moving onto the next piece. I've un-stitched them all and will probably do them on my own machine.

 I also went up to my local quilt shop and got some of the new Tula Pink All Stars fabrics, they had sold out of solids and many of the stripes but I found these three to come home with me.

 A friend had picked up some Opal Essence quilt templates designed by Lorena Uriate from Australia while she was here doing two workshops at the beginning of March.  I just need to get the pdf and I'm ready to start another new project. Check out Lorena's website for details and pictures here.

Spring has arrived here on the quay and every day new blooms are popping up.  I believe this is called Scilla'

 Love how it wants to bloom before getting very tall!

 Here is a pink version of the Scilla flowers

 The rhododendron bushes are in full bloom

 Love the colour of the buds.

 The Grape Hyacinths are also starting to bloom, soon there will be thousands of them under the rose bushes.

 They also start blooming as soon as they break thru the ground.

 In the courtyard the Cherry blossoms are about to burst forward.

 Love these ones on the side of the trunk.

 The forsythia is also in bloom.

 These three weeping cherry trees are going to be beautiful in a few days.

 They are a deeper pink.

 Looking forward to their full bloom beauty.

 The view thru the lobby window without the added graphics.

 I got my Simply Moderne quilt magazine from Quiltmania.  So many wonderful choices, hard to pick which one to do first.  Birches?

 Applique?

 Collage?

 Whimsical phones?

 Here's the cover if you want to check it out.

 I also went to the Creative Sewing show last weekend and got some 80 weight Aurifil to try for applique and some 28 weight for quilting.

 Some of Sue Spargo's new Ellana wool thread to try out.

Now to catch up and get back to sewing!

Inspiration to Interpretation to Reality.

When I saw the cover of Quiltmania No. 118 I knew I would have to buy the magazine.  My maternal grandparents were born in Holland and Tulips have always been a favourite flower of mine.  About April 18 I started choosing fabrics for the flowers and then the stems and leaves.  I prepped them making Mylar heat resistant templates for the tulip pattern provided and decided that it needed leaves which I sketched and also made of Mylar templates.

I flipped the templates of both the tulips and leaves so I had reverse images to work with and decided on some blue prints and some black and whites for my backgrounds.

 Last night I finished stitching the last of the leaves and flowers.

 I had fun mixing and matching my stems and leaves.  I cut 5 sizes of tulip tops each in the same fabrics.  I think I made 21 fabric choices in the end for the flowers.  For the leaves I mixed and matched to the stems and didn't cut leaves to match all stems.

 These were hand appliqued, I have the callouses to prove it!

 Late in the game I realized I needed a few more flowers as some had disappeared so I chose two orange prints as I had a heavier pink and purple range.

 This black and white print seemed like they were birds when I first chose it but now realize they are mystery critters.  We had a lot of rain this Spring so the umbrella print seemed appropriate.

 It was fun playing with placements of the flowers, Living on the Quay there are breezes that shape the angle of the the tulips.

 Sometimes I placed similar prints close to each other as we all know not every bulb grows to their true height.

 I love the yellow to orange prints in this picture.

 This mix is one of my favourite flowers and petals.

I took this picture at the end of April.

Then on May 2 I took this one from another angle, remind you of the quilt.  They weren't even in bloom when I had chosen my fabrics!

Now to prepare a backing and get ready to quilt this piece.

Staying Focused on Tulips, Spring on the Quay and Throwback Thursday.

 I've got the first four rows sewn together,,,

 I've also got the last four sewn together.

Here they are laid out to be sewn together as a whole piece.  I'm now working on appliqueing the tulips and a few more leaves and then it will be ready for the next step.

 This is the cover quilt on Quiltmania that I used.  I've changed the size of the block, the width of the stems and designed my own leaf shapes.  I'm also doing template and starch method of applique rather than fusing as the pattern calls.

 This little guy has been visiting me and singing to me almost every day.

 I managed to creep a bit closer the next day to get this photo.

 Here is a short video of the wind storm we had the other day.

Here is another short video of trying to find him in the maple tree as he is singing to me.  When the video is still you can just see his head jerking as he cheeps at the bottom of the tree close to the horizontal branch.

Spotted a heart on this poppy in the centre.

 The heart poppy is the top of the five in this photo.

 Look at all the flowers on the Rosemary plant in Rita's garden.

 Walking down to Rita's there were two seagulls enjoying a respite on the deadhead tree.

 Coming back a crow came to visit with a Cormorant?

 Deciding not to talk to each other.

 Crow gone but Cormorant enjoying flexing his wings.

 The trees are filling out and the rhododendrons are in full bloom.

 Throw back Thursday to 1995 when I was interviewed by the Royal City Record about the mohair Teddy Bears I used to make and teach classes at a local quilt shop.

 I think the photographer must have taken 50 or more photos.  The big bear on my left is almost 2 feet tall and my original design.

What's going on in your neighbourhood?