Three Months Down

March brought rain and daffodils…

and several days in the studio. The first part of the month was spent working on the pet portrait (Fresita) I wrote about earlier in March. Then there was our fabulous weekend in So Cal celebrating my birthday with Jana and making bagels with Sally. We left Santa Barbara with another quilt to add to the queue…this one went to the front of the line as it’s a graduation gift for Sally’s grandson. Sandy was planning a trip to Amador County the following week, so I wasted no time and quilted it within a few days of returning home from our trip. It’s a cute pattern that we’ll all want to make. Imagine Snappy Square on the diagonal with a border of 9-patches.

I know I’ve said it before, but every month end I’m reminded of the importance of this blog…my on-line journal. As the end of each month approaches my priorities change and I spend more time in the studio. Why? So I’ll have more to report. March was no different than previous months and I spent the last two days of the month from early in the morning until late afternoon working hard to complete a second quilt for the month. I promised Lauren at the beginning of this year (and the beginning of 2013 and previous years!) that I would make her a priority and quilt her tops that have been hanging around since she graduated from Berkeley. I really try to keep the queue first-in, first-out, but that rarely happens. Her beautifully pieced tops keep getting pushed to the rear of the line and all but forgotten. I am determined to make good on the promise I made to my sweet (but tart) daughter...to complete all of her quilts in 2014. I'd best qualify that...all of her quilt tops received prior to December 31, 2013 (she just finished four new quilts this past quarter).

Again, as I’ve said before, one of the greatest challenges in quilting is determining the appropriate design and thread color. Well, this one couldn’t have been easier. The quilt top I chose was comprised of large blocks made from yellow, orange, pink batik strata with a border of strata. It took only minutes and I had my inspiration. I quilted one of three variations of large sunflowers (mimicking a print in one of the fabrics) in each block and half sunflowers around the border using a variegated thread. It was one of my easiest quilting jobs and possibly my best. I finished it in two days…just in time to take with us to Portland and deliver it to Lauren!