Decision Time

I have most of the pieced border together, and am trying to decide whether to float it thus:

or insert it right next to the quilt top and make the outside border plain blue:

I think I like it best this second way. I decided against the soft orange 1/4 inch inner border as it makes the quilt too busy. I make enough loud quilts; I want this one to whisper.

Meanwhile the kitchen rug is growing. It take much longer to get around it once, but each round adds about 1 1/2 inches total width. Still, I'm only about half-way there.

Lots of friends have been saving selvages for me; I've even received some in the mail! There will be some fun new colors coming up, as I was given a big bag full last Wednesday when my friend Diane came over from Lake Mills and we made scented soap. She had collected selvages from everyone at her last retreat.

We've had a beautiful weekend so far, not too warm, nice and sunny. I can hear a scarlet tanager in the tree tops. We don't often see them, as they stay up high, but they have a lovely song. Tomorrow I will assist (probably cutting up oranges) to provide refreshments for the 5K Power Walk for Parkinsons' my friend Mary and her son Peter are holding for the second year.

Gratitudes:

Great talk with grandson Noah this morning

birdsong

woods lush with ferns and cranesbill

Wildflowers and Birds

The woods are a riot of wildflowers, and we have had quite a wildlife show this past two days. Here are the wild geraniums, also known as cranesbill. All twelve acres are carpeted with them:

The lilies of the valley are just opening:

Last night a doe and two newborn fawns crossed the driveway into the woods. They were so spindly, they can't be more than a day old. I couldn't get a photo, alas. But we also had technicolor at the bird feeders. Here's the female oriole eating an orange.

See the indigo bunting on the ground under the feeder pole?
We also had hummingbirds, cardinals and purple finches, rose-breasted grosbeaks, goldfinches, downy and red-bellied woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees -- it was busy out there!

And here are the bluebells in my friend Fran's woods (hers are later than mine).
It has been a glorious spring. Today summer has arrived with all its heat and stickiness. Yuck.

Gratitudes:

wildflowers and wildlife

time to enjoy them

dinner tonight with old friends

Woods Full of Wildflowers

The wildflowers in our woods are grateful for this long, cool spring. We have never had so many trillium:

I realized recently that I never posted a photo of The Quilt That Won't Show Cat Hair (formerly known as The Quilt From Hell). Here it is in use now:

Happy Spring!

Gratitudes:

+ MRI results now known and surgery scheduled -

+ SO there's light at the end of the tunnel

+ going to see Word With a Bird at Audubon with Olivia June 7

Simple Gifts

It was a simple gift to be able to work on this after the detailed little Pieces of Times blocks:

It's funny -- for years I didn't like blue and now I just love it. Not all shades, but this one, for sure. I'm pondering the border treatment. I want to keep the quilt calm (and get it done!), so this is one possibility:

But I have a lot of the sashing pieces which were cut (ahem) a bit short

and which I could turn into a pieced border:

Then the questions are: narrow coral stripe with the pieced border? Dark blue outside this border? Inner border? Of what?

Any suggestions?

Gratitudes:

sunny and cool

wildflowers are gorgeous in the woods

A host of golden daffodils

I've been on the run since getting home late Saturday, so this is just a taste -- I'll fill in more later.

Here are a few of the quilters at The Clearing last week; we had stopped at The Red Cup coffee house on Washington Island before visiting Sievers School of Fiber Arts which was having an open house. At the far right is Judy Hasheider, who teaches at Sievers and also at The Clearing.

One of the many treats of the week was the flowers, mostly wildflowers at The Clearing, but also all the naturalized daffodils around North Door, as the northern part of Door County is called.

We took several field trips to visit these -- just spectacular!

I finished all but two of the picky little sampler blocks I had hoped to do (could have done all but didn't have the fabric with me), and after making one or two of those stinkers, I let myself do a simple quilt top -- which I just love! Photos to come.

Thanksgivings:

a wonderful retreat

sublime surroundings

safe trip home