Spring, and spring cleaning

Three things to be happy about:
(1) dogs with tennis balls
(2) dog-walkers with poop bags at the ready
(3) a vase of fragrant flowers

Spring has sprung!  Just look at my one and only azalea bush!

Just three days before I took this picture I only saw a pink bud here and another one over there.

It looks like two different shades of pink... I used to have two bushes, I think they must have cross-pollinated before the other one died.

I think the spring cleaning bug must have bit me for sure!  Remember the swap blocks I was working on in December 2010 for our April 2011 Scrapbag retreat in Deep Creek?  Directly after the retreat I even started laying out the blocks I received.    Now I want to get these together and out of the way... here's one layout:

I was debating whether to use sashing strips or not... I think I'll go with the sashing, they seem to call for something.  Probably deep blue or gold will do (sorry LizA and Marei, no red this time!!)

More progress on my b&w strip twist, I'm going to like this one A LOT!

These straight strips work nicely as a leader-ender project.  And yes LizA... I plan to put a teeny red border on this one - shhhhh - I was keeping it a secret!  ;o)

And now it's time for breffus - have a great day everyone, sew forth and sew on!

Strip twist

Three things to be happy about:
(1) chicken fingers
(2) graceful handwriting
(3) South Dakota's big sky

Some weeks ago the Today show did a blurb about the "happiest" state, and North Dakota was chosen by whoever chooses these things.   That started me thinking about how many states I've actually visited,  mostly on the East Coast.  With the exception of drive-through or between-planes-at-the-airport states, here's my list:

District of Columbia (of course!); Connecticut; Maryland; Florida; Kentucky; Indiana; South Carolina; North Carolina; Virginia; West Virginia; California; Nevada; Delaware; New York; New Jersey; Georgia; Pennsylvania; Texas; and Alaska - so now you know!  ;o)

I like reading about the workshops Bonnie Hunter teaches on the road!

She did a Strip Twist workshop recently, using 2-1/2" strips of lights and darks.

The quilt looked so pretty and, since I could pull the strips from my pre-cut bin, I went and made one of my own!

After I sewed one set using 18" strips I realized I like using the shorter 9" strips, for more variety.

Each block has 4 sub-units.

The blocks go together so quickly and it's really an easy quilt to make.

I was pleased to use the last bit of a Pilgrim Roy print for that outer border.




After getting the main part of the top together I decided to make one in black and white, with random red strips sewn in.

I actually started sewing those strips together as a leader-ender project while I worked on the 10th anniversary blocks and while sewing on the 

borders for the first quilt!

Strip Twist top done, ready to be quilted!

Sew forth and sew on til later!

Happy Morher's Day

Here's wishing every mom a very wonderful, blessed day!