California and Sunflowers

Sunflower

The binding is finished!

Binding Sunflower

Imagine that! Binder clips are helpful when I hand stitch my binding.

It took about 5 hours to whip the binding down. I don’t know why I ever do it by machine. I’d like to think it’s a quality thing - saving the hand stitching for the important quilts - but it’s more like sometimes I just don’t feel like hand stitching…

Sunflower now needs a sleeve and a label - then it’s ready for Tucson’s annual quilt show this month.

More about creating Sunflower can be seen here.

Both of our cats, Peaches & Cream and Windex, they thought they were so helpful during the binding.

Visiting Mom in California

Whirlwind trip: one day driving; one day visiting; and after a quick morning visit, one day driving home. It was wonderful seeing Mom again - it had been two years since we’d last visited in-person. She’s doing well and it’s very comforting to see her so happy in her community.

We stayed with my sister Terri in the house I grew up in - so many fond memories.

Terri, Eddie, Keith, and my mother Darlene - Keith is the one with the dirty shoes… =(

Inspiration

Quilt inspiration comes at me from many places. See Toronto Architecture and Graphic Flower here. This time I saw interesting upholstery fabric on a chair at a California bank. Maybe, someday, I want to applique something like this. I’ve added it to my ‘applique ideas’ file that I review every time I want to start a new project.

Bowling

Nothing going on here - I took two weeks off for the holidays. Several in-town tournaments coming up in January and then two PBA events in Las Vegas at the beginning of February.

Next Time

In addition to Sunflower, Scrappy Scallops also needs a sleeve and a label for the Tucson show this month.

This week I’ll be prepping for for my Color class - my favorite class to teach!

At the end of the month I’m teaching a brand new Mandala class for the first time. I’ll be getting the handouts ready and making some ‘how-to’ videos. You’ll be able to see some of that process in the next couple of blog posts.

Quilt your way!