Here I am with another finished quilt top. This one went together very easily after the details were sorted out. Spring Flowers I don't have a lot of time for writing this post, so will try to be brief. Looking across... Part of me is unhappy with the harshness of the finished look, but the other part of me is pleased to see something semi-coherent looking. You know how it is when the original idea drifts away on moonbeams. Finished is better than perfect! Lots of energy in that border... The bright, chrome yellow inner border is really interesting resting against the zingy brown and cream striped fabric. So much energy going on that it almost makes me cross my eyes. I'll almost definitely be giving this one away some day in the future as it just doesn't feel quite 'me'. So hard to get a good picture of this one So happy to see the flowers doing well in a quilt of their own though. Each quilt project seems to want to teach me something. Am I listening and learning? T-blocks Another oddball project going on in the quilt room is these new little T-blocks. The block itself has been on my bucket list for years and years and these colors were inspired by a fave shirt that my dad wears fairly often. As I have played around with adding in additional colors and attempting a potential layout, the temptation is pretty strong to toss them and give up. Sometimes the summer brings some very, very strange color palettes into being around here. The plan was for a nostalgic, retro vibe to hopefully meld with a soft, mellow tone and look. Love Apples for the win Yep. It ain't happening. Too much crazy stuff going on around here of late, my brain totally feels like mush. The only thing that feels good to work on is these Love Apple blocks. Other projects were probably more in the 'priority' stack, but who cares about that? The dreaded paper work is finished up through what I consider to be phase 2, which is amazing. So many hours to get there. After a long Labor Day weekend, I hope to get started on the third phase and then we're off on a week long work-week away from home {for the husband}. There will be visiting with family during that time so that's a bonus, but as soon as we get back then I hope to dive right into phase 4 and then that will be the sum total. My goal is to be completely through it all by the end of September. If I don't lose my mind and all my marbles in pursuit of reaching that specific goal. An interesting thing happened this week when we had unexpected guests. Just a short visit, but it quickly became apparent to me that the woman friend was in desperate need of a hand work sort of hobby. For her mental health and well being? I let her lead the way in indicating interest, but before she left, I had given her a crash course in needleturn applique, scribbled notes in a quilt book and tried to hit the high notes on how to acquire a bit of fabric. Yep. Crazy, crazy days. I sent her on her way with one of my quilts, a little bag of fabric scraps plus all the encouragement I could muster! Have you ever met someone who was bursting at the seams to use their mind, heart and hands to create? Believe it or not, I was trying very hard not to push anything on her. I think it was as good for me as hopefully it was for her. Cannot wait to see where her creative journey takes her in the next year or two! This year is definitely taking a toll on me as it no doubt is for many of you. Sometimes I walk into the quilt room and just blindly reach for something to chain piece. Other nights I sit down to hand quilt and find myself fiddling away on my phone for way too long. Just have to hit reset and dive into the things that pique our interests, whether the current projects move forward or not. At times like these, I feel very relieved to have stacks of fabric marinating on the counters and hand work all prepped and ready to go....