Streak of Lightning Chartreuse

This is the biggest quilt I have completed. It's a full or double size measuring 90 x 75 inches.  I used a mix of new to old fabrics and tried to stay in the yellow green end of the spectrum. One of my limitations is a small apartment with a lot of furniture and stuff on the floors which makes spreading out a real challenge but I managed to get the living room floor clear enough to baste the layers together. The design is like my last quilt, a traditional block design with three bars alternating vertical to horizontal. Using chartreuse green solid with other green patterns on the top was fun and then for an added splash of excitement the reverse side is tangerine with scraps of green & white patchwork. My label is hand embroidered and I am finally getting better at controlling the size of my text embroidery. What is a challenge is to get a big quilt photographed in a small cluttered apartment so please pardon the clutter in my photos.

quilt layers spread out on the living room floor for basting 

completed top hangs on my design felt 

back of the quilt with label 

showing binding in a pastel green calico, label front and back all in one view

close up of the label embroidery

Streak-o-Lightning quilt revealed

 Last evening March 18th the day after Irish St. Patrick's day I completed a throw quilt in four fabrics from Joann's Fabric store. I sewed the last binding and my embroidered label on so now it is ready to wash and dry. Soon it will be used to keep off the spring chills that have been in the air this month.

Streak-o-lightning throw 41x 64 inches

hand quilted with two colors of pearl threads: dark green and pale blue/green

quilt on my design wall

fuzzy photo of quilting and label 

a long strip of the three front blocks added in one side of the backing 

did you notice all the orange berries in the calico print?

Streak-o-lightning throw, thrown on my chairs shows front and back and label in one view! 

At our DC Modern Quilt Guild sewing day Sunday there were lots of quilters and lots of beautiful quilts in progress and a few completed to show and tell. I got a few photos (here) and had a very good time visiting and working with the many members as the group grows. It was hosted by a Fraternity House Mother! Lovely Anna blogs at Hoot'n Hollar who got permission to use the house while the boys were on Spring Break for us two days over the St. Patrick's day weekend. Anna's Frat house was a great place to meet and we all enjoyed our day of quilting. I came home with a big hand full of scraps from a couple of quilters who were clearing out their scrap bins. They had some beautiful fabrics I have never see in my fabric store. I took some photos of my mostly masculine scraps laid out when I got home. Looking forward to playing with these and I wanted to say thanks to the people who generously opened up their bins for me to dig through and pick out some cools designs. 

Anna with her big smile at an earlier DC Modern Guild meeting 

scraps bin finds, brought home from DCMQG

Melinda who blogs as the Quirky Granola Girl previewed a really popular quilt Sunday at DC Modern Quilt Guild meeting. I got a couple bad photos of her showing. She blogged about the project recently of houses. It's her own international community, quilted little houses that represent her friends around the world.

Thanks to everyone of the DC Modern Quilt Guild for all your enthusiastic support and making me feel like one of the gang even if I am the only guy quilter in the group I always feel right at home.

Quilt show plus garden

Billed as a show with over 200 quilts on display in the Prince William County Fair grounds buildings. It was again an exciting show but I am sure there are bigger shows which I hope to see later this year. Considering there were only two guilds organizing and running the show it is impressive. This  is inspiring to see so many projects of quilting. I have a big collection of photos I posted on my flickr.com pages in a set called Manassas Quilt Show 2013   .

The warm air is bringing out the flowers of spring. I can't believe it is here, nights are still cold but the flowers must be getting warm as the days have been sunny. 

a few things

double orange tulips Keith brought me this morning opened right away

This week I have been feeling out of sync with the world. Trying to keep getting along with my daily routines to get to the next day waiting to feel excited about something. Next week the annual Manassas Quilt show is coming. I am looking forward to going to see the show with my partner and Mom, this is our 5th year going. To me it is always an inspiration.  In the mean time I have been working on a quilt project in greens and tested a couple blocks. Quilting patterns by hand versus machine quilting in a right angle zig zag design. Below is a peek at the greens... and my hand with thimbles using a green pearl thread to hand quilt the block.

A new pair of rubber finger tipped gloves to make machine quilting easier arrived in the mail. Machingers (see gloves here) is the brand a friend from the DC Modern Quilt Guild showed me at one of the meetings last year. Linda blogs at I Finally Have Time and she does a great variety projects and says she uses them all the time. I tried hers on  so I finally bought my own pair to use when I begin machine quilting a full sized bed quilt in the not too distant future. Thanks again Linda!

Friday to get a chore done transmitting some medical records to my doctor's office I just drove them over in person. Afterwards I stopped into Miss Pixie's second hand shop across the street and found two things I brought home that always lift my spirits a little. Crystals to hang in my east facing windows to fill the room with spectral color early in the day and a little Japanese box to add to my small box collection.

this crystal is about 3 inches long 

Japanese wooden box with enamel painted and wood burnt decorations 

showing the sides that are textured with burnt wood marks.