Couldn't resist

I had to take another picture of the stapelia--found out what it was by doing a search of succulent blossoms--with the petals fully opened.  The flower is lasting, and it looks like it's sort of copying the design on our antique cook stove.

After three days of clouds, snow, sleet, and just generally gray weather, the sun came out.  Hallelujah!  I much prefer my snow accompanied with sunshine.  The heat stove ran almost non-stop without our solar gain!

Sophie has inspired me to pick up and work on the tea towel challenge I started long after the challenge was over last time.  A friend found this quirky, old, Japanese tea towel, and then gifted it to me.  It reminds me of Dr. Seuss characters...maybe someone had a few too many.  I started it and then abandoned it after deciding it needed hand stitching in the tea towel panel.  (It always seems like a good idea, except for the actual doing of it.  I never hand quilt enough to get any better at it!)

 Maybe recuperating after my knee will be a good time to develop some hand quilting skills.  Remains to be seen!



 

Wow!!

My little blossom was open this morning!  What a beautiful flower, and not at all what I expected, but seemed so right.  I hope it lasts a long while.  It's taken a long time to mature.

 

Pat came for sew day and finished the first of three baby quilts that are due.  This one is for a baby boy, and she needs to make two girl quilts yet.

  

Our go to standard, the BQ3 pattern.  I put this one together quickly on Sunday.

Got all three quilted and bound and tomorrow we're off to Albuquerque to deliver quilts to Dr. Kaufman, and my pre-op appointments.  There is weather moving in, and I hope it's not an issue tomorrow for our trip.

Procrastinating

Well, not really procrastinating so much as doing things I've put off for a while.  I needed to tend to plants, and this morning was it.

This year, I've kind of let the geranium go, leaving all the spent flowers on it.  It's so colorful, and maybe leaving the spent flowers there has made it blossom more?  I don't know.  

I've been watching this little flower--at least I think it's a flower--develop very slowly on this succulent that my friend Rosie gave me.  It started out as the tiniest little green bud, which at first I wondered if it was just new growth.  I keep checking on it, excited for what lies inside it's magical star shaped blossom.

I better clean up my messes...Pat is coming over for sew day, and I need to finish those two quilts to deliver on Friday.

A few more

I got a couple more quilts finished.  Thanks to Judy (in Ohio) from the About.com forum.  She sent blocks from a failed project that turned into a quick "kitty" quilt.  The backing features lots of kitties on cushions.

 She also sent two of these panels, which whipped up quickly--loading them both on one backing.  I used this easy I Spy 123 pantograph. 

I also finished Jackie's king size black and white quilt.  No picture of it here since I want it to be a surprise.  Lindsay decided she wanted a "Christmas" quilt and so I'm trying to put together something before my other total knee on December 5th.  I always claim I work best under pressure. 

 

But of course I procrastinated starting the Christmas quilt by putting together a couple more quilts for Dr. Kaufman.  One was just an easy Harry Potter panel to which I added borders.  The other a BQ3 with some Paddington Bear fabric I came across when trying to find something for Pat to make baby quilts.  

I'm making it to fit the backing which I thought was perfect!  I also want to finish our advent calendar, which will be nice to have since the kids will all be here for Christmas.  Better get offline and get busy!