My needle moved back and forth through the fabric a few days ago as I watched this quilt come to life beneath my fingers while the rain beat against the windows in my sewing room. The rain this spring has kept me inside day after cloudy day which has been beneficial to my quilting projects but has been a huge hindrance to getting outside to work in my yard. There is still more mulch to be put down and flowerpots sit empty around the yard, and still it rains. This spring we were unable to take our usual trip down south in April and I found myself yearning for the colors and scents of the southern spring gardens.
I thought of the clear mountain streams in the Smoky Mountains and imagined that DH and I were once again standing on the rocks mid stream, listening to the river gurgle and splash past our feet. I wanted to look up into the canopy of trees and know that I was just a little speck in their greatness.
Last spring we spent a week in Key West and I fell in love with the exotic flowers, the beautiful twisted trees and the lovely beaches. As I threaded another needle I again felt the tropical sun warming my shoulders as we walked toward the Hemingway house.
Beginning to feel a little sorry for myself, I could easily imagine walking down the sweltering sweets of Charleston, SC taking pictures of gardens and homes along the way, each one more lavish than the one before. I breathed deeply and remembered the scent of confederate jasmine that climbed on trellis and fencepost. I heard bicycle bells ring as tourists wove their rented bikes past us along the sidewalk. And then I realized it was quiet outside. The rain had stopped and there was before me through the window, not a magazine worthy Charleston garden, but my own little garden.
My climbing roses are starting to bloom.
The hostas are thriving in spite of a hard and impossibly long winter.
And when I came home from work tonight these roses in the front yard greeted me.
My garden might not be the exotic, brightly colored gardens of Key West, or a planned and perfect Charleston landscape. There is definitely nothing majestic about it like the rivers and trees of the Smokies, but it is mine and when I am gone I will have left something of myself here, as well as this quilt that lays on my lap. And I realize how truly blessed that I am.
I remember when my great grandmother handed me a box from the Younkers Department Store in town. I was about 15 years old. I looked inside the box at the small scraps of fabric and started to hand it back. She just smiled and said "Keep it. Some day you'll make a quilt." She was right. About ten years later I started on my first quilt and have not stopped. In the passing years I did use those scraps in a wall hanging. Now I get to teach my 12 year old granddaughter Shannon and she is more than happy to learn. This is a Dresden Plate block that she is making for her teacher. This is learning the piecing and applique process on this block. She is just doing one block and going to make it to sit under a plant that she will also give her. Shannon hasn't decided if she likes my theory that the finger underneath the fabric is the "pricking finger."
With all this spring rain the creek behind our house has risen way out of it's banks. Usually it's a couple feet across and about two feet deep but it's turned into a mini river at the moment.
Since the weather outside hasn't been good enough to work in the yard or sit on the deck I've been hard at work hand quilting my latest quilt done in batiks. It should be done in a few weeks. The rain has made a good excuse to just stay seated, with needle and thread and stitch.
This photo was taken before the outside borders were on and it was basted. I hope all of you have a great day and get to work on whatever you enjoy!
Hello there! I have been going to start a blog for several years and something always gets in the way so here goes......I struggled with which quilt to post for my first ever post to my new blog and chose this one. The color here isn't real great. This quilt is actually wine colored and cream. The pattern is Robbing Peter to Pay Paul. I hand pieced this queen quilt at least 25 years ago and it sat in a box and on a shelf patiently waiting to be quilted while I worked on other projects over the years. Finally it's time came to be fitted into the frame that my mom had loaned to me. This is the second quilt I've quilted on this frame but really prefer to use a big hoop, so now it's back out of the frame and being quilted with a hoop. Except it's on hold again for a few weeks while I quilt a smaller quilt for my son in law. When that one is done sometime next month I'll go back to this one. This is the year when this quilt finds itself on a bed!
