Zipadeedoodah, Zipadeeday.......................my, oh my.........

It is an absolutely glorious, cool, sunny morning here in East Texas. The birds are chirping, the dogs are frisky, and I feel pretty darn frisky myself!

Here is block # 6 from the Les Fleurs des Jardine quilt. I have recently become possessed by this particular quilt. This happens sometimes after I've got a few blocks made, and ideas for diverging from the original design begin to take over. I wake up in the night thinking about what I want to do differently, and what the same. I speculate about color choices, and what will be "too much", and what will be "too little". It's better than counting sheep! Sometimes, though, it can make it awfully hard to get back to sleep.

The original Fleurs is not a large quilt. I like larger quilts, and I prefer square quilts to rectangular. Who knows why? Friend Gina speculates it's because of King size beds, but this quilt won't be that large...........I did that size once, thank you very much (114" x 121"), hand quilted it (my first hand quilted quilt), and I'll just say "No" to another. But at any rate this leaves me design choices out the wazoo (a technical term) for additions I can make. So here is the first addition. This will be the top panel above all the flowers etc.:

 

Colorful, no? I had more fun yesterday, auditioning all the fabrics for the feathers. I can't tell you. I was like a child with a brand new box of Crayolas..........the biggest selection they make. It was a party in the sewing room. No doubt it will be too bright for some, but I like to venture back and forth from the vintage/antique/repro look to something a lot wilder in palette. This brings out my inner child in a big way. Having just celebrated another birthday, that inner child doesn't show up as often as I might like, so I welcome her with open arms when she does. For my birthday, I received new bookcases from Ikea. My quilting books had overrun the old, rickety shelving, and books were everywhere. I feel like the new cases make it look like I don't have very many............but having moved them out, dusted them, and placed them all back in the new shelving, I'm here to tell you that I have PLENTY of books! Books are heavy, folks, if you didn't know.

There's even room left for some other books, which will be nice, because we have a ton of them out in the book shed. It's not a very good place to store them, but it's either that or live like those hoarders you see on TV shows. You know the ones with newspapers stacked to the ceiling, and they have to walk a narrow path from one end of the house to the other.   I'll close with a last picture of Phebe. You'll see no more of her until she is quilted, not on this blog anyway. There are lots of people starting Phebe, though, and I look forward to seeing their versions.

I receive so much pleasure from seeing what all of you are creating. Every day is an inspiration. Blogging has become a very important part of my routine, and I thank all of you talented ladies for sharing your work, pets, joys, and even sorrows. Be well, and have a lovely quilting day.  Michele