thistles

flowers 
or
 weeds?!?

Melissa loves thistles...

she's even been known to walk across Snarf's busy parking lot to take pictures of them

like my dad used to say
 pretty is as pretty does 
and she wouldn't think they're so pretty if she was the one trying to curb their enthusiasm in the garden...

don't tell her - and i will deny it if you do - but i think they are pretty, too

till one of them pokes me...

anywho...

when i was trying to find just the right linen tea towel 

for her calendar quilt 

i stumbled across a thistle tea towel 
and ordered it, just in case the really right towel didn't come along...

the really right towel did come along, so i put the thistles away...

still...
 she had to wait a year longer than her brothers and sister for her finished quilt 
and i felt a little guilty...
 so i planned to make another quilt for her, with the thistles...

but after five quilts
 i was so over linen tea towels 
and i dillydallied...

i've been saving scraps of purples and greens for the past three years...

i bought a paper-pieced thistle pattern about the same time that i found the paper-pieced rose pattern...

two years ago i bought 5 yards of a creamy batik for background fabric 
cuz paper-piecing always takes five times more fabric than i think i'm gonna need...

and saved all that Stuff in a box labelled 

come hither, heather

yeah, i have a name for it
 and all the Stuff that i need to make it
so no more excuses, right?!?

the towel is trimmed and bordered...

who knew there are so many different types of thistles?!?

the pattern is enlarged and tested...

had to do something about those top corners

and the bits and pieces are coming together...

scrappy leaves and scrappy blossoms - not my usual thing

but i'm sure i can come up with reasons to dillydally if i try hard enough...

Do not blame the thistle 

that you see no beauty.

Jonathan Lockwood Huie

leftovers

growl ... growl ... growl

somethings are better after they've had a chance to mellow...

the bear was a pattern test (which was a good thing - there was a little mistake that i wouldn't have found till it was too late) for the Spirit Guides tree skirt... 

the flying geese, pinwheels and backing were from the Quilt With No Name...

 even the pillow stuffed inside was leftover from when i THOUGHT i wanted a king-sized pillow on my bed...

Leftovers make you feel good twice.

First, when you put it away, you feel thrifty and intelligent: "I'm saving food!"

Then a month later when blue hair is growing out of the ham, and you throw it away, you feel really intelligent, "I'm saving my life!"

George Carlin

cinnamon sinner

 Melissa made her World Famous Puffin Muffins for me for Mothers Day...

sooooo goooood!!!

she said this was the only batch she was gonna make till next year 

and that i didn't have to share if i didn't want to...

sigh...

guilt set in after i ate the first row

so...

this is me, sharing!!!

bwah ha ha ha ha!!!

i love you to the moon and back again times infinity,

but i'm not sharing those muffins.

dianne

mild mannered

somewhere out there

the phases of the moon tree skirt for the space tree is done...
and not according to the Original Plan... 
it WAS gonna be a square 
and i wasn't gonna name it...

 but it kept whispering to me that it wanted to be round 
and that it wanted a Real Name...

and (thanks to Jennifer and Molly) i decided to listen to what it was telling me...

instead of being square, it is now circular 
and instead of no name at all, it is now called 

Somewhere Out There...

somewhere out there

the quilting by Liz Bowman is Death Stars 

and they are awesome...

that's no moon ... it's a space station

it's gonna look waaay cool under the space tree...

we are stardust

we are golden

we are billion year old carbon

and we've got to get ourselves

 back to the garden

Joni Mitchell