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Retro applique and embroidered dish towels

At quilt bee this week, Cherie showed some dish towels that she "saved" from her mother-in-law's estate (no one else in the family wanted them).  These were too cool not to share with you. I had never seen these designs before in antique shops or elsewhere; I wonder if they weren't as common as the all-embroidered dish towels.

Don't these look straight out of the 50's and 60's? Doing housework in heels is a myth, or at least my mom and relatives did not fit this image!

I neglected to take a photo of the back, but all of these were very neatly hand appliquéd with teeny, tiny stitches.

Aren't these great colors and designs? Has anyone seen these before?

Yellow & Grey baby quilt delivered

Here it is! Colors a bit washed out with the overhead lights at work.

Well, baby Rosa decided to arrive nearly a month early, even before the planned work shower and potluck.  Fortunately we had a zippy quilter (thanks, Margo) and a zippy binder (thanks, Nancy) so we could have our special quilt ready for the cutie pie.

Here's the back, with colors a little closer to real. Mom liked the colors and said it would go with the baby room. Success!

My rock garden is shaping up. I had a treat a couple of days ago while hand watering this garden. A male ruby-throated hummingbird started sipping from the above columbine, and I tried to stay still and watch. Then Mr. Hummer came over to me to inspect my dripping sprayer. What fun!

Old Quilt Top, Funny Stuff

This is a  new "old" quilt top I just purchased from Ann Hermes, set 3 blocks by 7 blocks. The fabrics are estimated to be from the late 1800's.  Each block was hand-stitched, but the blocks were sewn together by machine.  The quilter, either the block maker or the one who sewed it together, apparently did not know the definition of "square" (as in, each side should be equal). Pretty wonky.

Here's a close-up of some of the fabrics used.

This is what gave me a giggle. I thought this grey fabric was all one piece, but look again. Someone sewed nine pieces together to get this piece. Isn't this a riot? You're telling me that the stitcher ran out of colorful fabric scraps and said, "oh well, I'll just stitch these greys back together". I think I would have been tempted to cut up a shirt just to get some contrast!

And Mr. Grosbeak has been visiting regularly since last week. Isn't he a cutie?

Yellow and Gray baby quilt top done

Rosie gives a final CAT scan before I sewed the blocks together.

Finished top with some sunshine effects. It's always a challenge to get group blocks to fit together nicely. I gave myself some wiggle room by cutting the squares and strips for everyone, and making the strips slightly wider than needed so the blocks could be trimmed to the same size.

Here's the back (with more sunshine effects).

And in keeping with the yellow theme, here are my lovely Trout lilies. These are freebies that showed up in my yard one year, (they love the cedar chips) and they keep coming back every spring. They are only around for a couple of weeks, then they go underground until next year. I just love 'em.

A few more spring flowers

Well, my birthday kalanchoe blooms in any season inside the house in a sunny window, but I love the deep pink color.

Finally, it's warm enough and sunny enough for my daffodils to pop open. They've been in bud for about three weeks now, but it was too darned cold.

This is a "volunteer" from my neighbor's yard, and a from a quick Google search I learned this blue flower is from a bulb, and is called "Glory of the Snow" (Chinonodoxa fobesii).

Spring finally sprung

Sorry, no quilting for the past couple of weeks, due to the top priority of getting the taxes done and e-filed prior to the April 15th deadline.  Lots of shredding and filing done, so my paperwork should be organized for at least a week. Or two.

The proof that spring has sprung, despite measurable snow last Sunday: Crocuses popping up everywhere.

The hen and chicks are waking up in the rock garden.

The Lenten roses are about a month late (probably because of snow cover), but they are blooming in the cold.  The flowers always hang down, with the faces looking at the ground.

The plant catalog shows the flowers like this (aren't they pretty?), but you hardly ever see them this way unless you pick them up and take a peek at their faces.