Sunflowers and Spiderwebs

I do love Sunflowers- to me, they are such happy flowers. They raise their faces to the sun and seem to smile at the world.

My blog friend Pam sent me a surprise last week in the mail. She sent me two beautiful pieces of Sunflower fabric from her collection and a package of Sunflower seeds to grow in my garden. Thank you Pam, for your very thoughtful package.It made my day.

The quilted Sunflower Wallhanging (our son is holding it up in the photo) was made for my sister in law C., and brother in Law E., in Newfoundland. They are big fans of Van Gogh and this was my Ode to Vincent. I posted it previously, but can you ever have too many sunflowers? The technique is called Snippets. Cindy Walters has written a few books about this technique. It is great for landscapes and still life pictures. You use a material called Steam a Seam II for fusing all the little snippets to a background. I enjoyed playing with my fabric bits- perhaps you will too.

I have collected sunflower fabrics for sometime now. Like I said, they make me feel happy I used some of my sunflower fabrics to make a Disappearing Nine Patch quilt- It is indeed a sea of sunflowers. I will try and post a photo of it soon too.

As for Pam's seeds, I will have to dig a row to plant them so I best get it done tomorrow or it may be too late. We have had a very cool spring this year. However this weekend is a hot one with temperatures that are in the high twenties Celsius. Bruce has brought up a floor fan to cool off our living space. It sure does help.

Spider Web Quilts make such interesting secondary designs- This queen sized scrap quilt is bold and full of lots of vivid colors. I found it tricky to find the right sashing. It is quite a bold yellow with purple throughout. The background is purple and was a challenge to find some sashing to go with it.
Do you ever get the blocks together and then try and figure out how you are going to sash it? Or rethink whether putting sashing in between the blocks is going to add to the quilt? Sometimes you need to add sashing to make the quilt bigger. I tend to create as I go- I am not good at pre planning all the parts of my quilts. I have been known to change parts of the quilt a few times over until I am satisfied that the fabrics work together. Usually, I just audition with the yardage and let the quilt speak to me. This is not always my process but is my most common practise. Do you let your quilt speak to you ?
Or do you have all the parts chosen first?

The spiderweb quilt also belongs to E. and C. I am truly lucky because I have terrific siblings and siblings in law.Unfortunately, We do not see each other often as Newfoundland is over 4000 miles from where I call home, but E and C.are a great couple. When we do get together, a good time is had by all.
While I was reading some blogs, I discovered this lovely blog written by Tonya.
Tonya is having a giveaway on her blog. It is a lovely giveaway - you may want to check it out. She is celebrating her 100th post.

Tomorrow Bruce and I are off to see the Local guild's quilt show. We may even go for Brunch too. It is my reward for today's work- I have spent the day finishing up some paper work for school. I woke up early and I worked the day away but tomorrow there will be time to play.

It is quite fun to get the snail mail these days. My friend, Loulee, sent me a lovely piece of pansy fabric(she had some stabilizer she was giving away to whoever was interested). I said yes and another lady said yes so she sent something to both us. Loulee sent me a bright multi colored pansy fabric and a wonderful tea towel from her home - The Isle of Mann. I told her that I loved so many colors so she found the perfect piece of fabric for me. It was such a kind thing to do, Loulee- Thank you so much..

Perhaps I will write again this weekend if I manage to take some photos at the Guild show. I am not sure if they will let us or not. For now, I am feeling serious eye fatigue - the pillow is beckoning again.
Happy quilting,
Warmest Regards,
Anna