People have been sending me photos of coltsfoot they’ve come across – it’s really the first native spring flower here in NS. Until today, March 31, I hadn’t seen any myself.
These two flowers were lurking in the wooded patch beside my building. I went looking because that location becomes covered with their happy yellow faces. it’s an interesting plant – the leaves don’t appear until after the flowers have bloomed.
So I guess it’s now officially spring here. Last year I saw coltsfoot on May 1. The earliest I’ve previously seen any was on April 14 in 2017. March 31 (actually my friend Marlene spotted some last week in her son’s back yard) is VERY early.
The question now is how soon will we see Forsythia? In the past the first Forsythia has been close to the first of May. It will certainly be earlier than that this year!
I never thought I’d actually finish this quilt. When I started back on Jan 1 (that’s when I brought out the first set of batik strips and considered using them to make diamonds) I had something completely different in mind. A month later on Feb 3 that first effort died. I didn’t pick up the project again until Mar 11 – it’s taken me three weeks to reimagine, rebuild, and complete this quilt. The photo doesn’t do the fabrics justice – the colours blend and just pop. The graduated border continues the flow nicely as well.
Quilt Top Finished
I used a ton of small scraps from the diamonds to construct a 12″ wide crazy quilt strip on the back which I sashed with the same turquoise I used to frame the diamonds on the front.
Finished Quilt Back
I used a hidden binding on the quilt – I hand stitched it down last night (using a small leather patch to protect the hole in my third finger).
Detail of Border Quilting
In the end I decided to quilt the borders fairly densely. I created a swirl motif which I used on the narrow border; I widened it for the wide border.
I quilted most of the borders using the same dark blue variegated thread I used on the back of the quilt. However, when I reached the lighter colours, I switched to another which had pale blue values. You can’t really see where I made the transition – I was lucky that I could blend the lightest colour of the dark thread with the darkest colour of the light thread.
Detail of Narrow Border Quilting
Now, if you can believe it – I’m about to tackle another diamonds quilt – this time using my Kaffe Fassett fabric collection. Wild large prints in way-out colours. The diamonds will be larger and there will be fewer of them. What I’m planning at the moment would need 111 diamonds with bordering half elements. I don’t have 111 fabrics but I bet I have between 50 and 60. So the first thing I need to do is count the fabrics and begin planning from there.
Why diamonds, again? Well, I’m reasonably technically proficient with squares, rectangles,, flying geese, drunkards path blocks, etc. I figure I should also be good at diamonds – the only way to get there is to keep working at it.
jmn 