Lucky Days

We had a little excitement around her for Friday the 13th. My daughter Allie was in a car accident with two of her friends. No one was seriously injured: the three girls got whiplash but otherwise are fine. Allie's friend Maggie was driving, and her car was rear-ended while she was waiting to make a left-hand turn. A teenage boy driving a large truck didn't stop in time, and rear-ended the equally large truck that hit Maggie's car. Her small car may be totaled, but neither of the trucks was damaged. After the three girls got checked out in the hospital, we went out for ice cream to celebrate the fact that everyone was fine.

Here's my lucky girl modeling a jacket I recently embellished. As part of my on-going love affair with Aunt Martha embroidery transfers, I ironed this peacock transfer to the back of an old denim jacket. The transfer, which was black, is permanent, and I traced over it with a fine point sharpie marker. In the places where the transfer blurred, it looks a bit like shading, but otherwise, I like the way the image looks almost like a tattoo. This is also a fast project. It only took about an hour to trace the transfer.


I started cleaning out a drawer of some old leftover 4-patch blocks made from home dec fabrics, and it morphed into this quilt. I pieced the 4-patches into the center of this quilt, and then kept adding other home dec sample pieces. I also decided to use the vintage bark cloth fabric you see in the outer border, rather than let it keep warming the shelf. I'm really in a stash busting mood these days.

I love these soft gold and pastel colors. As soon as school lets out I'm planning on doing some painting and re-decorating, and this will fit nicely in my plans for my bedroom.

Since I cleared some space in the stash I felt good bringing this home Saturday morning.
The Methodist church near me has an annual rummage sale, and they always have some good deals. I got this office paper box of flannel pieces (there's also a bit of regular cotton) for $2. Not in the photo is a 2-yard cut of beige and orange flannel. I think whoever donated this was making ragged-edged quilts. Some of the pieces are cut into rough 10-12 inch squares, but there are also a lot of bigger pieces. I won't be making a ragged-edge quilt, but will probably make a modified rail-fence pattern.
The irises in my garden have come up. I really need to get out and weed the yard, but this corner looks magnificent right now. The cats are enjoying our sunny afternoons, which are interspersed between rainy days. Here's Louie, our newest (and sweetest) cat, who's been with us for about 6 months, enjoying the sun.
I'm waiting impatiently for the summer, for some time off work and some gardening weather.