National Quilting Day! Happy Quilting!

March 19 is National Quilting Day.  I won't be able to quilt today.  I am volunteering to be a Docent for a Key West House Tour.  I did the tour yesterday (no photos allowed - darn!).  My favorites were their gardens.  So inviting.  So relaxing.  Many of the houses had a lot of character with a wide range of colors giving me a feeling of being in the tropics.  And of course, it gave me lots of ideas for more quilts.   hmmmm, just what I need - more ideas.

I did prep-work on 4 Dresden Plates yesterday.  The unfinished Dresdens were donated to Project Linus.   I don't have any matching material for borders.  I might have to go shopping if there is nothing in my stash.  In the meantime, I will start hand sewing the Dresdens to the background.  A good project to do while we are traveling to our next location.

2 years ago on 19 March, I retired from my job to full-time with my husband in our motorhome.  I can't believe it has been 2 years!  On 22 March, we left Albuquerque and started our adventures on the road.  Wow!  Our second anniversary of freedom and full-timing.  And yes, I would do it all over again.

STAR BABY Quilt

This winter weather has been perfect for me to get back into my quilting.  I have spent a lot of hours outdoors with kitties just quilting away the gorgeous days. The salty air, the vibrant colors, and the cry of Ospreys overhead.....Sigh! I am really going to miss Key West. I hope we can come back here someday.

I had started this top in September.  The top took only a couple of days to sew together.  I decided to appliqué 'BABY' and crooked stars to the top using freezer paper.  I did not leave the paper on since I ironed it to the right side of the fabric.  This time I marked the fabric with a water soluble pen, pulled off the paper, and used the turn-under as you sew method.  I used bright bold colors so a baby can see them.

The appliqué is done and the top is a wrinkled mess!  Time to iron!

All done.  I used the meandering quilting.  The binding is made from the same bold material I used for the stars and BABY.

I just had to show you the perfect t-shirt I found at the Navy Exchange.  I had just washed it so it is a little wet.

Oh, you can't see it?  Here's a close-up!

I have my sweatshirt saying "Life is Simple:  EAT, SLEEP, QUILT" for cold days and now - I have a t-shirt with a one white sock orange kitty saying "Life is Good".  Oh yea!  (break out into song) And these are a few of my favorite things!