Golden Butterfly Awards, Linda M. Poole blog and flowers

Matt & Bradie Sparrow – This couple from Canada are quite unique in that he is the Long Arm Quilter and Bradie designs and makes patterns.  In addition to all of the quilting they do Matt & Bradie have 8 kids…no wait! Bradie’s pregnant and their 9th sometime later this year!  Congratulations
Erin Russek – I know Erin through The Quilt Show.  Each time I’ve visited Erin’s blog there’s always some great big of information about quilting.  Right now she has a post about thread she’s using to quilt an owl.  It’s quite interesting.  Erin generously shares her knowledge and love of quilting.  Thanks Erin!
Linda M. Poole – For me Linda’s blog postings are exciting.  She works towards encouraging quilters to take risks and just go for it on he blogs.  I’m really finding the Color Fixes to be the best…they get my creative juices flowing.  My goal (after Natalya Aikens recent visit) is to dedicate one morning per week and work on quilting some of these images out as a journaling, growing project.

That Seams Fun – Wendy always has some good advice for quilters…her second post right now talks about the 1/4″ foot and how she likes the feel of the fabric under the foot.  I like how she, as a newer quilter/sew-er explains the process.
Wanda Hanson Exuberant Color – Nearly daily Wanda updates her blog with quilts she’s working on.  She’s not afraid of color and uses it quite effectively.  Wanda also uses a lot of scraps – which if you know anything about me is not something I like to do, I’d rather give my scraps and or fabrics I’m not in love with to one of our guild charities or one of our members for the local schools.  It’s so much fun when I open up Google Reader hers is one of the blogs I look for on a regular basis.

Linda M. Poole visited the Village Squares Quilters on Wednesday to teach Bended Bias and glue stick appliqué.  She has some photos of our guild and a guild from Delaware on her blog.  The VSQ’ers had a great time with Linda and enjoyed the entire day.  There is also the obligatory arm length shot of Linda & me on her blog.  One great thing from my perspective…Linda’s camera does not have the swing around screen that my camera does so it was quite lucky that it came out.

I finally had the opportunity to get out to my garden and shoot some of the flowers.  I have two rose bushes, one needs some serious work – getting the suckers off the stems.  I thought I got them all last year, I have a feeling that this one will need work for a couple of years.

I’m kinda ticked that they returned.  They’re more prickly than the rest of the rose bush.

When my dmil lived in South Jersey we loved the Mountain Laurel in the back yard.  We missed them so much that my sweetie found these in an on line catalog a couple of years ago and surprised us with them.

He planted them under the dogwood as they need shade to grow well and they seem quite happy where they are.

These beauties started out almost as sticks – although one of them bloomed the first year they were planted.

I love Pansies…they’re such happy flowers.  I have a few more to plant and my sweetie brought more home today.  I’m thrilled as they’re bearded and will provide a different look in the bed.

He brought this beauty home last night and once he’s finished mowing I’m going to get the rest of the pansies planted in.  I like having them all in one spot underneath the dogwood.

Gazinnias also provide a whole lot of color and fun in the flower beds.  I love the depth of color in their petals.  Gazinniaz are heliotropic so they are closed in the morning and open in the afternoon sun.  These are planted in the front of the house so get southern exposure later in the day.

We also brought Hens and Chicks with us (Renee if you need more please let me know) from South Jersey.   We started with 3 strawberry planters from his uncle.  Now we have those, plus three more in the front of the house and I’ve been working this odd area between the end of the patio and the fence…they’re really filling in well.

We had two dogwoods one white and one pink.  Every once in a while a fungus comes through and will sometimes kill the trees.  We lost the pink one a couple of years ago but still have the white one which is working on setting buds for next year.

The Wygilia is doing well this year.  This is another bush that has struggled over the last couple of years.  Snails and other critters – including some local cats who seem to think that bush is their litter box – have tried hard to damage this plant…it’s still blooming with delightful shades of pink blooms.

I’ve been working on several things: “Moon Over Manhattan” which has earned the alternate title of “Little Miss Sassy Pants”  This quilt has a mind of it’s own.  I put it on the design wall yesterday so that I could work on one of the radiance pieces and this quilt spoke up once again.  Because I’d like to enter Quilt National I can’t share photos at this point as much as I’d like to.

Because I goofed with part of the layout I’m creating a heavy center…so far I like the effect.  I do like working with Aurifil both top and bobbin as I can quilt for quite a long time without the bobbin emptying out quickly.

Happy Quilting!

Teri

PS I will shortly be adding a Class Page describing the classes that I’m available to teach.