A Dozen Years Ago Today (as in the 16th, when I am typing this)....

...I started this blog. I can hardly believe it has been that long. It has been quite a ride, one for which I am very grateful (proper sentence structure brought to you by my mother's training--sometimes it kicks in). ;)

During the 12 years I have been blogging, Lori at Humble Quilts blog has hosted a doll quilt swap 10 of those years. This is only my second year participating. I haven't received my quilt yet, but the gal I sent to has received hers so I can share it with you. This is the doll quilt I made. It is from a pattern from Jo Morton's Little Women's Club #14, I believe.

I took several glamor shots around the house before I sent it on its way, but the one below is the only one I even kind of liked.

I combined a little bit of hand quilting with the machine quilting. In the blue/grey triangles I hand quilted a grid pattern on point. I don't know if you can see it any better in this shot of the back.

When I receive my quilt I will share it with you in my next post. I am looking forward to it.

I amazed myself and pushed past my usual tendency to postpone attaching borders, and today I put a small border around my Moda Love quilt top. This was made in conjunction with Chooky and friends at Scrub Stitchin', where many at that retreat completed one of these quilts. 

When I cut these borders I barely had enough of this piece of a Kansas Troubles green print to cut 4 1/2" strips for the border. I got them all cut and as I laid them out around the completed center, I realized I had cut the last one at 4" instead of 4 1/2". There was only a strip about 2" wide left after having cut these. There was nothing left to do but go back and trim 1/2" off the other 3 borders. I would have liked the border to be a little wider, but I did what I could, and I still think this looks better with that small border than with no border at all. I felt like I needed to balance the green in the center.

On Mother's Day I finished the puzzle I've had out for months--Northern Lights in Norway. The sky and sea parts were a bit challenging, but I like a little challenge now and then. I thought it was fun that I had this puzzle out when we saw the Northern Lights here a few weeks ago.

I hope people had a pleasant Mother's Day. Though we did not have family gather, I did hear from each of my 4 children. My younger daughter, who doesn't live far, and also works with a local florist, brought by this lovely bouquet. It just represents spring so well, to me.

I'll leave you with this image from my sewing room window. It is finally looking like Springtime in the Rockies! You can click to enlarge for a better view of the new lambs.

I usually have some sort of giveaway for those who are following along, in conjunction with my blog anniversary, but I haven't got my act together. I've been sick the past week. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!  Stay tuned for something later this month!

Until then, be creative and be kind!

Janet O.