Paint by Number Birds

 I have finally gotten around to documenting the rest of the quilts made in 2024. So here begins the quilt parade.

First up, #260, Paint by Number Birds.

I have been in love with this print for the longest time. It might be one of my most favorites ever. I never bought any when it was first released. And then price for it kept going up. It came in four colorways--this beautiful red, along with pink, aqua and green. 

When I turned 60 and my parents asked what I wanted, I told them I would like 1/2 yard of each of the colors. By then it was $15 for half a yard, which at the time, 2012, was very pricy. But in keeping with the age I was celebrating, I guess they thought $60 for two yards of fabric was okay.

Then it sat on a shelf for years because I never knew really how to best show it off. I had made two quilts from the pattern Hidden Agenda by Angela Pingel. It's a good one, with all different sizes of blocks. By then, the designer had released a few other lines of paint-by-number fabric--roses, wildlife, cats, etc. I never bought any of the cats, but I did had some of the other prints. This was the perfect pattern to spotlight my precious fabric, and use a lot of the other paint-by-number prints.

I loved adding the feather print (shown below in the top middle block)--the colors were just right, and the feathers were perfect for the theme.

I had an idea of photographing it with the birds at our local zoo. It seemed like a good idea in theory, but it turned out to be quite difficult to get a good photo. If you look closely, there are a couple of white birds in the top right corner.

When the print was released again, it included the birds on a cream background--perfect for the backing.

I enjoyed every moment of  making this quilt. I'm glad I waited to make it as I was able to include a lot of other fun paint-by-number fabrics that make it even more special.

Quilt: Paint by Number Birds

Quilt Pattern:  Hidden Agenda by Angela Pingel

Made by: Cindy Wiens

Quilted by: Darby Myers

Completed: May 2024

Size: 57" x 72"

Gifted to: Liz Gunther

I have some catching up to do...Part 2

Years ago, junior high or high school maybe, I had a fountain pen. I remember it had a cartridge with emerald ink, which I thought was the coolest thing ever. I had sealing wax, also very cool. Well, what goes around comes around, I guess. After Aaron started using a fountain pen, and then Charlotte started, I thought, hmmm, it might be fun to revisit that era of my life. So I went to the art store and purchased this this Lamy Safari pen in my favorite yellow. 

 Books I read in February. The Last Letter was probably my favorite.

Mark spent a weekend working a high school basketball tournament.

I finished another puzzle. For a 1,000-piece puzzle, this was a quick one, as puzzles go. It was really fun.

I have long wanted to learn another instrument, after playing the piano for years. My grandson says it's never too late, and a friend was kind enough to lend me a flute. We took it in for refurbishing and new pads. Tomorrow I have my very first flute lesson. So excited.

In February I taught a class on my selvage pattern, Spool Play, and I received this photo of a finished quilt top. Way to go, Bethenny!

Our niece, Rose, has gotten into stained glass. First she gifted this to us when we saw her last month.

Then she sent me this photo of two pieces she made based on quilt blocks. The top one is based on one of my original blocks.

I finished a new color way, Amethyst, for my Glow quilt.

This year I continue to make quilts from patterns I have long collected, just making them because I want to, and using fabrics that I have had for a long time. 

I had the Positivities quilt pattern by Rachel of Stitched in Color. She ran it as a Block of the Month, but true to form, I never get started on BOMs until they are all over. I had originally planned on using the remaining bits of Anna Maria Horner fabric, but hey, last year I made six quilts with her fabric, and decided I needed to use something else, so I chose my collection of Carolyn Friedlander. Over the years, I have had quite a bit of Carolyn's fabric, but I slowly destashed a lot of it and just kept those prints I really, really loved. Most of that fabric went into this quilt top.

I will save the finished quilt top for another day. Suffice to say, it was tricky at times. I wasn't always happy that I had chosen Essex linen for the background. But by the time the final seam was sewn, I was in love with it!

After this quilt, the king-sized radiant star, and all those squares in the embroidery vase quilts,  I'm ready for something quick and easy. More on that to follow soon.

These two quilts were accepted into the Sisters Quilt Show in July. Very excited about that.

And that's about it.

I have some catching up to do...Part 1

 Time never stops zipping by.

Did I mention we went to Oregon for a weekend in February? I think not...

We had dinner on Friday night with Sam and Stacie. So good to spend some time with them and see their home. It's beautiful.

On Saturday morning, we drove to Corvallis to spend the day with Charlotte. We first had a tour of the Oregon State campus. It was scheduled to rain over the weekend, but the rain held off, for the most part, all day. We made some fun purchases in the bookstore. For example...

Along with sweatshirt, t-shirt, baseball cap, etc.

We headed to Charlotte's dorm room. Along the way we saw all these food-delivery robots. Kinda freaky.

I didn't take a photo of Charlotte's dorm room, but we were able to meet her roommate, Zoey. 

The buildings are beautiful.

Mark took this one of the two of us, walking and talking.

We had lunch at an amazing entirely gluten-free restaurant called Eats and Treats. They had an extensive menu, and you would never know everything was gluten free. If you are a first-timer, they give you a warm chocolate chip cookie, which honestly was probably one of the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever had.

Then we ran some errands--Trader Joe's, Fred Meyer, etc., to help Charlotte stock up on essentials.

We had a coffee break at Starbucks.

And a delicious dinner at Pastini.

It was such a great day. I know we will do it again.

On Sunday, we spent some time with our niece, Rose, and her partner, CJ. They moved to Portland a few months ago for CJ's job. We took them to one of our favorite places for dinner, Portland City Grill, which is on the 30th floor of a bank, and gives you a beautiful view of the city.

After dinner, we headed toward a place I have always wanted to go since I first heard about it, the Sports Bra. Nope, that's not a typo. Mark and I both enjoy sports bars, but this is one that shows only women's sports. It's a cool concept. It turned out to be packed because they were having a fundraiser, but it was fun to hang out there for awhile.

On Monday, it was raining. We took the Max downtown to see Caleb's brick. It's right downtown at Pioneer Square, next to the Starbucks. We had planned on having coffee in Starbucks but weirdly they had absolutely no seating inside (they said most of their orders are to go...).

So we crossed the street to the Chase Bank where they had a coffee shop in the lobby and just enjoyed the rain.

Our flight didn't leave until 8 p.m. We turned in the rental car after lunch and then took the light rail back to the airport. Or at least that was the plan. There was some electrical breakdown along the line so a big section was shut down. The Beaverton station was literally across the street from our hotel, but they told us to walk to the next station, which wasn't far, and take a bus and get off by the baseball stadium. That took over an hour. By the time we got to the station at the baseball stadium, it was raining and freezing cold. Things still hadn't gotten back on schedule, and we ended up having to wait another 45 minutes before we finally got the light rail back to the airport. By then the sun came out and we were treated to a rainbow. 

All in all, it was a great weekend. Charlotte is right where she needs to be. She is happy and doing well. And we were thrilled to actually see all the places she has told us about. Till next time...

2/20/25

 This was a week of sending quilts to a brother (in-law), nieces, great nieces and great nephews. And hoping they arrived safely.

I'm happy to say that they all arrived and I even received a couple of photos documenting their arrival.

My brother, Pete (actually Mark's brother, but I dropped the "in-law" years ago because I love him so much), received Picnic in the Park, one of my favorites with a lot of Heather Ross fabric.

I sent out six quilts to nieces titled "The Same but Different" because they were all the same pattern and all made with Anna Maria Horner fabric). I numbered them in chronological order from oldest niece to youngest. Rose, the youngest of the group, received hers first, but then again, she is the nearest geographically.

Our niece in Chicago, along with her son and daughter, sent me this photo. Makes my heart sing.

I received the nicest thank you texts from two of the other nieces. I'm going to ask if they can take photos too.

This was something I was not expecting to see when driving through the neighborhood. Seeing bounce houses is pretty common but I've never seen this before.

I  made some fun zipper pouches for the three women who work at the post office I always go to. They are always so nice and helpful. I had the fun fabric, ribbon, and have been saving the "postage due" and "air mail" selvages for ever. The lining fabric was another one that has been in my stash for a long time--perfect for this project. The selvages got a little ripply, but all in all, I'm happy with how they turned out.

Finally, I put together the blocks from a bee I have been part of for the past year. It was called "not a bee" because each month someone chose a block, which we made but didn't need to mail to anyone else. Win-win. I chose a fabric palette based on a poster I had seen last year (which I guess I'll post later because I can't find the photo). Here are the blocks (mine is the upper right corner), and once it's quilted, I will do a separate post.

That's it for this week. Happy weekend.