Here's more musing leading up to the second quilt.

The sad story began when my brother announced that he had broken the zipper on a pair of good pants. My brother is the cheapest one of the family and takes incredibly good care of things so he won't have to buy a replacement for years if ever. His suits go in and out of style like a revolving door before he wears them out. So naturally, when a zipper had the affrontery to break, it had to be replaced to save the pants.

Pants zippers aren't normally stocked in the housewares section of your usual grocery store. You have to go to a fabric store to get a suitable one. I usually avoid temptation by mail ordering crafting supplies or going to discount stores with a limited selection. I know altogether too well that my sales resistance melts when faced with all the pretties in a full fledged fabric store or crafts store, but we're cheap and those pants were otherwise in good shape.

Mother and I drove over to a local fabric store and she went in to get the zipper. "What could it hurt to look for a few remnants?" I reasoned. "After all, my wall hanging turned out well, and I do need more fabric for a backing for the next project." Now that wasn't totally untrue, as I would have had to use part of an old sheet for a backing, but then it was in pretty good shape. It was the lure of pretty remnants that hooked me again. I was out of the car and on my way into the store in a flash.

This store had its remnants in bagged assortments, $1.88 a bag for a fairly good size bag. The first bag had a big wad of tulle in the top. "What would I do with that much tulle?" I thought, and started to put it back. Then I saw them, the cute little teddy bears in tutus with pink hearts around them on a big piece of fabric on the bottom. Another piece with little flowers, a blue piece, a gold piece, well, one bag doesn't cost much. Then I caught a glimpse of metallic gold and green in another bag. Hey, I've got a striped green piece at home that would go with that. It was a remnant from another mad buying impulse that I still had because it didn't go with anything else. The second bag joined the first under my arm.

Wait a second, I'm reaching for another bag. Two is more than enough. One of them has a piece of white fabric that should be big enough for a backing. I'd better pay for these and get out of the store. After all, there is a lot of tulle here too, and I'm going to have to figure out what to do with that.

I turned and started for the checkout counter. Wouldn't you know it, they've got this store arranged so that the quilting fabric department is right behind the remnant counter. It has quilting this, that, and the other signs in big letters all over. My feet slid over that way like I was on a conveyor belt. I managed to make a looping orbit past it and headed for the register. I could see Mother was already there with the zipper. She said, "Look at the quilting booklet on the shelf. Would that be useful?" It was a quilting magazine cleverly placed so that you couldn't get to the register without seeing it. On impulse, I snatched it up and we paid for our purchases.

I thought I was safe when we got home. I put my things away, and stretched out on my bed to look through the quilting magazine. After all, I had bought all that stuff and now I really had to figure out something to do with it. What's this? A project that actually uses tulle to assemble an artistic bouquet of flowers? What luck! Now, with all the tulle I just bought, I can make some blocks of this. I wonder how many -- enough to slip cover the house? Worse yet, the clerk had slipped a flyer in the bag. There's a Presidents' Day sale at the fabric store. Bargains! Goodies! Pretties aplenty! Get thee behind me, Satan! Back! Back!

I've been busy as a bee lately. Our washing machine broke down for the last time, flooding the kitchen in the process. It put a halt to washing out the quilting lines on my wall hanging for about a week, but after several trips through the wash cycle of the new machine, the wall hanging looks pretty good. I'm proclaiming it officially and successfully done. That means it's time to consider a new project, or at least try to decide which of my unfinished projects to work on again.

Have you ever seen the snake called a sidewinder? It travels in a most peculiar looping fashion, winding its body in curves from side to side to push itself forward. The snake can travel forward at a pretty brisk pace, but it travels sideways a great deal of the time, alternating between the right and left of its desired path.

That is pretty much what my crafting outbursts look like around the usual daily chores. I try to justify it as multitasking, but that implies that I'm actually getting the jobs done along parallel time lines. What usually happens is that I get excited about a crafting project, get bored with the technique part of the way through, and start another project with a different technique for a while. I usually get back to the earlier projects and occasionally finish one, which gives me hope of finishing the rest.

It's actually a form of procrastination, as much as I would like to defend it as a form of relaxation. It means that I have projects here and there in my stash, and occasionally in a fit of guilt or curiosity, I dig them out. I'm usually amazed at how much stuff I actually have to play with, if I would only finish the projects.

Right now, I'm trying to finish a doily that I started when I got the crochet magazine in April, 1997. It's a fairly large table runner, except that I didn't like the center section and so left it out. I started working on it again while waiting for the new washer to be delivered. I still have fourteen rows to go, while it is aging rapidly with Rascal attacking it whenever I have it out of its bag to work on it. I've dubbed it the endangered doily, because he has already bitten through its thread once and just this morning attacked it again while I was doing a few more rows. The only problem is that a new quilting project is calling me from my scrap bag.

That blue piece of fabric from one of the remnant bags goes very well with the bold floral print that overwhelmed the other fabrics in the wall hanging. I had a library book of quilting patterns due back in two weeks, so what would it hurt to look up spider web quilting and see if that would work with that floral print? After all, the book had to go back pretty soon. Of course, I had to decide what block to use to see if the spider web would work, so I just had to look through a needlecraft book with a quilting section. And what could it hurt to wash the blue fabric and the white fabric that was about the right size for a backing...

So, I have the new quilt project planned out as a variation of a Puss in the Corner block. That seemed an appropriate pattern given the nature of my two quilting assistants. It may end up big enough to call it a crib quilt. The cats have already had a preparatory wallow on the quilt batting I checked for size, so they're alertly looking for more action. I wonder how long doilies can wait before they become antiques too valuable to finish for fear of ruining the patina?

The Sunday before Presidents' Day dawned with a beautiful spring-like day. One more day to go before Presidents' Day and the sale at the fabric store. I was determined to resist. I already had too many unfinished crafting projects, and I was still catching up on laundry as well.

The day was a peaceful one, except for that persistent temptation. I hadn't had a chance to read the paper all day, so I didn't get around to the women's section with the fabric sale ads until that evening. Praise the Lord, He had saved me from temptation that day by keeping me from seeing that the sale had started that Sunday morning! It was too late to go to the store that day, so I was safe until the next morning.

Another beautiful day dawned, with perfect shopping weather. The temptation was stronger than ever. I had noticed the previous day that my skirt waistband was loose. Whenever a diet works well enough for a waistband to get loose, it is a cause for celebration. Even more, I had noticed that the waistband of a new pair of control top pantyhose was even loose. That was practically cause for a national holiday with a day off for the postal workers. Thoughts of new skirt fabric drifted through my mind. It had been a while since I had made a new one--wait a minute, I'm not going to buy more fabric. The postal workers were already getting their holiday today without that.

I started breakfast and more laundry. In between cleaning dishes and clothes, I worked on the doily. "I'm at least going to finish this doily before I start another project," I told myself firmly. The cats helped strengthen my resolve by attacking the doily when the opportunity presented itself. They are fascinated by the twitching of the ball of thread on its spindle as I crochet away and pull on the thread with little tugs to release more. They're also jealous of any time spent on anything other than them.

The laundry got done, the meals got done, the doily got done and washed. "You deserve a reward for all that hard work. Maybe a few new skirts, a few remnants, you've been working very hard all day." There was only one thing to do.

I set up the ironing board and got out the steam iron. I put the folding table over my bed for a work surface and got out the fabric. I ran the iron over the fabric to smooth the creases and started cutting out pieces for the new quilt block. Mischief decided that he wanted to sleep on the fabric draped over the table, and when ousted moved over to the fabric on the ironing board. I ousted him from that to get him away from the iron, which he no longer feared since learning that it wouldn't get him during the first project. He went off the sulk on the piano.

The doily wasn't drying evenly, so I ended up spreading it over one end of the folding table to finish. I had finished cutting the pieces I needed for one block, and there was room to arrange them on the other end near the sewing machine. Rascal promptly leaped onto the table and wallowed on the doily. He rolled and stretched and scattered fabric pieces with joyful abandon. Efforts to persuade him to sleep on the bed beside the table were fruitless. I put him in the hall and closed the door on him.

For some reason, the sections of the block weren't fitting together well. This was a more complicated pattern than the previous one with all pieced sections making up the whole pattern except for the center square. I thought I had cut the templates properly, and was sewing the seams with the correct seam allowance. Still I was ripping seams and resewing them to get the pieces to fit together properly. Then the Lord reminded me about "squaring off". A memory of a quilting program came to mind with the instructor using a big quilting ruler to measure and trim her blocks as she worked on each section. Aha, I need a quilting ruler to check my work more closely. The T-square wasn't quite doing well enough.

I checked the time. Too late, the store was closed for the day. The sale was over. I could go tomorrow for that ruler without the temptation of a sale. I just had to avoid the remnant counter.

I avoided the remnant counter by going to a craft store instead. It had a big selection of quilting fabrics, though. I looked at some pretty floral prints and started wondering what a skirt would look like. No, they were 100% cotton and would have wrinkled when washed. I'm too lazy to make a skirt that has to be ironed every time. I wondered if there were any permanent press blends. The Lord gently but firmly steered me towards the back where the quilting equipment was on display. I selected a triangular ruler that I could use to cut pieces as well as measure assembled pieces. I got tempted again at the Valentine's Day fabric bolts on sale for 75% off, but the Lord steered me away from them and towards the register.

It's the first time I ever got out of one with only what I had intended to buy. Of course, I did succumb to buying some chocolates at the discount store where I was getting groceries, but I've got slack in that waistband. As long as the pantyhose don't start pinching ... well, the postal workers did get their holiday, didn't they?

Armed with my new quilting ruler, I was ready to cut out the next set of pieces to put the rows around the outside of the block. I had decided to put more repeats of the center block with the pieced blocks made of three long strips around the outside so that the block looked like flowered squares with a three piece sashing connecting them, with the checkerboard sections at the intersections of the sashing.

I started out marking off the pieces with the ruler and cutting them with scissors, but that wasn't working much better than using the templates with scissors. I had an inexpensive rotary cutter in my equipment stash, but I had never been able to get it to work. Well, those quilt books kept showing people using one to cut nice, accurate pieces, so it had to work somehow. I fished it out and looked for the plastic cutting board that I got as a subcription renewal gift. It wasn't to be found.

What to use instead? I couldn't use that cutter directly on the table, since it would probably mar the surface. I first tried a plastic foot soaking tub, turned over to make the cutting surface. It flexed under the blade, which barely creased the fabric. That was no good. Next I tried an old clipboard turned over so the wooden back was up. That was a little better. The rotary cutter made a small scraping sound and cut a few irregular slits along the crease.

Why isn't it working better? I'd seen PBS quilting shows where the instructor cut long strips with merry abandon, one after another. This is a simple device, just a circular razor blade on a handle. The Lord reminded me of a posting on the quilting forum on rotary cutters. It said something about adjusting the screw on the blade. Sure enough, there was a large nut on the screw that attached the blade to the handle. It was already plenty loose, so I tried tightening it some.

Screech went the blade along the fabric, and this time a much better cut with only a few uncut bridges appeared. Maybe it's rolling instead of cutting. I tightened it down firmly. SCREECH! The next cut was a splendid long slit along the ruler. Success at last!

The set of pieces I cut with the rotary cutter and plastic ruler were much neater than the set from the templates and scissors and sewed together smoothly. The only trouble I had joining these new sections came where I added them to the old ones, which were not quite regular. The only trouble I had with cutting them was that the inexpensive rotary cutter's nut wouldn't stay firmly tightened so that I had to keep tightening it every few pieces. You get what you pay for.

Obviously, cutting pieces with a rotary cutter is the way to go for better piecing. I'm going to have to get a better one than this one and a proper cutting board. I'm also going to get one of those big quilting rulers for cutting long strips, as I haven't cut the blue border strips to finish the top. I can't see pencil marks on that fabric, so I'll have to get a washable marker, too. All of that means another trip to the fabric store, as I didn't see the expensive brands recommended on the quilting forum at the craft store. There's no point in wasting money on the cheap ones.

I'll have to pass that remnant counter and through all the beautiful bolts of quilting fabric to get to the equipment displays. At least it has been several days since the Presidents' Day Sale, so the local quilters should have snapped up all those tempting remnants.

It's true confession time again. I slipped over the edge at the fabric store. I'm now the proud, elated, and somewhat confused owner of a baby quilting stash. What started as a blend of scraps from other sewing projects and a few remnants to try quilting has just given birth to an actual quilting stash.

My return trip to the fabric store all started out so well, too. I managed to head straight for the quilting equipment section without even looking very much at the bolts of glorious quilting fabric that I passed. Just little peeks enough to avoid running into them, of course, not really intending very much to buy more fabric ... who am I kidding? Is anyone buying this?

I studied the rotary cutters carefully and selected a medium size one in the most recommended brand. I figured that I wouldn't need the heavy duty size to cut through four to six thicknesses of fabric at once. Then I got the recommended cutting mat, the big ruler to cut border strips, and a marking pencil that was supposed to show up on most colors of fabric. I even managed to pick up and put right back down several bags of remnants without getting any. Then IT happened.

Those clever ladies at the fabric store hadn't managed to sell all their bolts of quilting material at the Presidents' Day Sale. My eyes landed on a counter with bolts of quilting cotton with signs screaming that they were on sale for 40 to 50% off! I was mesmerized. I went over and looked at a bolt. Big mistake! Big, big mistake!!!!

By the time I finished looking at the bolts, a whole armload was resting on the cutting mat and I was breathless from staggering around the counter with all the pretties. Wait a minute, can I actually use all of this? That was a question that didn't seem to be asked much in the quilting forum. They usually asked how much they could buy without their husbands throwing fits about it. Those who didn't have husbands to throw fits bought with blissful abandon, apparently without landlords, grocers, or utility companies to protest. I was determined to be more practical about this.

I put everything down on the counter and pulled the fabric back from the topmost bolt to look at it again. It was a brilliantly colored vegetables and fruits prints, much like the new fabric that the quilting guide had been crowing about. She had made a wonderful quilt from veggie prints that got rave reviews from the other board members. The veggies and fruits were sparkling with dewy, garden fresh goodness. She probably could have made a quilt that would grace a museum from it, but could I? I really didn't have the experience for this, I decided, and I really should put it back. Straighten the fingers to release the bolt, pull back the clutching hands, come on, they worked when you picked this up ... the bolt finally landed on the counter again.

I took a deep breath. Strange, I've already formed such an attachment to these bolts. Let's be practical about this and look at the next print. A nice flower print like little quilt blocks, but I really didn't have anything to go with this. Would any of the other bolts work with it? No, not really, so the poor little orphan went back on the counter. I really felt sorry for it all alone again, but I already had a lot of orphans at home to take care of in my pile of fabric that didn't go with anything, plus the new tulle.

By the time those sad little orphans were huddling together on the counter weeping little fabric tears at me, I still had five bolts left. One was a cotton/polyester blend that looked very much like a skirt in the making. I really had lost quite a bit of weight, hadn't I? One was cotton with a mix of white, pink, and red roses with gray-green and silver foliage on a dark red background which snuggled appealingly with a cotton print of teal and gold teardrops adorned with little red roses on a dark cream background. With a dark green solid fabric, conveniently close in the quilting fabrics department, they would make a lovely quilt.

The other two fabrics huddling coyly together, shamelessly batting their flirty little eyelashes at me, were cotton prints as well. One was an assortment of bright print bandboxes in teal, lavender and gold surrounded with pink and red flowers with teal and gold foliage on a black background, and the other was a patchwork-like design of eight pointed stars and log cabin blocks in teal and gold on a muted dark lavender and pink streaky background. With a soft lavender solid, also conveniently near, they were good candidates for a quilt, too.

I left the store loaded with quilting equipment, fabric, batting, a package of waistband elastic, and thread, including several tempting new shades of quilting thread. I was either well and truly committed to making quilts, or about ready to be committed. I wasn't quite sure which, but I had a much better understanding of why the husbands were so worried about having their retirement nest eggs turned into stashes.

I also discovered after I got home that I had been a bit too enthusiastic about that cotton/polyester piece being enough fabric for a skirt. I hadn't lost quite enough weight for that, unless I turned the piece sideways and used it to make a miniskirt. I really don't have the legs for that. It's just too pretty to return, and I'm sure I'll be able to find something that will go with it eventually, although it will probably take another trip back to the fabric store.

Quilting is no longer the old fashioned craft that one could do with a few homely cloth scraps and rudimentary sewing equipment. Today's quilter simply must have the latest in quilting equipment to keep up with the new techniques being developed with the previous models of quilting equipment. As daring quilt artists push the limits of their equipment to create ever more breathtaking quilt art, we amateurs are swept along to keep up with the magnificent projects appearing in the quilting books and magazines.

The new rotary cutter worked like a dream when I used it to cut those border strips for the latest quilt. It cut through two layers smoothly with barely a whisper of sound. In fact, it cut through eight layers of fabric when I trimmed the ends off the whole stack of border strips to prepare them to pin onto the quilt, and it was only the medium size cutter. I wondered if the heavy duty cutter could cut through a redwood. I wouldn't doubt it.

I got the strips sewed on and trimmed. I started marking the quilt with my improved version of a home-made light box. I'd found an old lighted magnifying glass that my family sometimes used to examine stamps for their collections and used it in place of the cranky flashlight. It glowed smoothly as I used a new silver marking pencil to draw feathered circles over the floral squares. All was going well until I tried to draw the straight lines to make the criss-crossing pattern over the sashing and border. I discovered that I couldn't see that silver line on the blue fabric well enough to make a useable quilting line.

You know what that meant: yet another dangerous trip to the fabric store to get another color of marking pencil. I could have kicked myself for not getting that pencil for dark fabrics in the first place, but I didn't think the blue was that dark. Well, I did still need some new skirts, and I hadn't looked at all the display counters in the store ...

I got a yellow marking pencil down, then spotted a few more goodies strategically placed near it. First, there was a deerskin quilter's leather thimble, the finger high fashion for those quilters with sensitively artistic fingers who just couldn't stand the harsh feel of metal between them and their needles. I'd tried three sizes of thimbles and either couldn't keep them on or didn't like the pinch. Maybe it was a good sign and the deerskin thimble was the rotary cutter of thimbles that my finger needed. I had developed a saddle shaped callus on the side of my needle pushing finger already that was threatening to take over my whole fingertip. I really could justify it as a practical necessity.

Then there was the roll of Quilting-Dressmaker Tape. It is just a roll of masking tape 1/4 inch wide, but the name is so impressive and it spares you from getting an ordinary cheap roll and cutting 1/4 inch wide strips one at a time. Well, as much trouble as I was having marking that blue fabric, it might help.

The jumbo value pack of safety pins was on sale for 50% off. Well, I was pinning my quilts together, and I would need a lot more of those. I had used my whole supply pinning the first wall hanging, and this new project was larger.

When I spotted the platinum quilting needles, I suddenly realized that I was coveting them, too. I'd better see about getting that skirt fabric, oh, and another batting since the three I bought were too small for a quilt pattern I'd been considering from the quilting forum.

Those sad little orphan bolts on the sale counter oohed and aahed when they saw me coming. "She's back! Maybe she'll take us home, after all!" I picked up a bolt I hadn't seen earlier. The bolt of vegetables and fruits fabric clung tenaciously to it. "Please buy me and make a quilt out of me! I'll be good! I'll make you proud of me!" I gingerly lifted the fabric to look at the fiber content of the new bolt. A 100% cotton fabric, so it wouldn't do for a skirt. I gently put them both back down and carefully poked around the new bolts. The orphans were sobbing little fabric tears by the time I had found two bolts on the 30% off rack. I steeled myself, got another package of elastic for the waistbands, and headed for the cutting table.

I thought I was safe after getting the matching thread and taking it all to the register. Then I asked the saleslady if she thought that the yellow pencil would mark clearly on the blue fabric, holding up a scrap I had tucked in my purse to check. "I'd use a white marker," she replied. "It would give you better contrast." I hurried back to the display to get the white marker, knowing that if I tried the yellow one and it didn't work well enough, I'd just be back for the white one. She rang up my purchases, cheerily assured me that they would let me come back to the store as many times as I needed, and bid me farewell.

Just one more quilting errand, and that was to get some film to take a picture of the first wall hanging. I went to a local discount store and headed to the back where I thought the film would be kept. I rounded the end of a long display and there it was ... another fabric department with the sales counter right in the front. I started looking a bolt on sale and suddenly realized that I'd been tempted again. I fled through the crafting supplies.

I got the film and hurried to the front of the store to pay for it. I clutched my newly purchased film and fled the store before I could be tempted again. After all, I still had to take those pictures and try the new white marking pencil. I had plenty of stuff, including those two new pieces of fabric to wash and sew into skirts. So why are those little orphan bolts still sniffling at me? AARGH!

I was awakened at 2 am last night by my brother. He told me that Mom wasn't feeling well and wanted her blood pressure checked. By the time she decided that she had had a bad dream and settled down to sleep again, I was wide awake.

So there I was, wide awake with the rest of the family sleeping, including the cats. The Lord takes opportunities like that to have little talks with me.

"Ellen."

"Yes, Lord?"

"How much fabric shopping are you going to do?"

Uh oh. He'd been nudging me gently about that for a few days. I'd gotten the two new pieces of fabric washed before bedtime and ready to make the new skirts. They were draped over the backing for the second quilt. There were bags of new stuff heaped all over my room. "It was on sale, Lord. Bargain hunting is good stewardship, isn't it?" I knew I really wasn't going to get away with that, but it was worth a try.

He smiled patiently. "How many quilts can you make at a time?"

"One."

"And how many quilts do you have fabric for?"

"Maybe three or four." I really wasn't quite sure how to count the remnants or the pile of fabric that didn't go with anything else.

"And how many jobs do you have waiting to do?"

Aargh! I hadn't quite finished up the laundry and bed changing I started last week. I had dirty dishes in the sink because I was so tired from shopping that I fell asleep before I did them last night. I had some puzzles for my web site that had been waiting, surely not two weeks. The library book that the quotations were coming from was due back in two days, practically untouched.

A funny odor caught my nose. Onion? The onion sets I bought at the local garden center to plant in the garden were still sitting in a bag beside my bed with packages of peas and other seeds. When was that, about six days ago?

"And what about the seedlings in the dark?"

I had unplugged the plant light to plug in the iron. It wouldn't hurt for a little while, I thought at the time. It was a dark corner of my crowded room under a table where they were set up, so they got very little light otherwise. I got the flashlight and shined it on them. They were looking a little pale. The odor caught my nose again. No, not quite onions alone.

"Haven't the cats been unusually eager to go outside lately?"

The cat pan has a discreet lid over it. I approached it with trepidation and shined the light in it. AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! No wonder they had been so insistent about it. That settled it.

The laundry is started and the dishes are done. The garden is soaked from a heavy rain we had after I got the onion sets and is still too wet to plant anything, so I put them in the refrigerator to keep cool and will have to get them out as soon as the ground dries a bit more. The plant light is back on, and the seedlings should be okay. The peppers do need transplanting to bigger pots though. I may have to renew the library book, but I'm taking Mom on errands that way tomorrow anyway. I've got one skirt cut and the side seams stitched, waiting for the waist band to be turned and sewn into place. And two very relieved (in more ways than one or two) cats now have a cleaned up litter box.

That's usually what happens when I get enthusiastic about a new project. I go overboard and the Lord has to have a little talk about it. I used to print job lists in the past, but when I started slowing down and couldn't get as much done, I got annoyed at the unfinished lists piling up. I stopped making them, but that didn't stop the jobs from piling up.

In fact, a lot of things have been piling up. Getting older is one of the ways the Lord has of telling you to get your priorities in order. I simply can't get as much done as I used to, and it is hard to drop stuff that does seem like worthwhile stuff. I'm going to have to do some housecleaning of my room and my job lists to get things back into balance again.

Here's the finished second quilt at last. As you will be able to see, I still haven't gotten the knack of handling the digital camera yet, so I took pictures of the quilt under different lighting conditions to try to get enough shots to do it justice. It did turn out better than the first project, so I'm declaring it successfully finished.

The first picture is a full view of it taken on the porch so that it is backlit, which gave me a shot with the truest match to its colors. It started out as a Puss in the Corner block, but I changed the outer sections to a three piece sashing with the nine-patch block at the intersections of the sashing. It ended up about 29 inches by 29 inches in size.


It has stitch-in-the-ditch quilting around the flowered pieces to make the blue strips stand out, and has a feathered circle surrounded by an octagon quilted over the big flowered squares. The border has a rose at each corner with a five oval chain along the side. This picture shows a closeup of the front of a corner so you can see the quilting better.



This is a closeup of the back of a corner so you can see the feathered circle better. You can see the grid formed by the quilting around the sashing strips framing it, as well as a corner rose and the two chains of ovals that frame the sides. It was a fairly simple block pattern, so I decided on a fairly simple quilting design for the border. I didn't want anything too fussy. I got pretty close to that putting a feathered circle on a flower cluster as it was.

I couldn't get a better shot of the back outdoors, so I went indoors to get the full shot of the back. Being hung over an off-white door without the backlighting gave the quilt a creamy tint, but you can see the quilting pattern much better that way.

Now I'm trying to decide what to do for my next project. The cats are already on the alert with the bags of fabric pulled out and have been investigating the possible toy supply. They always keep new projects interesting.