First Finish!

There may be some rearranging of  this post after it's published, as I can't seem to get the  photos to line up the way I want them to tonight! So let's start with a little winter eye candy--the big camellia bush by  the front door. It is looking rather sparse these days, not sure why, but it's gotten a little top-dressing of camellia food for starters. Meantime, it's blooming away. These blossoms are so packed with petals, it's incredible!

Red Camellia

Now on to finished objects--I actually did get my first FO of the year done before the end of the month! (I'm not counting the little lime green sweater till its buttons are on, which should be tomorrow.) This is the back of the red-white-and blue quilt. It had kind of a hard time of it at first.

Remember this?

Back of the quilt

Pink and white camellia

Quilt class

But  it's now finished. The picture of the back is terribly washed out, not sure why unless it was the fluorescent lights in the sewing room.

You can kind of see the design--it's simple stitch in the ditch in the blocks, and then diagonal lines through all the squares. All the quilting is done with red/white/blue variegated cotton quilting thread.

Camellia blossom

Quilt class

More wonkiness in the picture uploads! Camellias and quilters, oh my! Tuesday night was a busy one, which is always fun. Lots of creativity in the air!

Front, closeup

And, back to my finished quilt! Here's a closeup of the front. The colored thread shows up on the blocks, but it seems to be a better choice than the clear thread I was using originally.

You know, the stuff that puckered and that I had to take out. I'm not sure what kind of batting is in this quilt--I didn't piece the top, nor did I do the layering, so it's kind of mysterious. It does have a nice soft hand, though, and I'm sure after it has its bath--which it's getting as I write--it will look and feel wonderful.

Here's the whole thing, pre-bathing.

Finished!

And I'll leave you with a picture of my helper, my constant companion these days--well, unless he's napping in the sunshine upstairs, leaving space for his "foster sister" and sworn enemy, Shyla, to get her cuddle time in! He misses his buddy Simon terribly, and really would like to be friends with Shyla, but she's not having it. Oh well. It's taken her almost two years to warm up to me, so maybe another year or two and she'll come to accept the fact that she's landed in a two-cat household!

The supervisor--quality control a la Hi-Hi