Still here...

 Really! Was rather appalled to notice that it's been a loooonnnnngggg time since I last blogged! Not quite sure where the time has gone, exactly. Feels as if I've been really busy, but then I don't seem to have much to show for it.

Except that one thing about plugging away on projects is that one fine day, you can start putting finishing touches on things...and lo and behold, you suddenly have 4, count 'em, 4 Finished Objects!

Time to show you what they look like, right? Not that you haven't had a look at them before. Just nont in this state! So here's the little Trees quilt, which I have hung in the living room.

 It was folded for quite a while, so I hope the crease down the middle will hang out. If not, I may just toss it into the washer and dryer and see what happens.

This was from a class at Asilomar with Sylvia Einstein, back a few years ago. That was also the class where I made this quilt and the similar batik one (which is in my to-be-quilted tub).  The border of this one was quilted with a leafy vine design, and the trees are done in a kind of meander that mostly matches the hearts and swirls in the fabric. I really like the way this one came out!

This is a closeup of the red and black "lobsterback" quilt. I stippled in all the black areas, and then put hearts in the middle of some of the stars. The other stars have--so original!--stars in them!

Here's the whole quilt. 

This is the back--hence "lobsterback."

 More peculiarities going on with Blogger and my laptop--very odd. I think they are fighting for supremacy, and I'm getting rather frustrated.

Oh well. This is the Tulips and Peacock Feathers, which was half-quilted when I found it in the tub o' UFOs. I had put binding on it and then have been working on the quilting. I had done two sides of the border in an improvised tulip design--and it looked absolutely awful. I had done it with the same variegated thread I used in the body, and it just didn't work. From a foot away all you could see were the white parts. So I got some more thread (because one can never have too much thread!) and free-motioned a meandering border of leaves. Similar to, but not as pretty as, the leaves on the Trees quilt.

My quilting needs a lot of practice. Speaking of which, I'm trying to decide what to do to finish off this quilt. It was a project many (as in 1983-ish!) years ago in a 'quilt all night" class. I actually did get it all cut and sewn together in the overnight part of the class--added the batting, rolled the back over to make a "binding" and then... The instructions were to tie it with ribbons. I did a few ties and hated the way it looked, and besides it was time to go home and start the weekend "runs." I did get it thread-basted, and it's got a fair amount of hand quilting in it.

And there it sits. I just pulled out all the basting threads, and gave it a wash today. I'm thinking that some machine quilting can finish it off so it's at least usable.  But there are a lot of puckery places. At least, it's found its way into the queue!

Going to finish this post off with some of my "feral" rosebushes, which are currently blooming happily away in the back yard. Just putting a few captions on them, and that will be a wrap for this post!

Pink Rugosa--very prickly! 

Bonica--a shrub rose

Red Rugosa--not as strong a plant as the pink one!

The giant sprawling old rosebush

Calico...a floribunda

One of the David Austin roses

This one reaches past the eaves on the garage!

Calico bush

Sceptered Isle--one of the David Austins

Hi-Hi says goodnight!