It's...Spring?

Well, it's been snowing off and on here for a few days now.  Yes, it's May, nearly June.  I realize in some parts of the world, this signals the tentative beginnings of summer.  In Central Oregon, however, Spring comes with no guarantee of flowers, sun, or pleasant weather.  This year's Spring impersonation has involved rain, sleet, snow, and wind for about 6 weeks!  Rather sick of it and all the gray, truth be told! 

In the seemingly useless hope that some kind of sunny weather will arrive soon, I've been making hair clips! I found the hair clips in a bulk package at Micheal's, while the flowers themselves are supposed to be used in table arrangements and/or scrap booking.  A little hot glue and viola!


The quilting has been slow going as of late- working 40 hours a week in a quilt store doesn't actually leave a lot of time to sew, as it turns out!  :) I have managed to finish some center diamond blocks for my most ambitious project yet.

 I saw the pattern for "Starburst" in Keepsake Quilting about two months ago and fell in love!  It's designed by Dereck Lockwood and features the intricacy in design that I love.   There are at least twenty templates necessary to create this quilt- and I've never template pieced anything in my life before this!  My quilt group thinks I'm crazy but I think they're finally getting used to the idea that I like the challenge complicated quilts provide.  I'll save my rant about the current simple/block trends of modern quilting for another time, but suffice it to say, I this complicated beauty is right up my alley!

There are two colors of diamonds for the points in this quilt- the picture in Keepsake shows the designers choice of solid fabrics, featuring greens and grays.  While those make a striking contrast with the black outlining and borders, they're not my colors at all! I like the richness that warm colors provide- they really draw your eye straight to the center of this quilt.  I am adding come cool colors to the outer blocks, but you'll have to keep checking in to see when I have time to finish those mirror-images guys.