A Glimpse of Giverny

I may never make the trip to France to see Monet's beloved gardens at Giverny, but I was able to catch a glimpse of the beauty that inspired him.  The New York Botanical Gardens, in the Bronx, is holding a special exhibit of flowers growing at Monet's Gardens at their Conservatory.  The exhibit will be on view until October.  We visited shortly after the opening in April and returned again on Sunday.  In addition to the floral display, the Library at the Botanical Gardens has diagrams and photos of the gardens as well as 2 of Monet's paintings and his sketches of the gardens.

The Botanical Gardens feature a changing array of gorgeous gardens that change with the seasons. The heavy down pours this June have taken their toll on the Enid Haupt rose gardens, but there are still many beautiful and fragrant varieties to enjoy.

On our first trip in April, the 20% chance of rain that was predicted turned into a heavy rain that soaked through my raincoat and filled my camera with water.  The camera is a loss, but the memory card managed to survive with the few photos I was able to take of the peonies..

Viewing the beautiful colors and varieties really made me want to try a water color quilt.  One more quilt to add to my "must try" list.

May For Me

Thanks to Marcia, Sharon, Snoodles, and Tonya for inspiring quilters all over the world to take some time to do something just for themselves during the month of May.  On the first  Saturday in May, I attended a local quilt show and was able to see Bonnie Hunter's trunk show.  After years of reading about Bonnie traveling around the country to give workshops, it was great to be able to see her in person.  Her talk  was funny, informative, and full of beautiful quilts.  She gave several workshops in New York state and she taught Jared's Star for the local guild.  Unfortunately, the workshop was filled, so I wasn't able to attend.  I did get to have Bonnie autograph one of her books  as a surprise birthday present for a dear bloggy friend.   I was surprised that a large number of quilters that I talked to on the shuttle bus and at the show had never heard of Bonnie before.  After her talk, everyone was talking about how great she was.  It was really weird visiting her blog and reading about restaurants in our local area that she visited during her stay

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On Mother's Day, my Viking daughter and I went into Manhattan and attended Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral.  We had lunch at a  Thai restaurant called Thainy and it was small enough to live up to its name.  ON our way back to Grand Central Station, we decided to visit the observation deck of the Empire State Building,  I had not visited there since I was a little girl and my daughter had never been there.  I got to meet King Kong.  The visibility that day was 25 miles so the view was great.

I also managed to join a weekend sew along with the C-Bees online  group using the Twister Tool.  I used 5 inch squares and the small size Twister  ruler.  It will be turned into a table topper  for my night table.  I found it difficult to judge where to position the light and dark charms for the best color balance.  

In my next post, I will share more May for Me adventures.

H2H Challenge

Today is the last day to link up to Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict's Hands 2 Help (H2H) Charity Quilt Challenge.  Quilts from the challenge will be donated to the NOLA Project that sponsors trips to Louisiana to assist children still suffering from the aftermath of hurricane Katrina or to the Happy Chemo project which distributes quilts to cancer patients.
My original plan to donate 2 quilts to each project didn't come to fruition in time.  The photos below are of 2 quilts that will be going to the Happy Chemo project.  Two more quilts that are earmarked for NOLA will be finished soon.

 This quilt is X Rated from Carrie Nelson's Snibbles Times Two.  Each quilt in the book can be made in 2 sizes, from layer cakes or charms.  The gold tone Xs are from 10 inch squares, but the green Xs were cut from yardage.  The backing is the same green tone on tone as the binding.  I left off the scrappy piano key border so that the quilt would finish at 60 inches square.  I've never made one Carrie Nelson's patterns before and I really enjoyed it.  The instructions are very clear and easy to follow.

The red, white, and blue quilt was made using a tutorial from Cluck, Cluck, Sew.  It's an easy stack and whack block that starts with 8 1/2 inch squares.  The resulting blocks are 7 1/2 inches.

It's wonderful knowing that these quilts will soon have a good home thanks to Sarah and her H2H Challenge.

It's Cat Patches Birthday!

I usually resist the temptation to blog about giveaways on other blogs.  Part of the reason is that I write so few posts of my own, that it seems lazy to just give links to someone else's post.  Today is an exception.  Barbara at Cat Patches is one of my favorite bloggers.  She always has photos of the beautiful quilts she makes, her sweet cats, George and Gracie, recipes,  and a weekly fat quarter contest.  Some of my favorite posts are about  her walks with George and photos of the sights around  her Pacific Northwest home.  Today is Barbara's Birthday.  As if that isn't enough of a reason to visit her, she is offering a giveaway of a 10 fat quarter bundle of Misty Impressions by Ty Pennington.  She also has another giveaway of a years subscription to Quiltmaker magazine. I am confident that once you visit Cat Patches, you'll want to stick around and enjoy all of her adventures.  Don't forget to say, " Happy Birthday!"

UFO Incentive

Rhonda from Quilter in the GAP is encouraging quilters to finish up UFOs by hosting a quarterly finish along.  I missed out on the first quarter, but I am signing up to finish a few UFOs for this quarter.  The sign up is open for one more week so you still have time to take part.  I'm eager to display the items that have been sitting around looking for attention that I am targeting for this quarter.  These are shown in no particular order.

I started this quilt last summer using a tutorial by Sharon from Vrooman's Quilts.  All of the blocks are together.  It needs to be layered, basted, quilted, and bound.

I haven't touched my postage stamp quilt since I started it 2 weeks ago.  I  have all of the 2.5 charms cut and I'm determined to get it finished.

This paper pieced batik quilt was started as part of the "Too Good to Cut" Challenge two years ago.  The pattern was for a wall quilt, but I will add a few more blocks, make it lap size and call it finished.

This quilt was started about 18 months ago.  It is from one of the PS I Love You books.  I love the 3 dimensional pinwheels.  I don't know why I stopped working on this one.  I really like it and think it will be a great baby quilt.

This was made for Marcia's Scrappy Quilt Challenge back in January it just needs to be layered, basted, quilted and bound.
Five quilts seems like a lot for me.  I have only finished one quilt, a dryer topper, hamper topper, and a tabernacle cloth for my church in the first 3 months of this year.  I think it is doable since 2 of the items are completed tops and 2 of the others just need a few blocks to be finished.  I would like to use the first quilt for Sarah's H2H Charity Challenge which is due on May 27th so I will work on that this week.  It's not to late to enter the H2H Challenge for 2012 so check the link or the button on the sidebar to see what it is all about.

May For Me Bingo (Edited to add bingo card master sheet info)

Sharon of Vrooman's Quilts, Tonya of Hillbilly Handiworks, Marcia of Marcia's Crafty Sewing & Quilting, and Snoodles at Lily Pad Quilting are four of the most prolific and generous bloggers I know.  They are having a special blog event in May.  The May for Me Celebration will have games, giveaways, and even a Grand Prize donated by Green Fairy Quilts.
I was lucky enough to win a pack of novelty squares at Marcia's blog to start me in the right direction.  I went over to Sharon's blog for the tutorial to make my very own Bingo card and to Tonya's blog to read about the prizes and rules.

These are the charms Marcia sent me.

 This is my Bingo board.

This is my Bingo board with the Master Card listing my objects for the game.

      B                                I                               N                         G                          O

Hens                    Pocket Watches         Stars                Cactus                Mosaic

Fireworks            Dragonflies                Plums               Golf Ball             Chick

Card Suits            Flowers                    Free Space        Frog                   Purple Cat

Monkey               Sunflower                 Tomatoes          Kitty Cat             Raspberries                                                                                                    

Snowflake            Smiley Face              Handbag            Holly leaves         Thread Spools                                                                                                        

It's not too late to join.  You must link up your Bingo board from April 15th through the 22nd.  If you use Sharon's tutorial, you'll be ready in no time.  All you need is twenty five 2.5 inch charms.  While you are checking out the Bingo tutorial on Sharon's blog, be sure to allow time for a visit because she has lots of wonderful things to see and learn about.

Thank you to everyone who wrote and asked about my daughter's eye problem.  We are optimistic because the blind spot has stayed the same size.  She is scheduled to see the neuro-ophthalmologist on April 23rd.  We hope he will be able to give us some good news.  On the bright side, she was accepted by every graduate school she applied to and was offered a scholarship (not full, but generous) to the university that was her first choice.  I'm already scouting quilt shops near the campus.

More Postage Stamp Charms around the Web and here too

If you still haven't gotten your fill of postage stamp charms, Mary of The Curious Quilter, is having a Postage Stamp Charm swap.  If you are a newbie and do not have enough to swap, you can request a 50 charm gift pack.  In addition to the 5 charm packs I offered yesterday, I have 5 more packs of 100 two inch charms available.  Feel free to request one.  I am also offering free Newbie packs at Mary's blog.  She has made lots of postage stamp quilts to provide you with inspiration.