Yesterday I finally found what I’d been looking for for weeks to no avail at the supermarket.

Daffodils. Plain old daffodils.

Every year from January on I look out for them. This year they are terribly late in showing up, maybe because of the very cold weather we’ve had in Europe this winter. We’ve had tulips in the shops for weeks, but no daffs. Last week there were some fancy frilly variations on daffs at a fancy, frilly price. No thank you. I want the real (and inexpensive) McCoy.

What I want are the plain and simple ordinary variety. The sort that may manage to flower in my garden in a month or six weeks time (they are currently 3 inches high – it will be a while!).

I want them closed up tight in their little green sheathes.

And I want to watch the wonder of them bursting out.

Sunshine on a stem. A picture of spring, when we most need it!

The ritual is the same every year. Something so simple that never fails to lift my spirits!

Helen

Here’s my table runner. As I normally never make anything small, I’m quite amazed at how quickly everything happens when I’m working this size.

I could do this all day. There are few things that I find so rewarding!

As you see it doesn’t take much to make me happy.

I’m now pondering what to do with the stars as I think the stippling is only going to be in the background. I’m contemplating hand quilting with embroidery threads – big stitches – something else new. I’m not sure how the machine and hand quilting will combine though. What do you think?

Helen

PS. In yesterday’s post I made a BIG mistake – apologies to Katy, who although she lives in Scotland is actually IRISH. Oops. Sorry Katy!

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I’d like to introduce you to my fellow stitchteasers. You may have encountered some of them before – I feel like I’m in quite hallowed company!!

So….may I proudly present….

The Queen Bee…Di from Random Thoughts Do or Di – this is all Di’s idea and she’s the one who put the motley crew together and keeps us in order. She’s a Californian girl with 4 (very handsome) sons and a husband called Mr Romance. She also gets to have what we call summer in the middle of winter and she’s a super-prolific quilter. Her days definitely have more hours than mine do!

Susan from Canadian Abroad – Susan lives in the UK with her family and is another high achiever! She’s an accomplished quilter and takes parts in lots of bees and swaps – so she’ll be one of the ones who knows what she’s doing (unlike me!)

Hadley from Flying Blind on a Rocket Cycle – there has to be a story behind that blog name doesn’t there! Hadley certainly gets the award for the most original blog name. She  makes some fabbo quilts too!

Annabella from Life’s Rich Pattern – I’ve known Annabella for a while and I hope before long to go and stay in her little hotel in the middle of Marrakech in Morocco. Annabella is a great photographer in addition to being a creative quilter and her little boy Zaki is utterly adorable.

Dianne from Quiltova – Dianne is another ex-pat Brit, like Annabella and I – and she lives in the Czech Republic. Now there’s someone with a language more difficult to master than Swiss-German!

Danny from Mommy for Reals – I don’t know too much about Danny, except that she’s young, wacky and has the most adorable baby daughter….it’s worth visiting her blog just to ooh and aaah over the baby photos!

Katy at the Littlest Thistle Craft Shop – Katy is Scottish and has set a really tough challenge for the bee for her quilt. We have to make strips to make up a town or village….seriously scary, but I think it will probably turn out to be really fun to do.

At the moment we’re each working on a block or a strip for ‘our’ quilt. Once that’s done it will be sent off on its way and the others will add to it until the quilts are completed in a little over a year.

I’ve asked for a quilt made of 9 blocks of wonky stars and as there are only 8 of us, I’ve made two of the blocks. I just finished them up this morning.

I LOVED making them, but have learned a few things about myself in the process. It was abundantly clear to me that I ‘m a bit of a control freak and I’m no good at just letting go and being freely creative. Hence my wonky stars are in nice set controlled grids and have matching points and I set pretty tight requirements for everybody else. Maybe I’m making it easier that way for everyone or maybe I’m stifling everyone’s creativity. We’ll see. I’m sure they’ll tell me!

Over the next few months I’ll be showing you photos from time to time of what I’m making for everybody else – although the photos will be pretty limited as the finished quilts are supposed to be a surprise for the originators – so you’ll probably only get a sneaky peep once in a while!

That’s all for today….time to get back to work!

Helen

This afternoon I’ve been working on my wonky stars – some for a table runner and two 24″ blocks for the new Stitch Tease Bee.

I’m quite taken with wonky stars and I’m having a lovely time using bright bold fabrics from my stash and with Kona Solids ash background.  You might recognize Peridot and Topaz Gypsy Bandana, Kate Spain’s Terrain, Amelia and some lines that have been sitting in my stash for a good long while. Normally I have trouble cutting into new fabrics – but not today. Today I’m going at it with gusto!

Happy Tuesday!

Helen

PS I can now report that I have 5 subscribers! I also found the number of followers (8) in a dark corner of my site stats. I haven’t got the faintest clue what the difference between the two is – except that there IS apparently a difference! Oh well, that’s how it is when one is a bear of little brain!

Recently I did a new wordpress update. Update? Well it tweaked a few things I guess, but I didn’t notice much of a difference.

Not until this morning that is.

Then I realized that there was a new thingy in my column on the right. That’s right. Have you seen it? A special subscriber thingy. And then I had to laugh. Other blogs I visit have hundreds, sometimes thousands of followers or subscribers, or whatever you want to call yourselves out there. I noticed that I have 1. Yes ONE!!

I would like to thank that one lovely subscriber. I would like to tell you, whoever you are out there, that I appreciate your commitment.

How sad would it have been if there had been none?

This is not to say that I don’t have readers. I do, I know I do. I see my blog stats, which look pretty healthy. Some of you leave comments. (Which I love getting by the way!!) So thank you to all my anonymous and not so anonymous readers too !

But special thanks to MY SUBSCRIBER!!

Helen