Beth Ferrier’s Blog

The warm weather takes its own sweet time in getting to us here in Saginaw. Winter is a guest who stays long after its welcome is worn away. Any who dares to plant before mid-May is tempting fate. We’ve had snow as late as Mother’s Day.

As I’m sure you’re tired of hearing, my automotive misadventure has kept me from my usual springtime garden clean up. With my right hand restricted to no use, light use and then careful use, the most I could manage was about forty-five minutes every few days. But last Friday the ortho doc proclaimed me healed. It will take some time yet to have full use or be pain-free, but the broken bone is healed.

So I went to the garden center. Most of my gardens are perennials, but we have planters, urns and hanging baskets that are filled with annuals.

I always wait until I’ve seen what wonders the horticulturists have produced for us before I decide on a color scheme. I love geraniums, they are so old fashioned and so freely blooming. They are usually the backbone of my plan.

After finding a yummy veriegated pink variety, I settled on pink with white and blue accents for the front planters.

As for the back, I decided to go with all white flowers in the planters. My roses are finally established and promise to keep us in color. The white theme in the planters will give a nice, fresh splash, and add a bit of sparkle for evening entertaining.

This is our front porch, off the kitchen. I have yet to dress it up for summer, but the rockers are out. The hanging baskets look a little spare now, but they will fill in quickly.

This is the view from the drive way. The garden is being over run by lily of the valley. The scent is heavenly now, but in another week I will be yanking it out, cursing myself for being so soft hearted about volunteers. Since we do this dance every spring, I’m not worried about pulling too many. Maybe this year I’ll toss some of them into the woods and see if they stick.

 And since I don’t have enough to do, I’ve managed to convince Kent that we need another shot at the garden at the edge of the field. Our first attempt, a vegetable garden, turned out to be a deer buffet.

This year, plan is to plant a cutting garden. Next July (2011), that expanse of yard between my rototilling son, Caleb, and the house will be filled with a tent for his wedding to Elaine. It’s a dream come true to host a wedding here, one I never expected, being the mother of sons. We’ll be putting extra effort into the gardens this year so they can provide the perfect backdrop for Caleb and Elaine’s wedding day.

Without a doubt, the hardest decision for me, when it comes to quilting, is settling on a background fill. I have my favorites and I argue with myself about falling back on tried and true. I want to use a fill that will compliment the quilt, and be interesting, but not more interesting than the applique and piecing. Scale is important too. Too big and loose will look like I got lazy and just wanted the darn thing done. Too small and tight will make the piece stiff and take freaking forever.

For a quilt with lots of curves, a linear design makes a nice counterpoint. Conversely, a geometric design is often complimented with a curvy quilting design. In the end, I used a peacock eye design, mostly because I had just taught a class in free motion quilting and was reminded of how fun this design is to stitch. So much for science.

The open corners on the borders are just begging for some sexy stitching. I decided to do some simple princess feathers, mostly because I could use the heart shape in the corner to change the direction of the feathers. It mirrors the heart shapes in the flower petals and the flutterby wings. Using a flexible ruler I marked just the spines. I used a pale peach rayon thread (by Sulky, I think, it’s been in my thread stash for a while). It seemed to me that the quilting needed a little more oomf to hold its own against the vibrant colors of the applique.

Simple curves on the pieced blocks, flowers and leaves completed the quilting.

All that remained was that lovely, peaceful task of turning the binding. I’m totally old school on this, stitching by hand. Because my hands are still healing, it took several hours to complete the binding. It made for a lovely morning, in my rocker on the front porch, listening to my latest addiction, the “In Death” series by J. D. Robb, aka Nora Roberts. (I’m working my way through the series, up to Born in Death.)

I couldn’t resist snapping a picture of my spiffy nails (installed at the local mall). Yep, I’ve definately reentered my sparkly phase.

It’s here, finally. Our second block of the month project for this year is ready to start, well almost. I’m still quilting the sample (my hands can only take so much before they start complaining), but the important stuff is done.

So, here’s a graphic of the design, in all it’s glory.

I’m calling it Flutterby Fancies. It will finish the same size as Be Still My Heart, about 37 x 42 inches.

We have a very limited number of kits available. First come, first serve. Because I know someone will ask, the applique fabric is by Lyndhurst Studio, a division of Northcott Fabrics. The line is the Rainbow Ombres in Nature’s Palette, by Michele Scott. It is gone from the manufacturer’s warehouses. You may be able to find it at your local shop, or online somewhere, but there is no more for your local shop to order. The background fabric is Kaufmann’s Kona Solids, in Snow, just like last month’s kit.

Here’s my version, with the quilting just started. What’s that you say? Are you noticing my spiffy new machine? It’s a Bernina 820, and it’s a honey. Flutterby Fancies is the first quilt I’ve made using it, and it’s been a treat. (You see a globe on the screen because it’s currently on “eco”, a power saving setting that lets me leave the machine on, but at a lower power level.)

I got to see the prototype of this machine over three years ago, while visiting the Bernina factory in Switzerland. It was my good luck to be one of many teachers asked for opinions on what would go into this machine. I’ve had it only a couple of weeks, and so far I’m maddly in love. Don’t tell Kent, he may be jealous.