Mother of Pearl

Yesterday I witnessed an amazing weather phenomenon: It was a stormy afternoon and I looked out of my window and saw this amazing cloud in between the dark, lower clouds. Later I found out that it is called a Mother-of-Pearl cloud (or Nacreous cloud).

It had the most fantastic shifting iridescent colors and I ran to get my phone and camera to capture pictures of it.

The two photos above are taken with my Canon through the window.

For the two last pictures I went out on my porch in the strong wind. It was an amazing weather phenomenon where the cloud was blazing with the shifting colors. A few minutes later it was gone...

Remark: None of these photos are filtered, this is actual footage!

I am so happy I managed to catch it on camera, it was a live show I will never forget. I beats the fireworks on New Year's Eve!

 

Edit: This morning I caught another view of the same type of clouds, not obstructed by trees this time: Beatuful, vivid colors! And you have to be quick to catch it, it disappears in minutes.

With this post I wish you all a Happy New Year in 2017 !

 

This Year's Last Bee Block(s)

This year I have very much enjoyed being a part of one of the BeeHive groups organized by Alyce of Blossom Heart Quilts. Our group, the Beehiveinterquiltinentials, with members from three continents have had a fun time making blocks for each other.

My month was September, and I received a bunch of blocks as decribed in this post . I will have to make a few more blocks to make a decent size quilt, but I haven't had the time to do it yet. My problem is that I committed to way too many projects and BOMs during the year. My first priority for 2017 is to complete this quilt.

For the month of December, Ileana chose the Wanta Fanta block in off white and dusty blue tones, florals or geometric prints. I had several prints of the right colors, so I went straight to work and made her block. When I had made one, I couldn't stop, and had to make another one. Below you can see the two blocks.

I know that Ileana is going to assemble these blocks into a beautiful quilt!

Keep on quilting!

December's Charity Quilt

The last charity quilt I completed was in November/October this year, and that one has already been donated to the hospital.

One and a half weeks ago I got the sewing mojo again to make another one. I have a few packs from my quilting guild with coordinating fabrics to make charity quilts from. After looking through the selection I chose the one with farm animals and coordinating prints.

The Debbie Mumm panel was way too pretty to cut apart, so I let that be the focal point of the quilt and started building up the design around it.

I used the fabrics that were available to me and added some borders and squares, in what could look like Christmas colors. To make the quilt a little longer, I added a few pinwheels on top, plus an additional green border. The picture above shows the quilt prior to quilting.

Then I took the quilt outside to catch the last daylight of the day. This picture is taken around noon, and as you can see the light is very bleak; no filter here. The snow left us a few days ago, so everything is pretty dark. In a short while the days will be getting longer and I am really looking forward to that!

The quilt is approximately 37" x 58" after wash and dryer cycle.

Any small child could make up lots of stories with all the animals in this panel; Debbie Mumm's style is so perfect!

There was also a panel with "ordinary" farm animals in the bundle, and I couldn't cut that apart, either. So that one ended up on the back together with a green print.

I quilted it with loops and big stippling, using a green thread.

Here is a detail from the panel on the back, a happy farm, indeed!

This is my fourteenth charity quilt to the children's ward at the hospital, and I hope to make several quilts for them in the coming year. They are in great need for quilts to the long-term sick children. I hope the quilt will bring comfort and joy, and keep the illness at a distance for a while.

Keep on quilting!

2016 Aurifil December Block

The December block is designed by Amanda Herring, and is a beautiful  12" paper-pieced Flower Block.

Keep on quilting!