A Spring Finish and More

May is one of my favorite months and its going by too quickly. Spring has been busy, therefore, this post is a photo overview. The needlepoint skate ornament was finished and gifted.  My first attempt at finishing included making the cord and backing then putting it all together.  Luckily, there was a the perfect shade of blue moire in the stash. It was difficult to take a clear picture.

Close up beads used as holly berries.

Quilt retreat in the first week of April.

Having fun at retreat ~ sewing for two days and no cooking :-)

My project

Lovely completed quilts were on display at the retreat. 

The following photo is just one block from a gorgeous quilt. All hand appliqued wool. The quilt will be entered into shows, so its best I don't post picture of the full quilt. The maker mentioned it was a Primitive Gatherings pattern.

A local guild, Cameo Quilters Guild held a lovely quilt show.  

There were many Lori Holt designed quilts

Two weeks later was the Sauder Village Quilt Show held in Ohio. 

This won Best of Show, deservedly. 

There was a category of miniature quilts. 

The embroiderers out there will appreciate this block.

After two years of not much happening, everything seemed to open at once. Not only was I able to attend two quilt shows, there were two figure skating shows that I saw live. One was Stars on Ice which is a tour of the current champions of the US Figure Skaters.  Yeap, I saw Nathan Chen do his Rocketman routine in costume although from the nose bleed section.  

Photo from Pinterest

However, the BEST ice show was a local one!

My skater's costume required a little help to avoid "pickiness."  Red sequins had been sewn, from the factory, into the underarm seam (ouch).  Fortunately, I had black velvet scraps which covered the 'picky' sequins.

The extra fabric was barely undetectable and extra soft!

Speaking of the month of May, we had a welcome, 

migrating visitor in the yard.

Baltimore Oriole with a quick stop on his way north.

Today's hand stitching project,

while joining Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitchers,  

is finishing up a long ago, forgotten cross stitch UFO.

Thank you readers who made it this far! 

Jill