"What's on the line?"

Well, it was just a bit windy when I took my little quilt out to the clothesline on Friday afternoon. It was to be a rainy weekend so I thought I better take my picture before the rain set in. I failed to take into account .......... that it was very windy out! I was prepared to wait until just the right moment when the wind died down and I would snap my picture. Unfortunately, the wind kept doing this.........
The little quilt practically wrapped itself around the clothesline and then slowly worked it's way down......almost a good shot.........and then.........

Up it would go, and then higher and it stayed straight out for several seconds!!!

Then finally, I could feel the wind calm a bit and the quilt began to settle and it was looking good.......

and this was the best I could do. I decided the wind was winning and this photo was good enough! I took the quilt off the line and layed it in the grass so you can see it.........

I call it "Spring Basket" and it's one of twelve small wall quilts that I made in 2000 to celebrate the Millennium. I designed and made one for each month of the year and taught the quilts as classes in our community education program. This was one of my favorites as I love tulips. It's just done with fusible and then I used a fine line of those acrylic puffy paints to outline the basket and tulips. Then I did some handquilting to outline the basket of flowers. I added the fluffy bow "just because I liked it". :-) The border fabric made me think of Turkish designs. I felt it was the perfect touch to a quilt that featured tulips as tulips are featured in so many Turkish designs!

If you want to see some photos of really lovely tulips in Turkey, then I recommend that you visit Nihal's blog where you will find five days of tulip photos........just click here and you'll be there! If you'd like to read a little history on tulips, you'll find this site "Tulips in Holland" is very interesting......just click here. And if you really want to read about tulips, here's a book that I have enjoyed reading......... TheTulip by Anna Pavord. It's everything you ever wanted to know about tulips!!!

Many of you probably have tulips growing in your own gardens. I used to have tulips at our previous home but we haven't done any plants yet at this house. Maybe next spring. And there will definitely be lots of tulips! Interestingly, I've been fortunate enough to see tulips in Holland and yet, I've never been to Pella, Iowa to see the tulips and I grew up in Iowa! I'm hoping to visit next spring but if you are nearby and want to know about their annual festival, just click here and you'll learn all about Pella's Tulip Time Festival.

So, don't worry about the laundry today........just think tulips.....plant some or read about them......or better yet find a garden and check some out in person!