Race to Finish - Sunny Days

Getting two things in with one post: a Friday Finish and OMG for May.

Sunny Days is done!  Ironically, what with real life taking big bites out of my sewing time today, I had to photograph the finish in the setting sun, just as it dipped beyond the horizon.  As a result, there are some interesting lighting effects.

For anyone watching and/or reading Outlander, does this not whisper of Scotland?

On Avril:

I added curlicues here and there to the feathers, a little more feminine

I did the same quilting designs as on Blue Skies with two minor changes: first, I did Kathleen's, via Angela's "magic feathers" instead of echoing a feather, with a single spine, not a 1/4" spine with pebbles, and second, in the meandering, I threw in my favourite flower motif here and there.  I also used a very pale pink thread, Essential from Connecting Threads.  Love this thread!! Not one break through the entire quilt.

Hot off Avril in the daylight of the front entry Friday morning

Again, as I was quilting, I was beating myself up, worrying, thinking oops, that feather didn't round enough, oh, I missed a spot to meander, how will I work back in there, the spine of the feather is wobbly there, the tension isn't perfect here... but when I laid it down here and stepped back, I was SO happy with the overall effect.

Here's the back:

Thanks to Tish's daughter, who gave the definitive, as only a confident 16-year-old can do, 'that one', I went with my gut and put this on the back.  It's a fabulous Rowan Westminster Fibers print called Fairylyte Garden by Melissa White.  I'd had one other possibility, a soft yellow and pink plaid from Kona Bay that I also got at Alma Sue's the same time as I picked this one up.   The saleslady had said, "Do you mind if I ask what you are going to do with these?!" in a bit of 'seriously?' tone.  I told her bag linings or quilt backs.  I couldn't explain why I just LOVED this print, but I do.

In the garden at Lakeside Park; note the difference the light makes!

Below is the 'magic bridge' as seen by me, just before 9 pm Friday.  Pretty magical, I'd say.  The light was blue...so interesting.  Such a different light compared to the warm golden light of 7 am when I was photographing Colours of Alberta for TBT the previous morning.

I thought hmm, wonder what a shot on the bridge of the quilt under a lamppost would look like:

kinda cool...

Then crossed the bridge to one of 'my' favourite sentinels.

You know me, quilts in trees!  This is a 'back atcha' for Katy.

That quilt is 40.5" wide by 48.5"; looks pretty teeny against the huge much-hugged by moi tree.

Tried to get a full-on shot in the kitchen, and of course, it's another photo op opportunity for Miss Bella the diva.

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  Original design
Size: 40.5 X 48.5"; 39 3/8 X 47.25" after quilting
Fabric:  From stash; white is Leaf Lines from Connecting Threads, backing is Fairylyte Garden by Rowan Westminster Fibers
Batting: 100% polyester
Quilted: on my Avanté
Threads: pieced with Gütermann and Mettler 100% cotton and quilted with Essential thread in pale pink; binding stitched down with Essential magenta

This quilt will be for sale shortly in my Etsy shop, which is open, but has a rather lame appearance right now. :-(  I ran out of patience and steam earlier this week, got rather frustrated after spending way too much time on the computer.  Hope to spruce it up this weekend.  What did I name it??
sandrajanequilts
Oh, and I took all of your most helpful advice (thanks so much everyone) and doubled the price of Blue Skies.  From what I've seen after visiting several other quilt shops on Etsy with baby quilts this size, that is a very fair price.  That's $130 Canadian dollars, so LOL only $65 for you Americans after all!! ;-)

In shade, colours are true here

Texture!

Yay! the sun came out right about this point in finishing up this post Saturday morning, so here is a sunlight outside shot or ten for you of Sunny Days:

Sideways to sun, but had to show it against my rhodos :-)

A bit of a high haze, so not the golden sunlight of the other day, but still:

I'll have a pattern out very soon for this simple little quilt with two sizes and two methods of constructing the background.  I already have a mystery volunteer to pattern test!  I am SO excited about this!

OMG
I'm squeaking in my May OMG goal, which is to finish Dayna's grad quilt, only a year late.  This was taken in January.  I had hoped to finish it up in Florida on the Bernina, but that did not happen.  I think Avril and I are humming along merrily enough together now that I can get back to work on this, another original design. :-)

Linking up with
Crazy Mom Quilts
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
TGIFF at Quilt Matters
Red Letter Quilts

Remember to check out Craftsy all month long, (hope you've signed up to get their blog updates, so you will be in the know!) as there are lots of freebies, and some good sales coming up; in fact, I just checked this morning and a TON of classes are marked down again, a few feathers classes, Angela's feather class among them, just sayin'...