The Pastor's Attic Quilt

I quilted across the whole row again this week. I only quilted the 3" - 4" swath between rows 3 and 4. This is the part of quilting this quilt I enjoy the most. I love seeing these quilting motifs come to life!

Starting with the left side border.

Left outside block.

Between blocks 1 and 2.

Block 2.

Between blocks 2 and 3.

I didn't take pictures of the rest of the individual blocks, it's just the diamond cross hatching in all of them.

Between blocks 3 and 4.

Between blocks 4 and 5.

Block 5 and the right border.

Quilting won't go so fast this week. As you saw from the pictures, there are a lot of little round circles and oval berries to be quilted and the quilting all the embroidered stems take time too. That's OK, I'm not in a race. I'm still enjoying myself which is the important thing.

On a lot of blogs in December, people showed their blooming Amaryllis. They were so lovely and colorful, I was envious because I had started going through color withdrawal. The winter dreariness had begun.

I have Amaryllis bulbs that I save and replant from year to year. Last year I had a toddler grandchild running around in my house. To make things easier, I put the potted Amaryllis upstairs. I thought as each plant bloomed, I would bring it downstairs to be enjoyed. It is cooler upstairs and there are no large windows. I don't know if it was because it was cooler or darker, but for whatever reason, out of 10+ Amaryllis plants, only 2 grew buds and then those dried up and fell off. I was so disappointed! 

As usual last spring, I transplanted the Amaryllis plants into my flowerbed to grow over summer, just like I've always done. I dug them up after the first frost in October, then stored the bulbs in our garage. I left them there until the temperatures fell into the 20's and then moved them into the basement. 

After Thanksgiving, I potted them to start their new growing season. I potted 10 large bulbs and a large pot full of the 'babies', the little sprouts that fall off. I gave away the intermediate sized bulbs, 20 plants just take up too much space.

I'm pleased to say, out of the 10 large bulbs, 8 of them have flower buds. One, out of those 8, has only 1 bud. Six have 2 buds and the final one actually has 3 buds. I've never had a 3 bud Amaryllis before.

The first of the buds have opened this week. Each bud normally has 4 flowers.

The first one to open was this red with the white strip in the throat. Two beautiful flowers in this picture. 

The white doesn't show as well as I wished but you can see it some. Sorry the picture was blurry.

The second one to start blooming was this bright orangish red Amaryllis. This one actually has 5 flower buds in the large bud. Since this picture was taken, four flowers are blooming.

I showed them to my local DIL and told her to select one to take to her house. She chose the darker red one. 

I'm so glad for the flowers. We had sunshine only one day last week, they bring a lovely touch of color on the dreary, gray overcast days of winter. 

Linking to Peacock Party, Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching, Oh Scrap, HQAL, Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away, Moving It Forward, WIPs On Wednesday