Aug
10
Drink tea, watch birds
Filed Under Patterns, Show & Tell
Today I am utterly delighted to turn the blog over to Iris Frank, contributing editor to American Quilter magazine, friend, and and current president of my home guild, PVQA.
Iris has a wonderful Show & Tell for us. Take it away Iris!
Marina Rosario was a member of our PVQA Small Quilt Group and is very accomplished appliquér. She was such a loss when she left the area and we still talk about how much we miss her and her inspiration. The year after she moved to Oregon, Marina sent me a quilt entitled Tea is for the Birds for entry in our local annual PVQA Quilt Show.
Tea is For the Birds by Marina Rosario
I’m an avid feeder of backyard birds and the minute I opened the box and saw the quilt, I fell in love with it! I emailed Marina to ask if she would consider selling it. Her reply was, “Oh, no, I spent over a year making that quilt.” After the show, I was asked if I thought Marina would consider letting the quilt stay in Santa Cruz for a couple of months so it could be used as a decoration for the upcoming UC-Santa Cruz Mother’s Day Tea, since it was so perfect. Marina agreed and I had the privilege of enjoying the quilt for the intervening time period.
After the tea, I emailed Marina to let her know I was packing it up to return to her and begged her again to sell it to me. To my delight, after explaining her cats would probably just use the quilt as their bed anyway since she didn’t have enough wall space to hang it, she guessed she would let me purchase it!! It’s currently decorating my living room wall and everyone who sees it has a positive comment about it…the design (a Marina original) is wonderful and the workmanship is absolutely exquisite! And I love it!!
I love it too! What a masterpiece. Good news! All nine block patterns are available in Marina’s Runs With Scizzors Etsy shop.
Here are a few closeups for your enjoyment.
Thanks Iris!
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Comments
9 Responses to “Drink tea, watch birds”
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❤Beautiful birds, lovely teapots. ❤’How lucky you are to be able to gaze upon all the time~I can imagine how hard it was forher to part with it❤❤
Thanks for sharing the photos. As a tea drinker and bird watcher, this quilt really speaks to me. I love the way she used dots and strips and unexpected fabrics for the birds. Great quilting too. This is a fabulous quilt. I can see how it would take a year to complete it.
What an amazing quilt and love the added stitchery, a truly beautiful design and appliqué work.
Debbie
Very beautiful designs and themes “at teatime and birds” are very well represented. I really liked.
Yasmin
What a sweet quilt. I love that block with the sugar cubes.
A beautiful applique quilt. And lucky you to be the owner of it. I can’t imagine it being something that you would let the cats use. LOL!
Oh gosh. In my defense I must clarify that the cats do not “use” my quilts for anything. If they are too large to go on the wall (the quilts, NOT the cats), they must be stored, and to me that’s just a drag- not being able to have them out to admire. My quilts aren’t bed quilts, so no chance of dirty cats lounging on my hard work.
Iris is making me sound like the crazy cat lady who lets my animals run amok! Let me tell you that the other night one of them wouldn’t come in until way after their curfew, and they were grounded the next day. My boyfriend metes out the punishment. Lol.
I must confess, though, that when I am working on blocks and set them down somewhere, there is fierce competition to be the one who gets to sit on it. My friends were thinking of buying stocks in 3M since I used so much tape trying to get their hair off of my applique blocks!
The drawback of having pets, I guess, but I’m not giving any of them up!
Hey, Kay- I have a Tuxedo cat named Max, too. Maximus Decimus Meridius, the Gladiator!
I absolutely love this quilt. The design is beautiful as well as the stitching.
Is there a pattern available???
Hope so
This quilt is absolutely stunning!!! I am in awe!