Bloom

A few blooming things:

This rose is "Joyfulness":

It is another of the lucky-dip box of roses.

First flower on one of my transplanted dahlias:

Something has had a bit of a nibble at the petals. This is the unknown orange dahlia that was meant to be purple, looking quite red.

The sea of gladdies is blooming marvellously:

 A couple of weeks back I heard about a sew-along using Lori Holt's pattern Bloom:

The pattern is free, and it looked like a good quilt for using up some scraps, so I thought I would join in.

But like last year's "Friendship" quilt along:

the pattern is a free download, but the templates have to be purchased. I was lucky with "Friendship" because Amanda Herring the designer sent me the templates herself, and only charged me the actual postage cost, which was $8. The Bloom templates are available from a few retailers in the US, but the postage charges put them outside my budget. Not helped by the current exchange rate of course. So this is what I didn't buy:

Photo from Lori Holt's blog here. There's also a link to the pattern download there.

I dropped the idea of making the Bloom quilt, but Cheryll at Gone Stitchin' said I was welcome to join in the sew-along anyway. Rather than making the Bloom quilt, I will be making the "Inspired by Bloom" quilt, using the Friendship templates, or other templates I have or can draw.

I have already cut the background squares, but I haven't chosen all the fabrics I will use because I have been concentrating on finishing the Good Fortune mystery quilt. So I am linking to Cheryll's first Bloom link-up without having done what we are supposed to be showing off, our fabric choices! Next time I will have something to show.