It's Snowing...Petals!

Our large snow crabapple tree is at full bloom today, and the time between full bloom and petals blowing off seems like about ten minutes!  All the white on the ground isn't snow - it's white petals from the tree.  It's very pretty while it lasts.  Every time the wind gusts, it looks like a mini blizzard.  Holly is enjoying the show.  I have a great dandelion crop, too, don't I? !!

A Room With A View

 This is the view out of my sewing room today, and it smells great with the window open, too!  The crabapple tree is in full bloom, and Skittles is enjoying the view.  This is the prettiest week of the whole year in southeast Wisconsin.  All the crabapple and redbud trees are blooming, the tulips and daffodils are blooming, and the lilacs are blooming.  We have this pink tree in front of the house, and three white snow crabapples and three darker pink crabapples in the back yard.  All of this spring blooming activity is about a month earlier than usual, so I don't know what summer will hold, but I'm sure enjoying today!

Design Wall Monday - Pigs and Cross Stitch

Hope everyone had a nice Easter weekend.  This was a quiet one for us, so I had a little chance to work on my Pork-a-Dots quilt.  I moved the ears around - you can see them a lot better this way.  So now everybody is joined into the center of the quilt, and I'm ready to start thinking about borders.  The pattern suggests a pinwheel border, but I didn't trim these pigs to the right dimensions, so I think that's out.  I didn't want to make that many pinwheels anyway!  I thought I had plenty of the black polka dots to sash and border this, but since I didn't stop and measure before I got started, I had to improvise a little.  We'll just pretend I planned it that way!

I used to do a lot of counted cross-stitch, but haven't done much now for a number of years.  We had a great cross-stitch shop here in town, but it closed about 15 years ago, and no one nearby carries the supplies anymore.  Lately, though, I've seen some pretty cute patterns on With Thy Needle and Thread website, so I've dived back in to cross stitch.  My first project was the Word Play pattern for April.

The designer shows them finished to hang on a doorknob, but my linen was bigger than the pattern called for, so I finished mine to fit around a purchased pillow.  This way, I can do one each month, and slide it over the same pillow.  Both March and April are finished, so I need to order May and get going! 

There are just never enough hours in a day, are there?

Design Wall Monday - April 2

At the Madison Quilt Show in September, one of the vendors had this cute pattern called Pork-A-Dots.  The quilt is made of pigs who are all made of polka dot fabric, with a black and white background.  I started collecting bright dots, which is pretty easy right now since they seem to be pretty popular.   So I spent some time this weekend making pigs!  The pattern showed a braided tail, but I had made curly pig tails a long time ago, so I spent some time figuring out how I did it.  They have elastic in them, so they will curl.  I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but the ears are loose also.  I think this will be a cute quilt for a kid.  I'll show this again once it's quilted!

Christmas Through The Year

It's a good thing Darlene is running the Christmas Through the Year!  It motivated me to finish a couple candle mats today so that I could have my entries for March.  So, here are my newest Christmas gifts. 

These were my Primitive Gatherings mats of the month for January and February, and they are done and ready for gifting, with the addition of a little candle and holder.  Now that the weather is so nice, I'm really done with anything having to do with snow, so the Christmas gift I make in April is not going to by wintry!

Thanks, Darlene, for keeping us on task with this!

Ready for Spring!

It's about time for a finish to be shown on this blog, don't you think?!  The Banner of the Month for March from Primitive Gatherings was this bunny, and he's done in time for Easter.  He even matches the little mat I made a couple years ago.  I've really been enjoying the Banners of the Month so far.  It's fun to be able to get something done start to finish without it becoming a UFO in the process.

I've been working on some other things, so I hope to have some more finishes to show you soon!

Hands2Help Signup Time!

If you're looking for a fun charity quilting project, check out the Hands2Help logo on my sidebar.  Confessions of a Fabric Addict is hosting this again this year, and there are two charities to choose from.  I can't wait to get started on my quilt!  Signups are this week, and quilts are due to be completed at the end of May.  Size guidelines are fairly loose - quilts can be between 45" and 72" on all sides - so this is a great chance to make a quilt to give away.  Hope to see you there!