A Joyous Easter

Winter decided to hang on through all of Lent, despite how late Easter was this year, so it is nice that spring seems to have arrived with Easter.

The forsythia came from my bush. If I cut it on Palm Sunday, I can force the flowers for my Easter table. The tulips were from the chancel at church. If one was on cleanup, yesterday, after church, one got gifted with a handful of cut flowers, so they could be enjoyed a little longer.

I made these place mats years ago, for my mother's table, but Mom liked to save things for "good" so I found them, unused, in her linen closet, after her death. It makes me kind of sad that she didn't feel a cup of tea in the afternoon, with a friend, was "good" enough. Quilting is an art to be used, so yesterday, when a friend was coming to join us for dinner, I pulled them out and put them on the table.  By the end of the meal, there had been coffee spilled on them, but they enjoyed by the diners, and the coffee washed out. The place mats were made from a free pattern from Jenny Beyer.

I made my favourite little boy an Easter Egg.

It has cats on it, because he loves cats.

I made it entirely from materials from my stash, and used the sewing of the egg as my reward for my 30 minutes of tidying. The pattern was suppose to be "easy" but there was some very tricky parts.  My vintage Singer 15-91 was very useful for the sewing of the thick sections. That machine does a fabulous job on things too thick to go through my Husqvarna.

Eggs at Easter are said to be symbolic of the empty tomb, or something that appears to be dead but is actually alive, or they are a pagen symbol of new life (depending on who you consult). So of course, there is a surprise inside.

He fits very nicely into the egg. There is even room for some chocolate. The pattern is from So Sew Easy.

My snowbird friends are returning from the south. So some fabric I ordered from a company that doesn't ship to Canada, came back with the snowbird.

I have a ridiculous 8 yards of this, because I didn't know how much I needed.  I am pretty sure I can find things to use it for.

Spring Cleaning - Week 2

I put in my 30 minutes, yesterday, and I found a long forgotten project.

I started this quilt longer ago than I can remember. My memory said that I set it aside because it was too "Christmas". Why would I put a lot of work into a Christmas quilt?

I pulled it out and looked at it, yesterday. I realized that I had done a good job on the piecing, and if you take away the green border, it doesn't  look very "Christmas" at all. The fabric is actually much more cream than the picture shows. It was a very grey day when I took the pictures. I can replace the green border, with a red, tone on tone border. Best of all, someone has asked for the finished quilt.

So it has moved from the give away pile to the "to be finished" pile.

I purchased some "mini bolt boards" also known as comic book boards, to wrap my fabric around and make it tidy. Some ironing may be required. I bought 100, I wonder if that is enough.

I see that my toss toward the wastebasket missed and you can see a discarded envelope in the background. I've since picked that up.

I am test knitting a shawl for a designer, more on that later, but this is the start.

Winter just keeps hanging on. Apparently we are on day 157 of discernable snow on the ground. So brightness is required.

 Currently blooming in my kitchen! I am also forcing some forsythia so it can grace our dining room table, on Easter.

Spring Cleaning Begins

My sewing studio (sounds better than kid's former bedroom) will never grace the pages of a magazine, but when I lost my straight pins, something had to be done.

So, yesterday, I started on the 30 minutes to tidy project. Nancy Zieman taught me about 10, 20, or 30 minutes to sew, and I thought that could apply to this project.

Two days in and I have made significant improvement to my space.

The cutting table is clear. My current project is piled on one corner. Like the neon green zipper? I have room to move.

This is the right end of the  serger "table" (a board om two file cabinets). I was embarrassed by how old some of the stuff on there was. I found two notebooks, that I am sure I have been missing for months. The rubber glove is the best thing I have found for clearing the lint out of my cutting mat. The bag is filled with selvage edges, that I am waiting for the perfect project. I see I set my camera case down and forgot to move it as I took the picture.

Left end of the serger table, with my tablet stand, my tool bag, some thread and my coaster for my coffee cup. Might still need a bit of work but it is much better.

The best part is that there isn't any stray fabric. Big pieces are in one place. Smaller pieces are in another. The pieces that are small enough that I won't use them are here.

They are packed up and ready to go to the local kindergarten for their art projects. I asked the teacher if she would like them and she was thrilled.

My serger table had 5 coasters on it. Why?

These three I made, and have never used. So, they are just sitting on my table, cluttering up the space. Obviously a new home is required.

The treasure of the day is this.

A package of barrette backs from a store that went out of business in the 1990's, I think. The only time I pin my hair back is at yoga and I use bobby pins. I have started a collection of things for the give away table at quilting.

In case you are wondering, Mysti has decided to be a bit more social. Still very cautious, but she has started to play and get in touch with her inner kitten.

Just A Quick Post

I am trying to post once a week, in order to see some progress. So, here is a summary of the past week.

The baby set got finished and delivered. Bear wanted to model it before it left. I didn't get a closeup of the buttons, but they are tiny hearts.

Bear is playing hide and seek, and is "It" so is counting to 100. I took the opportunity to take a picture of the back of the sweater.

The sweater is Another 5-Hour Baby Sweater. I made a couple of modifications and knit the sleeves in the round.

Since I had yarn left over, and the DPN's were already out, I made a seriously modified version of a ruffle baby hat. The original pattern was done on 2 needles and always needed some elastic thread to keep it on. I checked my gauge, and it was dead on, so the problem is the pattern. I started again, my own way, and came up with a result I liked better. I will have to wait for a report on whether it fits.

I was asked for a copy of the pattern. I may write it up and post it here, but I will need to knit another one or two, maybe in bigger sizes. I need to make sure my sizing works.

The yarn is King Cole Cherish DK, a gift from a friend, a couple of years ago, so I don't know if it is still available.

I made a sock, back in October, and needed some TV knitting. So I decided it was time to make the mate.

The Pattern is Crazy.  The yarn is a cotton/wool blend with a bit of elastic for stretch. You will notice I am intentionally making fraternal twins.

We got a new foster, this week. She is a bit shy, so our pictures aren't great, yet.

That is the back of my dryer. Yesterday, we pulled out the dryer, cleaned back there, and worked on a way to keep her out of there while still allowing her to hide. The current arrangement is working better, and I will try to get better pictures. She was named Mystique, but I am calling her Mysti.

Though you can't really tell, she is a brown tabby.