Spring

 The weather has turned warm, and sunny, finally. Today, it is 23C. The flowers are blooming everywhere in the yard.

Some are native plants. Some are bulbs we planted. It is tulip time in Ottawa. The Tulip Festival began on the weekend, and continues for the next two weeks.

Meanwhile, I have been knitting on my May socks. This yarn is from a new to me dyer, Area 51 Yarns. She is in Regina, Saskatchewan, and has some great striping yarn.

This is one of my silly googly eye heel turn pictures. Now I am on the home stretch of the first sock. 

Spring means it is time to sew purses. I started one yesterday. It is going to be a hybrid design. based on two patterns I have. We will see how it goes.

I'm using some leftovers to make my concept bag. These cats were asking to become bag, again. The cork is leftover from another bag. They look good together.

The reno continues. It always takes much longer that the 60 minutes they show on TV. 

Decisions

 I have been missing because the contractors arrived and the reno began. We are still sorting through "stuff" and deciding what should go where, and if there is a way to give stuff to people who can use it.

We have made 2 trips to drop off Ewaste, 5 bags of books have gone to the annual church book sale, fabric and patterns have gone to be freecycled, along with kitchen items, toys, and other useful things. Sadly, some of the "stuff" just has to be thrown away. No one wants old textbooks, broken plastic items, and other such treasures. Some days I feel like my head might explode from all the decisions.

When the workers get too noisy, I have been hiding, either knitting in the sunroom with the pets, or spending time organizing my sewing stuff. 

These are my very alert guardians.

I have gotten some knitting finished.

These are my April socks.

And a pair of  baby socks.

I finished one fingerless mitt, but then spring arrived. I must finish the second one.

Easter came, and I made a family favourite, Easter cupcakes. 

This year is the 100th anniversary of the forming of the United Church of Canada. The local region decided to make a quilt to commemorate the occasion, with one block for each "pastoral charge".  I don't know who is going to put the blocks together, but I was asked to make the block for our congregation. (What were they thinking?)

This is my block. It is a six inch block, and I was asked for 4 sections about the church. Just try to do four ideas as 3 inch triangles. Everyone seems happy with it, so it is off the join the rest.

While I have been organizing my sewing room, I have been rewarding myself with a few minutes of sewing. Just a small project I can work on in small bursts. Today, I finished this little bag from 2 1/2" squares of Shweshwe fabric. I discovered I had been gifted with a bag of scrap strips from someone else's quilt. I don't remember who gave it to me.

Spring is finally here, so I have some pictures of our gardens.

I saw a cute couple looking for a new home, the other day. They were checking out our backyard.

I think they decided that there were too many dogs in our block, so they have gone elsewhere.