Could It Be? Yes, It Is! SPRING!

Finally some wonderful weather here in Wisconsin! It was a great weekend of playing outside after a crummy week of being back to work. My husband and my brother went fishing so I took the kids to the zoo today. It was so crowded but we had a great time. It's great having a zoo pass and being only 10 minutes away because we can go there for a couple hours and we don't have to feel like we have to get our money's worth.

I finished the doll quilt for my niece's birthday. Another wonderful reminder of spring. I sewed on two flower buttons- so cute. I embroidered a ladybug...

and a butterfly...

and it turned out really cute. I made a pillow to go with it.

I also got some knitting done on my felted tote. I did most on my way to and from work- it's about an hour drive to drop off my daughter at daycare, my son at his school and then my husband and I drive to our school. The base is done and I'm ready to start the stripe pattern.

And yet another inspiration from spring... My son painted this at school, and I was so wonderfully shocked! His favorite color always seems to be black and most of his art work is done in ONE COLOR ONLY. We try to encourage him to use a variety of colors, but he has his own mindset. That is why this piece is so precious to me- the vivid colors plus the stripes and dots. I'm definitely going to frame it.

Teapots and Tiny Quilts and Aprons, Oh My!

Tomorrow I'm back to work after a week off. Sigh! The good news is that I finally finished this Teapot Quilt that I started last summer. It's from the Fons and Porter Love of Quilting May/June 2006 issue. It wasn't a hard quilt, and it's small, so there's really no excuse as to why it took me a year to finish. It sure feels good to have it done in time for this year's spring/summer season. I need to find a good place in the kitchen to hang it now.

I also completed my April ATC for the Creative Mom Podcast exchange. The theme: A World In Bloom. I used the same fabrics as the Teapot Quilt. Then I embroidered a ladybug and a flower. Remember, this quilt is only 2.5 x 3.5 inches. It's tiny! It was a real challenge to work in these small proportions. Instead of traditional batting I used Timtex as the middle layer to keep it very stiff, like a card. The backing is the red polka dot fabric and then I bound it with the green floral, as you can see. I machine quilted it around all the middle squares and the border. What fun!

I also finished an apron for Matthew. He picked out the colors and I worked on it after he went to bed so it was done the next day. He posed for this still in his pjs. We then got out all our pretend food and set up restaurant in his room. The red square in the middle is a big pocket. I was going to make one for my daughter as well but she had no interest in his, so I may hold off on hers a while. I am working on a jumper for her that I started- you got it- last year. I'm not even sure if it will fit her this summer. But if it doesn't, I'll give it to one of the moms I know who could use it. Right now I'm stuck because I have to put in 3 button holes, which I HATE doing- even more than zippers. And I haven't done any button holes on my Bernina yet. So I read the manual trying to figure it out. I'm just going to have to sit down one night and practice- not how I really want to spend an evening when I have so many other projects to do. I still have a baby quilt for my friend Lori's daughter and a birthday gift for my niece to make.

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful, but Sewing is So Delightful

As a major spring snowstorm has hit Wisconsin, we have camped out for the day. We're all on spring break, which means we could just stay in our pjs all day. Matthew worked on his school project in the morning. He decided that for his project he would combine paint colors to see what he would get. So he's been painting swatches with two colors and then mixing them to paint a third swatch. I'm having him paint on card stock and then we'll take a square punch to make squares of each color. He wants to hide the resulting color to make it a guessing game for the show. So we'll cover up the resulting color so people can guess what the result will look like. Today he chose to combine red and white, yellow and black and orange and green. It was so cool to watch him go through the process and excitedly trying to guess what the resulting color would look like. He knew that the red and white would make pink, but the other two were harder for him to figure out. Afterwards, his dad said that maybe he should have just stayed with primary colors, but I'm glad he didn't. He already knows the primary combinations, so I thought his project should be his way to explore color and how they combine together. It's his project, and so I just got out all the paint colors we had, which is a huge tub-full, and I let him choose what he wanted.

I was able to get quite a bit of sewing done today while Claire took her naps and Matthew and his dad played. I finished this quilt for newborn Charley, and hopefully I'll get it in the mail to him this week.

Spring in Wisconsin? Yeah, right!

Easter is tomorrow and it's snowing here in the Milwaukee area. Typical. We have no spring in Wisconsin really- it goes right from winter to summer. A couple weeks ago we did have a day or two of beautiful weather, in which I took all my spring/summer clothes out of storage. I don't know why I did this to myself. Every year I promise I will NOT bring out the summer clothes until May. But every year we get one or two nice days earlier, and I excitedly get out all the summer things and lovingly gaze at the pink and turquoise and aqua colors. And then, the temperature falls to 30 and it snows. And I am left depressed and I longinly gaze at all the summery items in my closet only to have to shove them aside for my black and grey turtle necks and sweaters.

At least I can use spring fabrics in my projects. That is my only solace at this point in the year.


I made these notecards for my friend Arran's birthday. They were alot of fun to make.

Yesterday we were visiting my in-laws in Racine and the Yarn Garden used to be right down the road from them. So I excitedly drove over to get soem yarn for a new project. But they had just moved to a new location, and the address was left of the door. I don't know the area well at all, so I was going to give up and go back, but then I decided that I NEEDED to work on something springy, so I stopped and got directions and I was on my way again. When I got there, they were unpacking and organizing and not really opened. But the owner let me come in and shop, which was so sweet and gracious. I got these colors in Cascade 220 to make the striped tote in the One Skein book. As you can see, I've already wound the first ball and I cast on late last night when we got home.