Spring!

Fall used to be my favorite season - for the colors and the weather that starts to cool down after a hot summer, but now I think I love spring the best. I love the idea of re-birth, the beautiful flowers that spring up after even the harshest winter. Here's a couple of shots of my daffodils - they spread more and more each year and I love to see the masses of them.

And then my favorite spring flower - for the fragrance alone - the hyacinth. They don't spread like the daffodils and I only have one or two in different areas, except for these pink ones in the front bed.

And these Virginia Bluebells came from the family homestead -- literally -- outside of Polo, IL. My husband's aunt and uncle homesteaded 80 acres there and when we visited his aunt once, when she was in her 90's, she gave me a clump of these bluebells and I planted them and they come up every spring. I have peonies from his mother's house, too. It's like having a treasured heirloom I think.

And finally, my pink tulips that I planted just a couple of years ago. Tulips come back every year, but around here they don't increase, and very often decrease and you need to plant more.

Update on the house sale: We had a good open house a few weeks ago, the biggest one my realtor has had in about 5 years (so the housing market around here is on it's way back). We've had three separate showings and one guy came back a second time, but no offers have been tendered, so I'm getting on with life and not getting my hopes up. I did decide once I have an offer in hand that I would buy another house north of Rockford, where the taxes are less. I won't be buying a condo -- too many rules I don't want people to make for me! A smaller house with a tiny yard will work fine.  It just has to have a finished basement big enough for my longarm and my antique table!

I've been doing some outside work these past few days - burning brush, picking up sticks and mowing.  But today it's a bit chilly and supposed to rain, and I have a cold, so today I'm getting back into the sewing room and work on project two of Jo's Little Women Club #12 - AbbyGayles' Scraps.  Hopefully I'll have some quilt pictures soon!
Until then - have a good one!

First project is finished

This was the first project from Jo's Little Women Club 12 class I'm taking. I stitched down the binding today even though I really just wanted to knit!

Mitered the corners of that great striped fabric and then cut the binding on the bias so it would stripe that way.  Not a big quilt, but fun to make.  I started hand quilting it, but it's been so long since I hand quilted anything that I just couldn't get a consistent stitch, so I ripped it out and threw it on the longarm and practiced using the rulers to do diagonal lines through the blocks.

I did spend a couple of hours knitting on my next pair of socks, too.  Now I'm going to head outside for a little fresh air -- kinda windy out, but in the 60's and dry for the first time in over a week..  We have another week worth of rain heading our way too.

Pass the Waffles Please

I thought I'd have a picture, but it's raining today, so pictures will be taken on Saturday. Waffles? I'm done waffling and just signed a contract with a couple of realtors to sell the house.  This is my final decision!  I will be moving to the big city of Rockford once my house sells and I will buy a condo -- no more yard work or shoveling for me.  And, hopefully, I'll eventually be able to do some traveling after I get settled.  I signed with the realtor that sold our house in Rockford 19 years ago when we built this house, and she brought another realtor along that works out of their Byron office, so I get two realtors for the price of one -- pretty good deal.  That's my big news of the month!

While I was waiting for them to come out this afternoon, I started my next pair of socks -- this time I'm trying the two at a time on circular needles and managed to get the first row of ribbing done today.  The needles are metal and very slippery so I'm not used to that -- the double pointed ones I used were wood.  I'll continue with these and maybe get used to them, or I'll go buy wooden circulars!  Either way, I'm having fun and looking forward to having a whole pair done at once! And I'm glad I did the double pointed for the first ones, but I think I'm going to like this technique too.

They're finished!

Maybe next time I can get the stripes to match -- just worried about learning to knit with these!  Couldn't wait to get them done though.  Finished the second one this afternoon, then drove over to Pearl City to see Lynn Hagmeier, of Kansas Troubles Quilters at Yellow Creek Quilt Designs.  She did a book-signing at my favorite quilt store -- and Kansas Troubles fabrics by Moda are my favorite fabrics!

Back to the socks:  I cast on my next pair onto two circular needles!  Now that I have one pair on my feet, so to speak, I'm going to try to learn to do the two at a time way. Probably won't be any quicker, but if I can learn to do it, I'll have two done at once and that's a real bonus!

I'll have more news later this week - been kinda busy around here.

Quilt Stuff

It's been ages since I took any kind of quilt class. After awhile you already know how to do everything, I think! That being said, I signed up for a year of Jo Morton's Little Women Club #12. First class was this afternoon. The instructor is Kay Steinmetz and the class is at Quilter's General Store in Rockford. I signed up because I love taking these type of classes from Kay. The last one I took from her was Tulip Farm I think -- from Blackbird Designs. I do tend to finish my projects like this -- sometimes not during the year but usually soon afterward. The class was from 12:30 - 3:00 but we didn't go that long and I was home by 3. So after lunch/dinner at 3:15, I decided to at least cut the fabrics for the blocks. Well, one thing led to another, you know how that goes, I ended up making the four patches and even squared them up. This is what one block will look like after it's sewn together:

Totally felt wonderful sewing this afternoon at home and going to the class earlier.  Can't wait to actually get this top put together.  I didn't get border fabric today, so I'll put the top together and take it in for border fabric.  This will not be a big quilt, so I may even hand quilt it -- that's how good it felt to play today!

It's a Sock!

Far from perfect -- but it fits and I learned a lot.  Already started the second one, but taking a break now.  I think I worked through most of the hard parts so the second one should be a little easier.

It's certainly been enjoyable just sitting and knitting.  Definitely have a new obsession, but will still go back and quilt; sock knitting can be done in the evenings now when JR is in my lap and the tv is on!

Answered My Own Question

I took a nap! I do not sleep well at night, so am always tired and out of energy. So, I took a nap, then loaded a small table runner of Kris' on the longarm and quilted it, and then checked my to-do list and the last thing on it for today: Cut Pussy Willows branches. So I trekked out in knee high drifts of snow and cut some pussy willow branches and put them in water. I hope they take root and then I'll plant another pussy willow tree in the spring. (That's where the first one came from -- Bill gave me a flower arrangement once with pussy willows in it and they took root in the water and now it's a 15-20 foot tall tree.

Think I need to solve my sleeping problem!

Chaos

I can only live with chaos for so long before it drives me crazy. I call messy surfaces chaos because they stress me out and fill me with anxiety until I finally clean them off. Thing is - I'm the one that makes these messes -- the dog certainly doesn't pile things on the table or the counter in the basement!

After picture of the kitchen table -- the items on the table now are what are on there every morning --still rather cluttered, but at least its a controlled chaos!The lamp is usually against the wall -- I like lots of light when I knit or applique.

I didn't take a before picture of my kitchen island, but it was as messy as the table was. I had to clean it off in order to make cut out sugar cookies today, and then clean up the mess, and put the quilt back on.  More controlled chaos and fresh cookies to be frozen for Easter!

The mess on the counter in the basement -- it's still there! That'll have to be a project for next week. I do have a terrible habit of dumping the paper down there because that's where my filing cabinet is, and my main computer.
 Basically, I need to come up with a plan to actually get something accomplished without making a mess and still have lots of time to knit and quilt and read, etc! Anybody have any suggestions? What works for you?