Happy Monday! It’s time to check in on my Stay-At-Home-Round-Robin progress. The first prompt for this was curves.

Now… I’m not a fan of sewing curves. I really should give it more of a try, because it would be a good challenge, but I’ve got too much going on right now to step out of my comfort zone. But that’s the beauty of this sew-along. You can interpret the prompts how you want, and skip them if need be. So that’s what I did.

Next up was diamonds. Potentially, another tricky one. I took a few days to think about it, and finally decided to keep it simple with some square-in-a-square blocks.

They make pretty good diamonds, in my view! And using the solid fabric around them really highlights the fun prints!

Next, they needed to be sewn to the panel.

And voila! The panel only required minimal trimming to get it to work with my diamonds (which are 4.5″ unfinished) The trickiest part was making sure all those dapper black cats were pointing the right way.

Gah! They are just so darn cute!!!!

Of course, not as cute as the real thing!

With all the blocks of the Pegacorn quilt ready, it was time to assemble it into a top.

As usual, Burton was right at the centre of things, overseeing the process.

We both agreed that these stars needed more than simple sashing so I dug into the stash and found some grey and yellow fabrics to make cornerstone stars

Burton approved, so I got down to the business of sewing it all together. Being a baby quilt, it didn’t take long.

Apparently it was too long for Burton though. When it was time for a finished shot, he was nowhere to be found. Rupert kindly agreed to step in and show it off properly.

I think this one is so fun and sweet with its cheerful colours, and adorable little pegacorns.

I even managed to find them in flannel for the back, and I have more of the mottled blue from the border for binding.

I’m hoping to get to Mom’s for a quilting weekend on the 5th. But it’s weather dependent. There’s a lot of road between here and there, and some of it is really nasty when the weather turns. Too bad I don’t have a pegacorn of my own, I’d just fly there.

Although garden seasons is AGES away, I had to bring a little spring home with me on grocery day.

They had a pile of beautiful potted hyacinths in bloom. I had a hard time choosing, but in the end I went with this lovely pink one.

And oh how I wish you could smell it through the computers. It’s so strong. I come down every morning and the kitchen is just filled with its perfume. It’s incredible!

Because it’s potted, I can pop the bulbs in the ground and enjoy it outside for many, many years to come!

My other garden endeavors aren’t quite as good.

My little sunflowers haven’t really grown, and the biggest one has yellowing leaves and is leaning over. I’ll keep nursing them until they give up completely, but at this point, I’m not sure they will make it.

My ranunculus wasn’t showing any signs of life yet either and I was getting worried. But last night I was watering the plants and look…

… teeny tiny sprouts!!!!

And there is one last bit of spring to share. Although I absolutely do not need another dress, I couldn’t resist this gorgeous burst of life from Old Navy.

Just look at all that flowery goodness! I can’t wait to wear it in my garden all spring and summer!

For today’s Friday Felines, I thought I’d share an update on Norman, and the little care package I sent along for him.

It was recieved with much joy, and his quilt was put on his Mom’s desk so they can spend the day together while she works. But the real prize was the catnip pillow I included.

I think it’s fair to say the package was well received!

2022 has not brought me as much time to sew as I would like so far, but I couldn’t resist sneaking in another sew-a-long.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve watched several of you do the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and I decided this year is the year to join in. January’s colour is Red, so I dug through my scrap bin, got out some graph paper, and came up with this big beauty.

Because my sewing time is more limited, I decided to do just one block each month. To compensate for that, I made it big one. This a a modified carpenter star, and it’s 16.5″ big. At the end of the year, I’ll have 12 of them, and with some sashing and a border, it will be enough for a good-sized lap quilt.

Way back (all those weeks ago) when I realized that I needed a longer needle for the Hemlock Ring, I started another project to keep my busy while I waited. It was the Harriet Bolero, for Miss Wren. Her birthday is in March, so I wanted to have something done in time to mail to her if I wasn’t going to be able to make it down that way.

I dug around in the stash and came up with two skeins of Fat Cat in this fantastic BRIGHT pink. And as you can see, I’ve made good progress. The body is done, I’m just now picking up stitches for the bands. Then it will be onto the sleeves. The pattern has short sleeves, but I should have enough yarn for at least 1/2 sleeves, if not 3/4 or full. I’m going to make them as long as I can.

I’ve been keeping an eye on Old Navy as their new spring fashions come in. I’d like to get a nice little spring dress to go with this.

I had a very productive Stitchy Saturday and Sunday night, and now my house has a little lawn and a tree

If you’re paying attention from last week, you’ll notice that I changed the pattern up a bit. The pattern has trees on both sides. In real life, we only have a tree on the left side of the house. It’s a big purple Norway maple, so I gave it nice dark purple leaves.

The other side I left open for the date. The original pattern only recorded the year, but I wanted to put the full date of the very first day we became homeowners.

Now all that’s left are the vines and the sampler letters. Can I finish it in one more weekend…? Hard to say. Time will tell, I guess

As expected, I got Krista’s socks done by the weekend. Nothing fancy to see here. The yarn is Ice Yarns Glamour Sock. It’s a sport-weight yarn, so they are are little heavier. I used a 2.75mm, cast on 60 stitches and used basic sock math. I’m pretty pleased with the result, and I think Krista will be too.

There’s still quite a bit left on this ball, and I have another full ball of it left. I think it would make a nice hat and glove set at some point in the future. But that’s for another day.

Ok… I lied a little yesterday…. it’s not too early to plant indoors….

January to March are always the hardest time of the year for me. I spend so much time thinking about playing in my gardens, and there’s NOTHING I can do but dream.

I have to find other ways to channel my urge to grow, and the other week, the grocery store offered up a solution.

They had several little “grow” boxes of different plants – Cala lilies, Mums, and a few others. Including Ranunculuses.

Ranunculus, also known as Persian Buttercup, is a gorgeous little flower. They can’t overwinter outside here, but they are supposed to do well in pots. I tried once before but didn’t have any luck. The boxes were only a few dollars, so I figured it was worth another try.

They had a few colours, but I picked this pretty apricot. I followed all the directions, and it’s sitting under my grow light now. Here’s hoping I see a sprout or two in a few weeks.

Last weekend, Dave and I had to take a trip to Sarnia. As usual, I was driving. I think that’s just so Dave can watch the world go by and shout “Stop, turn around, there’s a used store over there we have to check out!!!”

We were on a mission to Home Depot, and had already been on the road running errands for most of the morning, so I really wasn’t in the mood to stop. But I did.

I didn’t take a lot of pictures.

But this picture gives you an idea. Its one of those cavernous labyrinthine “vintage” stores that’s been there for ages, and the owner just keeps jamming more and more things in. Dave wandered off and looked at the multitude of dusty electronics and car parts, while I browsed through the trove of glassware

I wasn’t really looking for anything particular, and I didn’t really expect to find anything. But then I did. And then another, and then another.

And apparently now I’m a pigeon fancier! As you can guess, these will end up somewhere in the garden this spring, filled with plants. The middle one needs some new rope, but he’s actually a hanging planter (you can see the holes for the rope).

Eventually we did make it to Home Depot. Dave got a pile of stuff to put a new faucet in my bathroom (nothing fancy, the old one was just so calcified, you could barely get water out of it.) And I found some fantastic seagreass baskets on sale!

I bought two of them, and I think at least one of them will hang out by my recliner to help keep my knititng WIPs a little more tidy.

And I also got seed….

Lots and lots of seed!!!! But more on that another day. It’s still too early to get too excited about planting – even planting indoors!