I do love this time of year, because it means my gardens are returning to life, but it does have its downside…

It’s a good thing he’s so sweet…

Because my floors look worse by the day!

I managed to scrounge together enough fabric to make the three yellow blocks I need for my Rainbow in the Dark quilt

I had to cut strips off some stashed fat quarters and yardage to do it. I don’t normally like to do that for scrap quilts – I like them to be true leftovers from other projects, but I also don’t want this one to drag on forever. I’d like to have it wrapped up and off to my friend in a couple months.

Blue will probably be up next, because I’ve got plenty of blue strips, but I’m going to have to raid Mom’s scraps to get enough for orange, red and purple.

With Minerva off the needles, most of my attention has been on the lavender tweed socks.

And as you can see, the first one is done. I really do love this pattern. It’s just as nice in the tweed as it was in my hand-dyed yarn.

This yarn is Knitpicks’ Stroll Tweed, and it’s very nice to knit with. It’s very soft (just like their Felici), and knits up beautifully, as you can see. The only complaint I have is that many of the little tweedy bits aren’t spun into the yarn very well. They have a tendency to pull right off as you’re knitting. That said, there are still lots leftover that are knit in well, so I guess it doesn’t really matter.

Now… onto the second sock!

Another column of toes has been completed for the dinosaur quilt.

Normally, I work on these a pair at a time. but I found myself with a full free afternoon the other day so I decided to set up an assembly line and bang out all six pairs needed for the column all at once.

It took a couple hours, but I’m now more than halfway done on this top, and it’s a good feeling.

When I started this one, I thought it was going to be a quick little baby quilt, but we all learned how that turned out.

Still. I’m glad I decided to continue on and make it to its full potential because it’s going to be one really cool quilt when it’s complete.

I’m still debating whether to have all the columns going the same way, or to make them opposite…

… but I have decided that I’m definitely putting sashing between each column. I’ve got a very neat grey fabric that looks a little like stone. It’s going to be perfect.

While I finish up the last column of toes, I encourage you to watch this Time Team special episode. You’ll see where I got some of the inspiration for these tracks!

The Minerva cowl is complete, and it just reinforces my hunch that handspun is the perfect yarn for entrelac!

I had just enough of it to create a nice small cowl. I finished it off with a few rows of garter and five buttonholes.

Nothing fancy for the buttons, but they are a lovely shade of purple that matches perfectly.

The finished cowl is just deep enough, and long enough to find a nice bit of insulation around the neck.  Tucked into a coat it will definitely keep the wearer warm!

Now it’s in the gift box, awaiting the right recipient! Thank you, Michelle, for this wonderful pattern and knit-a-long!

It took me three afternoons to do it, but Calico Garden is finally a completed top.

On the first afternoon, I made the remaining 72 HSTs for the final two blocks. On the second afternoon, I finished those two blocks.

With all nine blocks done, you can see that this is going to be a big quilt. Even without sashing and borders. And in truth, it would look great without that sashing, with all the blocks butted up against one another, but I had a small chunk of fabric that I really wanted to use for corner stones.

No garden is complete without a ladybug or two hundred.

And is does look nice with all that sashing in there to break it up for the eye a bit. A pretty raspberry coloured border finished it all off.

This is the biggest quilt I’ve made so far. As you can see, it’s hard to get a picture of the whole thing on the bed.

It’s about 88 inches square – a fantastic size for a Queen sized bed. I’ve shown you the backing before (love those woodland creatures), but I’ve been saving this beautiful pansy fabric for something special….

And I think it’s just perfect for the binding.

Now if only social isolation could end, so I can get this baby quilted!

Hello May! You are our very favourite month of the garden season, because once the sun and warmth are consistence, there’s no stopping the garden from growing!

Just look at those hyacinths now!

The tulips are up next – they will be in full bloom by this time next week.

The Chives (left) and Globe Allium are both putting up buds. They will take a few weeks more to bloom.

The Lily-of-the-Valley is still weeks off, but it’s nice to see those little flower bells just staring to peek out!

The Pasque flower might see blooms sooner though! This is such a pretty one when it gets going. Speaking of which…

The red Dwarf Columbine has started to bloom, and by this time next week it will be covered in red flowers.

Both the roses and raspberries are leafing out nicely. I’m happy to say all my rose bushes survived the winter.

And just look at the Daylilies! Already as high as the step. If you’re new to gardening, or just have trouble with plants – go with Daylilies. You really can’t go wrong with them.

Before I go, a gentle reminder…

Don’t pull those dandelions from your gardens and yard just yet. They are an important early source of food for bees.

Remember I said the yarn for the East Hale cardigan is super sheepy….? Here’s an indication of just HOW sheepy…

Boxes filled with sock yarn aside, Peno rarely  bothers with my in progress projects. But this stuff is like catnip to her (and she barely bothers with catnip). When I’m not working on it, I have to keep the cardigan inside my storage footstool, locked away tight. She just can’t resist Eau de la Ferme it seems!

Do you ever have one of those days where you just don’t want to work on any of your in-progress projects? That was me the other day. I still love everything I’ve got going on, but I needed a quick hit – a quilt top I could put together in an afternoon. Time for a simple baby blanket.

Ages ago, I’d picked up this cute chunk of flannel from the clearance bin at Lens.

It wasn’t very big – only 7/8 of a yard. But it was big enough to be the back of a baby quilt (and at $3.99 a yard, a steal!) I bought it because I knew I had some fat quarters of forest critters that would work perfect with it. I also had a chunk of solid orange. It’s all been sitting around, just waiting for the perfect time to put it all together.

Some slicing, and dicing, sewing and ironing… and a few hours later…

A completed top. This is the same idea as Sprite’s Garden, but instead of  a set pattern, the stars are random. And instead of using the solid, I made the Fox fabric the centre of each star

It’s so close in shade the the star points that it just made sense. While I cut up fat quarters, this one uses 42 5″ squares, so it’s a good use for a charm pack. I had to stay within the confines of my backing fabric, so I kept the border narrow…

This little tree fabric was another clearance bin find, and it couldn’t be more perfect. I’ve got more of the orange to bind this one, and tie it all together.

And that’s ANOTHER one for the to-quilt pile!

I think the lockdown is finally getting to me. I’m having a really hard time committing to not spending. Which is especially bad, as my pay has just been cut by 10% (At least I still have a job, but it’s a big hit).

It started because I didn’t have the right needles size for the East Hale cardigan. I popped on the Yarn Canada site, because I know they carry the brand I like, and it’s Canadian – our dollar is crap right now so ordering from the U.S. doesn’t make sense.

Anyway, you need to spend $65 to get free shipping, so I thought I’d order some sock yarn for present socks. We got rid of our tools to make self-striping yarn easily. There’s a particular pair of socks I wanted to make for Miss Paisley, so I got a ball of fun, self-striping opal, and some solid black (I could have dyed that, but I wanted to get up to the $65 limit). I also decided to try a skein of this Cascade Heritage Wave

It’s a two-tone yard with a subtle shade shift. I thought it would make nice cable socks for someone on my list.

That was all great until Yarn Canada emailed me a few days later to tell me the self-striping I’d picked out had sold out. There was nothing else on their site that said “Paisley” to me, so I told them just to refund the cost and send the rest of the order on.

In the mean time… I headed on over to the Knit Picks site. Felici  stripers were on sale… and well…

The bottom right colour (Summer Camp) will be for Paisley. Top left (Side Pony), will probably end up as socks for her sister. The top right (Thunderstruck) are for my brother, and bottom left (Hamburger) for my Sister-in-Law.

Of course, Knit Picks has a $75 minimum for free shipping…

So some Stroll Tweed came along for the ride. The grey will probably be for Dave’s birthday socks (July). And the Lavender…

They are already being worked up into another pair of Woodland Walk socks for the gifting box.

Now my poor bank account is smoking. But at least they all have a purpose!

Oh, and a small PSA…. don’t leave boxes of yarn unattended….

They are just too soft, and warm, and inviting for some to resist….