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….

I used last weekend to tackle the Traffic Jam top.

With the sashing and cornerstones in, you can get a better sense of the pattern. Like all my Leader/Ender quilts, this one is very scrappy.

Because of that, I tried to keep the cornerstones somewhat neutral. This pretty grey had little pops of colour that gave just enough interest, without drawing the eye too much.

I had a similar situation with the border fabric, I didn’t want something that would overpower the quilt.

Luckily, I had the perfect thing in the stash. A neutral beige with just a pop of colour. It creates a nice grounded frame, but fades into the background perfectly. It’s a very old fabric, inherited from a great aunt when I was just a kid. It’s nice that it has a project now.

The quilt is a nice size, about 63″ x 76″. For the back, I’m keeping the neutral theme going with this pretty crochet-printed fabric.

If it looks familiar, it’s because I used for borders in Victorian Love Charm. A few months after I finished that one up, I found more of the fabric in the clearance bin. I snapped it up because it’s just so sweet.

And to finish this one off, I’m going to use more of the border fabric for the binding. Since it’s still not wise to go up to Mom’s and spend the day quilting, Mom’s going to mess around with this one for me. When she stopped by to drop off Bear Mountain,I handed her Traffic Jam and all it’s pieces through the door. Just like Bear Mountain, she’s going to do some fancy quilting on it. I can’t wait!

Remember that chunky cardigan I got swindled into making by Dave’s friend…?

Well, I finally started it. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s knit in one piece so that’s the back and two fronts on that needle.

It’s the East Hale cardigan, though I’m modifying it to have buttons, instead of a zipper. It’s a chunky yarn, so in theory, it should knit up fast. But the yarn, as I expected, is horrible! It’s like knitting with thick twine. It itches my hands just in the knitting – to me it’s going to be absolutely unwearable, but it’s what the friend wants so…

I’ve started it now so that even if I can’t work on it steadily, I should be able to finish it in time for fall for him.

Wish me luck!

All the Traffic Jam blocks are done, and I’ll tackle top assembly soon. But in the meantime, I needed another L&E project. Ever since I made Chocolate Covered Pinwheels, I’ve wanted to make another pinwheel quilt.

It was one of my first, and those pinwheels are pretty disastrous! (Still, for a first effort, it was decent, and Dave uses it a lot because it’s nice and long.) I know I can make much nicer pinwheels now.

I mentioned a few weeks ago, that I’ve got a pile of 5″ scraps, and I really needed to start using them. I’ve got a good mix of prints and solids. And two of each is all that’s needed to make a pinwheel block.

So my new L&E project is set. I’m doing the 2-from-1 HST method.

At the end of every sewing session, I’ll grab up the L&Es that are ready to cut.

They will get cut, ironed and trimmed. (This way they don’t pile up and I don’t have a million and one to do all at once.) Then they are put in the basket that hangs from my open scissor drawer, ready for the next sewing session…

… where they will be turned into big, bold, beautiful pinwheels!

Here’s where all my other quilts are at:

• Walk Like a Dinosaur: Still building dino toes
  
• Calico Garden: Just two giant stars left
• Blockhead: Patiently awaiting Wednesday
• Dog Logs II: Building cabins, log by dog
• Rainbow in the dark: Building blue blocks
• Crosstown Traffic: Ready for top assembly!
• Leader and Ender quilt – Spin me right round, baby!

The weather continues on the chilly side… we’ve even had snow, though it’s just been flurries and hasn’t amounted to anything. Still… the spring flowers soldier on!

The White Hyacinth has bloomed completely now

And I was able to get a picture of without any furry photobombers.

Here’s some more of that pretty pink Muscari.

Like so many of you, I’d never seen any colour but purple until I came across the pink bulbs at a fancy garden centre a few years ago. I snapped it up immediatley and have not regretted the purchase. And speaking of purple – take a look at the lower right corner of that picture…

It looks like the purple ones are coming up after all! (Though they look quite blue here).

I found another small patch of it a little further over.

My lilac is reaching for the sky, and though it will still be at least a month before it fills in and blooms, it’s nice to see those flower buds starting!

Here’s hoping next week is just a smidge warmer!

Many amongst my circle have noticed the COVID lockdown is not only affecting them, but their pets as well. The dogs especially seem to be thrown off that their humans are home so much more.

I didn’t think it would affect our cats much. I already worked from home, and wasn’t overly social. Dave did a big chunk of work from home too, and was only actually out of the house three days a week.

And Peno, Relic and Rupert don’t seem to have taken much notice. Peno sleeps on her dining chair all day. Rupert sleeps in the bed all day, and Relic plays in-and-out door games all day – same old same old.

But Burton…. even Dave has noticed that Burton is suckier. He’s always been a social cat – Unless he’s intently squirrel-watching, he’s always in whatever room I am, keeping an eye on me, usually from a comfortable distance.

But lately things have changed.

Every morning around 7 am, he climbs on Dave to wake him up. (He knows climbing on me is no good, I’ll just fall back to sleep). Dave gets up, feeds him, and then the two hang out on the couch while Dave has his morning coffee. An hour or so later, I finally pull myself out of bed.

I’m usually groggy first thing in the morning, so I get out of bed, then stretch out on the couch and play games on my phone while I “wake-up”.

This has been my morning routine since I started working from home over a year ago. Usually, Burton stretches across the back out of couch while I do this. But lately, he’s been a touch more…

…. what’s the word….?

… suffocating!!!

How are your kitties handling the lockdown?