It was a very productive weekend at Mom’s and I have two finished quilts to share this week. The first is the retirement quilt for our lovely post office lady.

Every time I look at this one, I love it a little more. I love the layout. I love the colours. And I love those prints.

It was a really beautiful line. (Tell the Bees by Windham Fabrics). I wish I’d bought more than just two charm packs. I still have a few squares left, so I’ll have to figure out something special for them.

For the back I used this lovely cream floral, with more of the rusty orange used throughout the quilt for the binding.

All in all I think it’s all wraps up into a lovely quilt I can’t wait to gift. But I have to wait until the end of next month!

I really wanted to get the Stay at Home Round Robin top done before I headed off to Mom’s. I want her to do some fancy quilting on it, so I wanted to bring it and leave it with her.

So… although I don’t love sewing after dinner – I took an evening last week and did just that.

It only took a couple hours to get all the pinwheels sewn together and the borders on. Though I did mis-measure the grey fabric a couple times – which was quite frustrating!

Still the borders are on and I’m quite pleased. I love this way of framing a panel. It’s a technique I’ve used before and will definitely use again! Here’s a closer look at the blocks in each border.

In the end, the top finished up at about 58″ x 60″ so a nice little lap quilt.

I’ll share pics of Mom’s magic quilting when she had a chance to get to it. As you know, she’s got a pile of her own creations to quilt!

One thing about the earliest Spring flowers you may not realize is… they are TINY.

Snow Crocuses are supposed to be the earliest blooming of all the crocuses. I only have one type… the Monarch Snow Crocus

I bought them before I knew much about crocuses. I still don’t know a lot … but I’ve learned that these guys, at least to me, aren’t really worth the money. Why…?

That’s them beside my thumb nail. Yeah – they are that small. Even planted on mass, I don’t think they have much punch. These ones live in the catio, and I’m happy enough to let them stay, but I’ll stick to their bigger Giant Crocus cousins in future.

Like these much bigger yellow ones.

The Winter Aconite have very small flowers too.

It’s a little smaller than the Giant Crocus, but bigger than the Snow Crocuses. I do wish it liked my garden a little better than it seems to. It’s a softer yellow than the Crocuses and the bees do love it’s open flowers.

Snow drops are pretty tiny too.

These are the ones in the catio. In addition to having a small flower, they are also quite short. The ones in the woodland garden are taller. They were planted a couple years apart, and I’m thinking now I have two different types. To be honest, the shorter ones in the catio are probably a better option for there – it’s easier to avoid Lemmy the Destructor when you’re lower to the ground!

Maybe that’s the strategy of the early spring bloom – staying small and closer to the earth helps them survive the ups and downs Mother Nature throws out this time of year.

There have been several thrifting adventures in recent weeks. One of the things on my list was a devilled egg plate. We’d come across a few, but they were all pretty plain. I told Dave I didn’t want just any old devilled egg plate… I wanted one with some personality. He asked me how a plate could have personality, I told him I’d know it when I saw it. And suddenly I did…

If that isn’t personality, I don’t know what is!

The next item wasn’t exactly on my list. But on our many adventures, I seen single fish plates. I’m sure you know the type… clear glass, shaped like a fish?

While neat, I’ve always passed up on them, because I thought… what would I do with one fish plate? But on our last adventure, I came across a stack of them… for just $7!

In the end, there were nine plates total over three different styles/sizes. I told Dave the next time we have company over and food is served… we are eating off fish plates! And right after finding them at one thrift shop, I found two of these fish bowls at the next..

How fun is that.

Speaking of fun….

I couldn’t resist this Hello Kitty purse! It’s made of silicone and is surprisingly roomy. I immediately switched it out and used it as my purse for the rest of the day. I got about 10 compliments on it throughout the rest of the day. Dave was laughing about that.

And last… this is just a tiny one…

As soon as I saw this wee chicken pin cushion… I just couldn’t leave it behind. I hope this isn’t the beginning of a pin cushion collection….

“You’re gonna share that tuna sandwich… right????”

Burton was pretty ticked we haven’t had any sewing time in the last couple of weeks so on Sunday, I pulled out the Round Robin quilt to appease him.

It needed one more round, and as I mentioned in my last SAHHR post, I mentioned the last few prompts just weren’t working for me. So I went completely rogue and I made fancy, goosey pinwheels!

We needed to make 22 pinwheels, so I ran out of time to get them sewn together and on the quilt.

I’m hoping I might snag some time one evening this week to do that. I’d love to have it done and ready to quilt when I head to Mom’s.

March is an exciting time in the garden. Almost every day, we have new blooms. It’s mostly crocuses and snowdrops, but after a long, cold, winter, they are welcome.

These guys are all along the front walkway so they are a nice pop of colour right up front. I was starting to get a little worried. Only yellow ones were coming up – but I know I have purple and white as well. Finally, some purple ones popped up on the weekend.

Around the same time, I spied these little guys.

These are my Winter Aconite. The first fall we were here, I planted five or six little clusters of them. The following spring, all of them came up. But last year only two little clusters. Now it seems there’s just this one. This one does seem to have multiplied. Hopefully it will hang on and spread. The bees do love these blooms.

Speaking of hanging on… the snowdrops in the catio yard have survived Lemmy’s outdoor gymnastics so far. These were planted to second fall we were here (2022), and I’m happy to see they’ve noticeably multiplied. There’s a couple smaller clusters in the catio as well.

Last I’ll leave you with another shot of the pink pussywillows.

They are really putting on a show this year.

The Marmelade Mates were back on the job and working over time this weekend…

and as a result we got block #9 done… and block #10!!!

Two blocks in one weekend – can you believe it????

We even got a small start on block #11

As you can see it’s a little more involved than both block 9 & 10, so it will probably take a touch longer. And I’m off to Mom’s this coming weekend… so you won’t see any more tiny stitches until April!

We have a sock!

Just one! But it’s a whole, completed sock!

And we’ve got a small start on the second one. Can I finish it by the end of the week? I’m going try!

Like it’s been for many of you – the weather this past week has been absolutely fabulous!!! It’s been so nice I’ve been able to do one of my favourite things…

Hang my clothes on the line!!! It just never gets old for me! But it also means….

Snow drops! Last year we had Snow drops in mid-February. But this year we just had snow. Lots of snow. Their overdue appearance is very welcome. These ones are in the woodland garden, and they were just planted the year before last.

There are older ones in the catio, and while their aren’t as many blooms yet, you can see we’re going to have a good show when they do (Unless Lemmy steam rolls them!)

And I didn’t think we’d see crocuses for at least another couple weeks but…

We’ve got one! And if that doesn’t instantly make the week better – nothing will!

Except maybe this!

This isn’t a flower. It’s my Atlantis Sedum. Those rosettes are leathery leaves. And they will turn cream with a green centre. But I had no idea they started out pink until I spied a touch of colour under the leaves. What a wonderful surprise!