Odds and Ends

This is the black squirrel that is roaming our neighborhood.  It is beautiful...for a squirrel.  

The house is coming along.  We have a new roof...

 

The brick work is being completed today!  I love the new space.  Can't wait until it is done.  

I will be teaching a few quilt classes in June at the local quilt shop Country Quiltworks.  So I have started to work on few pieces in preparation.  Hawaiian Applique...  

Love this method.  Full size Hawaiian quilts are incredible.  We will be making a 19" block.

Another class I will teach is My Grandmother's Handkerchief.  I love this idea.  Taking a treasured handkerchief (the photo is one of my mother's) and turning it into a quilt.  I've made several four block wall hangings for friends and family....

This Fall I plan on teaching a 12 week class on Baltimore Album Quilts using the Elly Sienkiewicz books.  

Lots to do, but excited about it!!

Signs of Spring in Central PA

The flowers on our property are finally blooming. It seems to take forever around here.



The daffodils are very plentiful this year.



The forsythia is finally full of color!



My purple windflowers are loaded with blooms.
And...




the little sunbonnet needle cases are the best they have ever been! It must have been all of that rain we received.
My grandmother made me a needle case a very long time ago. She had tatted the little nosegay. I have always wanted to replicate it and over the last week I did and I think they turned out pretty close to what hers looked like, of course no tatting.

A Love/Hate Relationship

I Love lace!  Until I make a mistake.  I Hate lace!  I am working on not 1, not 2, but 3 lace patterns right now.  Every time I drop a stitch I have to take out several rows.  I know... why don't I 'tink' down.  Believe me when I say, I have spent hours trying to retrieve a stitch only to tear it out in the end.  Other problems arose too: I bought the Spring/Summer 2008 collection for Filatura Di Crosa to make the lace shawl on page 19 

          with their Superior yarn

 (fabulous!) only after reading the pattern, I found out it is the Myrtle Leaf Pattern in the Victorian Lace Today book which of course I already have.  BOTH patterns are WRONG! After tearing the whole thing out THREE times I checked the Victorian Lace Today website and found out YES it was wrong and HERE are the NEW directions!?!  AHHHHH!!!

However, I am loving the shawl I am making from The Gossamer Webs Design Collection from Galina Khmeleva.  It is beautiful.  I hope to wear it to my son's wedding this summer.

I will soon be leaving the job I so unfortunately started three weeks ago, and will have lots more time to work on it.  The job....working at a learning academy for preschoolers was well intended but not thought through, as to the hours I would spend there and the time my family (and hobbies) would need me.  I have to say meeting new people was wonderful.  They were very friendly and welcomed me into their 'family' joyfully.  I will miss the people there

Our house is coming along.  Paul and Bob the builders are hard workers and have done an amazing amount of work in a relatively short time.  I am so excited to get the new family room and sun porch.  I will have to put up with the 1962 retro/very cool kitchen for a while longer though.  Judy has great plans for updating with a little paint in the mean time!