The bugs are done

I finished the bugs this morning, so they'll get shipped off this week.
One thing I discovered with this project is that I really like working with linen and how it looks and feels in a quilt. So I took advantage of the G Street sale and coupon and bought 2 more yards to play with. Expect to see more linen in the future!

Don't let the bedbugs bite!

This past weekend was really icky out--grey, rainy (more like monsoon-y) and really windy--perfect for doing some sewing!

As some background, my dear friend Deb's sister-in-law, Stacey, is expecting in August and she asked me to make her a baby quilt. The fabric she picked out for the baby's room is the bug fabric and I added the rest.
I had some company while I was working.
This little mourning dove kept sitting on the ledge outside my window, cooing up a storm, all afternoon. I think love is in the air given the rather...umm...excited....cooing coming from the bushes the other weekend.

Anyhoo, here's the front. There will be a red binding as the border and bug fabric as the back when I put it all together.
Abi's impressed.

After a long drought!

I finally got a chance to be productive in a non-paperwork way. That is a good thing, since my hands were very jealous of all the work my brain was doing! There were a good number of projects on the docket, and I enjoyed switching between all of them in my extremely non-linear, non-patterned, very messy sort of way all afternoon long....

The first project is a quilt I made for my former coworker Cindy, who just had a baby boy named Bennett. I used fabric from my stash for the top of the quilt, but struggled a bit with the backing until I decided to go simple and just use cream flannel (I didn't think my old standby of fleece would work, since this is a California baby). Of course, one layer of flannel still showed through, so I had to do two layers. Orange rickrack around the edge was the finishing touch. And yes -- I did pick the tiger because he matched.

Then I moved on to an experiment of sorts. Erica will remember this fabric from some stash augmentation we did in DC last time I was there. I decided to use it to do some improvizational quilting where I kinda just started sewing stuff together. I'm not sure, honestly, how I feel about how its working out. I will tell you that there's not a straight line in the thing, so I have no idea how, if ever, I'm going to finish it with a backing and such. But for now its fun, even if its not particularly efficient with fabric!

Mom, are you twitching yet??

There were other things too, but of course those are surprises so I can't post them, but I imagine you'll see them soon enough! I'm off to Walmart to buy wrapping supplies so I can send the baby gift on its way!

Hoppy Easter!

An old recipe...

...gets an Eastery twist.
Hope the Easter Bunny is good to all of you!

The Never Ending Birthday!

Believe it or not I got more birthday presents over the weekend. You see, I had not seen my sisters since my birthday and Friday night we all got together for dinner.

A storybook for grandmothers and a bunny candle that I was advised was not edible! My youngest sister is sure I am such a chocolate fiend that she must warn me and she's right! It sure smells like chocolate.

A hummingbird feeder and food from my ever so thoughtful nephews. They claimed they shopped for hours;).

A beautiful glass latern and yummy smelling candle from my line dancing buddy. The book, I am told was not part of the present, just something my sister thought I would enjoy. What's wrong with my neck?

These bunnies are what I made my sisters for their Easter gifts. They seemed to really like them and I had a blast making them. The bunnies were totally unadorned. I found them at Vidlers-i love Vidlers-! They definitely needed some dressing up!

I apologize if the pictures are blurry~ I am a bit under the weather and everything seems to be fuzzy to me. Just a bit of a cold. I'm going to go nap now and by tomorrow I'll be right as rain.

Love~Patti