AND MORE SPRING

Well, you've seen some of our spring time birds.  There were flowers soon to follow.

 (By the way, those baby finches from last weekend's post "flew the coop" the next day!) 

My irises bloomed just in time to put on our table for a weekend get together with friends.

Then I noticed that we have our first rose on one of the three bushes that we transplanted during the winter.  Hooray, they made it.

Ah, and lo and behold, a wonderful calla lily that my sister brought me last year, I thought I had killed.  So I put the pot in the garage--no care all winter long.  And look what I found the other day!  Those tiny starts are now in one of my landscape beds.

But, as usual this time of year, I am digressing from the quilting and knitting subjects.

So, this is where my picnic quilt was for our get together last Sunday.  While this is one of my creations that I really want to be used, I wasn't quite ready to put it outside with barbeque sauce for its maiden debut!

However, I think we are having guests again this weekend so it's going to the outdoor table for dinner--no barbeque sauce this weekend.

And while I haven't been doing too much in the way of active quilting (or piecing) lately, I am still spending my leisure  evening hours knitting.  And, of course, it's spring, so there must be birds and flowers involved!

And there are my charity quilts with the batting pinned to the tops just waiting for me to get to the sewing machine.  Let's see, a walk, then some sewing before I settle in to my knitting with "Lost".  Sounds like a good evening plan to me.   I guess I'd better get going, huh?

SPRING IS HERE !

Well, I guess spring is time for the birds to be nesting:

  This mama dove has found a safe spot on top of one of our front porch columns.

And these two (of three) baby finches are safe and sound at the corner of one of our down spouts.

We won't talk about all the starlings we are trying to"fend off".

Remember the lettuce seeds that I planted several weeks ago.  I am still trying to get them to grow.  I think now that it's warmed up a bit, they might just "take off" here around my pansies.

I gave up on my own parsley seedlings.  They did not do well at all.  But my local herb gardner saved the day and I have planted some of her parsley in my other patio pot.

Soon it will be too warm and I will need to replace the pansies with other plants--perhaps the geraniums that made it in the house during the winter.

But one of the best things about a warm spring day is starting the day outside knitting.  

The shawl (a gift from a dear friend) is just enough, over my jammies, to keep the early morning chill off before I begin my day.  Thanks, Shirley!

RENEWAL WEEK

Unlike the "western world" who celebrated Easter on April 12, the Eastern Orthodox church celebrated this past Sunday.  I wish all my Orthodox friends a Paschal greeting and hope that you are having a blessed "Bright" Week of Renewal.

Xristos Anesti  --  Christ is Risen

These are not real eggs; rather wooden eggs to mimic the ancient art of the Ukranian eggs.  I purchased them several years ago from one of my daily web sites.

That makes it time to "renew" some of my routine activities--especially quilting.  My cutting table has been looking like this all during our Holy Week, with no sewing.

I did, however, complete my little knitting project that I took to my daughter on Sunday for her new little addition expected next month.  (Those of you who read her blog have already seen this.)

I also took this loaf of bread to her family.  Just a bit of ethnic trivia:  During the 6 weeks that precede Orthodox Holy Week and during Holy Week, most faithful Orthodox follow a vegan diet. 

 This is a traditional Greek "tsoureki" or sweet bread--ingredients including milk, eggs, butter that have been excluded from the diet during the "fast" complete with a red egg in the center.  (Well, mine didn't turn out to be quite in the center.)

May each of you have a renewal this week; after all,  IT'S  SPRING!

Blessed Holidays To You All!

For those of you celebrating Easter this weekend, may you have a blessed commemoration of Our Lord's Resurrection--and a "Sweet Passover" to my Jewish friends.

Those of us of the Eastern Orthodox tradition will not be celebrating our "Pascha" until next week.  The explanation of the Orthodox dating of Easter  can be found at #6 in this document.

I have been staying pretty busy with my knitting and quilting.  The baby blanket and leg warmer are finally finished!  Hooray.  (I'll be taking the leg warmer to my granddaughter next weekend to join its mate.  I had given her just one to make sure it fit before I started on the second.)

And I've started a baby hat to go with the blanket.  Actually it's finished, but I haven't taken the photo yet.  Now I'm working on a sweater to go with it.

On the quilting front, I've been working on some charity quilts with fabric that was donated to our church's local charitable ladies group.

The yellow and green fleece are from my stash and the prints are from donations. (The small squares were even already cut!)

We will be donating them to our local yarn shop that in turn will give them to our local Project Linus.

Next week will be a busy church week for me, so I probably won't be blogging again until sometime after the 19th.  Until then, blessings to you all.

FINALLY, MOVIN' ON

Well, finally, I'm back to working on my Log Cabin quilt.  No, these aren't sewn together yet, but at least I have the sashing pinned to the blocks and already to sew together.  Well, except for that top left corner where there are 2 really dark browns close together.  That's easy to fix:  I'll just switch and "end for end" it with the panel below it.  

The unfortunate thing, though that's not going to be a quick to fix is that my sash pieces are about 12 1/2 inches and my blocks are 12 inches.  So I guess I'll just have to seam the middle flying geese on each of the 6 geese strips before I sew them to the blocks.  Oh, well.  A bit of a bother now, but worth it in the long run.

And yes, my block of the month is still on the back burner, but since I'm still ahead a couple months, I'm not going to worry about that.

I must, however, complete that second leg warmer pretty soon.  That's where I'm headed now!