Welcome Spring...

After a long cold winter, I finally see signs of Spring coming to life.  My neighbors Bradford Pear trees are in full bloom and the neighborhood has a bunch of flowering pink trees that are just gorgeous!  (I'm not a gardener so I'm not sure if they're Cherry Blossoms or something else, but they're beautiful.)  Having said that, I actually woke up to snow this morning.  My deck was covered with just a thin layer of slushy white snow along with our cars and a neighbor's roof.  Otherwise, there wasn't a speck of it anywhere.  It was also 46 degrees when I got up this morning, so how we ended up with snow is a complete mystery...

I've been doing a little bit of sewing lately.  I finally managed to catch up on all the clues for the Mystery quilts.  Just as I finished ironing the last seam of the last piece and was ready to put it all away, I noticed something wasn't quite right.  After looking at the directions again, I realized I had sewed 23 out of 24 units completely wrong.  I was supposed to sew a strip to each side of a HST and of course I sewed them to the wrong sides.  So then I spent the next couple of hours ripping everything out and redoing it.  Fortunately it's been a long time since I've made a mistake like that (and hopefully it will be much, much longer before I do it again!)

I'm still waiting on my sewing glasses to come in so I haven't been able to work on my hand applique.  I'm almost finished with a block, so I'm a little anxious to get back to it.  Each block takes such a long time, that it's exciting to get to the final few pieces.

In the meantime, I've been practicing my knitting.  I've watched and re-watched the Improve Your Knitting and Explorations in Cable classes on Craftsy.  Both of them are chock full of information and I'm sure I'll keep going back to them.  I've learned how to make cables without a cable needle (which sounds a lot scarier than it actually is.)  I've made a few samples and my knitting is definitely getting better...

I've also started on a prayer shawl in a pattern I never would have attempted before.  I've learned how to un-knit as well, a skill that is coming in handy far too frequently!  (Don't you just love learning new things?  I do)

I'm hoping to get back to quilting some projects starting tomorrow.  I have too many half-quilted projects lying around and it would be nice to start finishing them up.

I hope that you're starting to thaw out wherever you are.  I expect that in the northern states, you're in for bit more winter before Spring arrives, but hopefully it comes soon.  Of course, if you're on the other side of the world, you're probably looking forward to some cooler weather after a hot summer.  I told my husband to remind me of how much I longed for warm weather when it's 100+ degrees outside this summer.  I'm so grateful God created different seasons.  About the time we're tired of one, another comes along to take it's place.

“Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.” 

Psalm 139:14 (NLT)