SPRING!!!

Spring arrived yesterday!  Temperatures soared to shirt sleeve heights.  Frogs started singing in the dugout.  Birds showed their delight with a regular concert of song.  Jim and I sat on our back patio around 5 p.m. for the first time this year.  He had his favourite treat: an orange ice cream soda, and I had mine: diet coke with crackers and cheese.  What a treat!

Today the warm weather continues.  I'm delighted to be able to hang the wash out on the line, especially since our electricity rates doubled this past winter when Alberta deregulated electricity.  The sun purifies the clean clothes and the wind and fresh air make them smell so good!

Last week I finished up a few projects that have been hanging around for quite a while.  This wallhanging was a kit from Lorraine Stangness of Country Creations.  I bought the kit two or three years ago, and it's finally finished.

Tuesday evening we will have our final meeting of the quilting club for this season, so I wanted to have a few things ready for our "Show and Tell" Evening.  We invite other women interested in quilting (And Yes, we would invite an interested man, if we knew of one!); we all bring some goodies; we have a few door prizes; and we just have a good time showing off what we accomplished this year.

There were two other projects that I finished this year, but they've been given away already: the quilt for Slave Lake, and the lap quilt for the dear daughter-in-law.

I have two other finishes to show tomorrow:

The first is the finished wall hanging that incorporated the
folded flowers I taught in March.  What is not too clear on this
photo are the little brass beads in the centre of each flower, and
the dark gold thread curling from one flower to the next, tying
them all together in a line.

The other finish was a child's quilt made from a printed panel.
I took the easy way out on this one.  At least I thought it was
going to be the easy way: I machine quilted around all the
figures in the panel, even the individual books.  That turned
out to be a long project.  But it's finally finished, and will go
to the Ronald McDonald House in Red Deer as a gift for some
child who is undergoing medical treatment.

Now it's time to get ready for some window washing.  I'm
looking forward to clean windows upstairs in our living
area, but today is the day to clean the windows in what we
call our "solar space"--an enclosed area downstairs in which
we keep plants over winter, and enjoy as a lovely sitting
area in the summers.  A good place to sit in the afternoon and
keep an eye on the garden centre in case a customer shows up.