What I did on my spring break

and thank goodness it’s over 😉  I hate it when my routine gets messed with.  I can’t believe it’s been a week since I sat here writing my last post.  The past week has flown by.

Mister was home on spring break.  We were supposed to get the powder room redone, but it never happened.  The weather here has been glorious.  So much so that our pool has been in the 70s and he’s been in it when he hasn’t been working in the yard getting rid of almost everything.  The winter freeze this year really did a number on our beautiful yard.  We had to completely replace several plants and this past week has seen them in the ground and a couple of them even starting to bloom.  He also started getting his vegetable and herb garden going and has plans for expansion.  I need to get my camera outside and show you my beautiful snap dragons!  I can’t believe they bloomed all winter and are popping out all over again.

I, on the other hand, do not like to get dirt under my nails so I spent my time during his spring break piecing, layering, and quilting my little Abbygayle’s Scraps.  She still needs her binding whip stitched to the back but here she is in all her very bright glory.  Please don’t look too close, or judge too harshly, and remember I’m new at this.  Thank you.

She finished out right under 18 inches square.  I learned so much while creating her and accomplished a lot of firsts.  This is the first time I’ve chosen the fabric completely on my own.  The first time I made a quilt in a non-classroom setting.  The first time I did it completely on my own with no one to ask questions of.  It was daunting to actually cut that first piece of fabric but I just followed the directions one sentence at a time and took it from there.  I did lose some of my points when putting the strips together, but I didn’t mind.  What I did get disappointed in was how much that affected the quilting part, but like I said, it was a learning experience and I know that the more I do it the better I’ll get at it.  I’m hoping to spend today and tomorrow finishing the binding since my next class is Wednesday and I want to be ready for the next project.

I do have 3 other small quilts cut and ready to piece 😀  It’s addicting, I tell ya!

Since the weather has warmed up (and we actually have used our AC!), I only spent the mornings upstairs.  As soon as it was too warm to go without AC I headed downstairs to work on A Sampler Grows.  This is how far I got this week

I managed to finish the stitching for the fob and got quite a bit done on the cushion.  The green floral you see is what the backing will be for the cushion.  I do have one “complaint” and that’s the little square flower.  The background is stitched in over 1 (as is the flower) and you can see it completely makes the yellow flower disappear.  I need to decide what to do about that.  I thought about picking it out but even under a strong magnifier it was daunting so I’m going to leave it and maybe stitch over the yellow in red.  There are 2 other flowers that need backgrounds filled in and I’m going to have to decide what to do about them.  It’ll have to wait though since it’s time to switch back over to And They Sinned today!

Yesterday was Sampler Sunday at Attic.  I love going to this since there are usually a couple of designers there sharing what they’re working on for their next release.  I’m so excited about Tanya’s new project because it has a skinny (greyhound) dog in it!  Woohoo!  If you subscribe to Attic Needlework’s newsletter I believe there will be a preview of it in the next issue.  And Gloria brought in the models for her Market releases.  I had picked up 3 design packets on Market day at Attic but she brought in another design that has the sweetest hornbook design, plus one that uses limited edition embossed boxes (which I grabbed 2 of).  It was discussed yesterday (and I checked this morning) that if the boxes run out of stock (since they’re no longer being manufactured) you can use Altoids tins.  You’ll just have to omit the border in the design.  If you go to page 13 of the current Attic newsletter you can see all of her designs.

Oh look!  You can see the back of my little quilt in this one 😉  The other design (in the bottom) is Cherished Stitches limited release Rites of Springs.  Every single thing you see on that pillow is included in the little kit.  It is unbelievably priced and you only have to add the stuffing.    I was drooling over the finishing fabric last night.  I see this moving up on my to-do list.  There is an upclose photo of it on page 5 of the aforementioned newsletter.

The other news, which was released this past week, is that Attic will be moving into a larger location next month.  I already know where they’re moving and what it currently looks like inside, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

Mister goes back to class today.  I’m very much looking forward to getting back into my routine so I’ll end it here wishing you all to have a great week.