It's here! It's finally here!

Spring that is. In two short weeks, my front yard has gone from this ... ... to this ...One lonely little clump of frozen snow left, and I'm pretty sure the rain that's coming today will wash it away. Trees and bushes are swelling with new life ...... and the multitude of crows in this part of the city are busy cooing sounds of LURV! (in that rusty raucaus way crows coo sounds of LURV!) All my neighbours have been busy raking up the dead remains of winter ...... and will probably soon be engaging in battle with these hardy guys ...... which I truly don't understand because I think Dandy Lions are much prettier (not to mention TASTIER ... especially the first tender spring leaves) than lawn grass! It doesn't take much sunshine to motivate Northerners to get outside and start enjoying it. The temperature may only be 5 degrees above 0, but you'll see kids wobbling on bikes ...... and all kinds of people sporting bare neon-white legs and arms. I've walked home from work in shirt sleeves all week, and even went out in sandals (NO SOCKS! YAHOO!!!) twice this week! Oh the relief, the joy of NEKKID FEET!With this particular spring comes change. My landlady is moving away, and a FOR SALE sign will be going up at this house (I'm in a basement suite). I really like this neighbourhood, but I'm not 100% convinced I want to live with new (AKA unknown) owners. I like the space I'm renting here, but it does have a few drawbacks ... such as lack of a proper kitchen sink, and a driveway that needs to shovelled too damned much. So I've been looking at apartments and have discovered a couple of buildings (and new neighbourhoods) that might be very pleasant to live in. Rent is going to be a little bit higher, but not astronomically so. However, my landlady really wants me to stay here so she can go back down south and not leave her house empty while it's for sale, and has offered a couple of tempting incentives. At the moment, I haven't totally made up my mind to go or to stay. Hmmm. I'll have to keep y'all posted on that!

On the creative front, here's my finished quilted CELTIC KNOT TABLE TOPPER:... with a few of my still growing collection of cows (which, I repeat, I did NOT start myself, and do NOT want more of!). And here's a shot of the back:In hindsight, I would do a few things differently if I were to do the same project again (which I won't because I get too bored doing the same thing twice).

First, I zigzagged around the "knots" after applying them to the blocks with Wonder Under (iron on fusible stuff). I did the zigzagging with my old sewing machine. My new sewing machine has 70-some built in stitches, and one of them is a blanket stitch. I tried that stitch out on some scraps, and immediately regretted not knowing about it when I started this project!

Second, I started machine quilting with green thread, and instantly HATED the look of green thread on yellow fabric. So I spent several evenings carefully picking out those stitches, and re-quilting with green on green and yellow on yellow. However, I'm not totally satisfied with yellow thread showing on the green BACK of this project. I should have used green thread in the bobbin, but I don't have the energy or inclination to pick the stitches out and re-do again. I'll just refrain from looking at the back!

While I was in the quilting frame of mind, I whipped up a set of four placemats like this:Crazy cat ladies with a touch of class on one side, and zany farm critters and equipment on the back ...... cuz y'all know you can take the girl out of the country, but not the country out of the girl! It was a spur of the moment project using bits of this and that from my notorious multi-bin fabric stash. (I had not yet pressed the finished placemats in these photos, so the binding looks wrinkly.) I've really been enjoying this quilting binge, and especially enjoying it on my new sewing machine.

On an entirely different topic, I found the nicest book this past week:It's a combination recipe book and travelogue ... I could hardly put it down once I started reading it! If you like baking breads, and you like letting your imagination travel to unusual destinations (AHEM! ELDEST DAUGHTER!) ... I very highly recommend this book!

Okay, I'm off for my weekly Coronation Street fix now, and then some baking. Happy First Week of May, y'all!

P.S.: Banana, here's a tantalizing sneak peek. S'alright?