Welcome to the First full Day of Spring!

Last night at about 9:30 P.M.  Spring arrived on the West Coast, the earliest arrival in over 100 Years!

Today is the first full day of Spring and also the anniversary of my dad's birth.

I started stitching my next Buttermilk Basin Let It Snow block.  I changed out the female cardinal for a west coast female Blue Jay.  Here is the link for the free T or to purchase the first two letters. Each letter is available free for the month and then you have to purchase the block or kit.

On Friday I also cut out the next two free blocks from Dawn Heese Linen Closet Designs.

Here is the my interpretation of her second block ready for stitching.

Saturday morning my friend Rita and I went to the Creative Stitching show in Abbotsford and I got this lovely bright cotton from Quilter's Dream Fabrics; you can visit her on line store here. Here shop is in her home in Vancouver.

I got these lovely bright wools from Wool Penny Rugs, Uschi dyes some lovely bright colours.  Uschi lives up in Sechelt.

My wallet took at hit at The Steam Trunk. She is another local vendor who carries such things as Sari Ribbons.

Lots of tiny unique buttons.

Snowflake buttons I've been looking for to use on Let It Snow.

And the top bee and snowflake ribbons!  She is located in Tsawwassen where you can catch a ferry over to Vancouver Island.

I got the linen music, and polka dot ribbon from A Threaded Needle also in Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast.  She also carries some lovely Japanese fabrics and hardware for purses.

A new vendor to the show was Wonderfil Threads who make Sue Spargo's Eleganza threads. I decided to get this sampler of Easter Thread colours with the brown for a basket to hold them!

One last vendor that I love to visit is Carola's Quilt Shop also in Sechelt. I was able to get some individual spools of some of the variegated Sue Spargo threads.  She also has a full array of Aurifil and some lovely Batik fabrics.

Hope you enjoy your first full day of Spring.  I'm going to be stitching for part of it and then taking my mom for a drive to see the Quilt Display at the Van Dusen Gardens. Check out this on line post about the garden and a tease of the quilts on display.

Creative Stitching in the heat.

Although we've been experiencing a very early heat wave I've managed to do a bit more stitching on my leaves. The centre vein is one long drizzle stitch of about 40 wraps that I tacked down at the top.  The side veins are bullion knot.  The two yellow outline stitches are both coral stitches and the orange outline are bullion loops.

 I added some Palestrina knots in turquoise.

 I decided my little palm island needed a sunset and added one with one of Sue Spargo's new Eleganza threads with a whipped half circle.

 Some Pekingese stitches in a variegated green on this leaf.

 Fly stitches in another Eleganza thread and bullion knots around the outside.

 This is what I'm working on..lots yest to embellish.

 Thursday I went to the Cloth Shop in Vancouver and got their Rainy Days row by row experience.

 I also got one of the Needle and I breaking surf on the beach row.  Love the umbrellas, and seagulls that Debbie added.  Her shop is in Burnaby.