First Day of Spring! Happy Birthday Dad.

Happy First Day of Spring and my Dad's birthday.  Glad we didn't have any snow as we did several years ago.  In fact our Cherry Blossoms are quite behind with all the snow we had this year. We do have crocuses and snowdrops popping up along with the occasional Daffodil.

 I made this collage of my House Party Revival for Instagram the other day.  Have started some of the detail stitching for the blocks.

 First was the drizzle stitch and outline around the trees. This picture washed out the green and I used two different threads on the trees.  The red one has a darker variegated thread than the yellow ones.

 Next was an open Trellis stitch around the window and then I did a Palestrina knot instead of back stitch for the four quadrants of the window.

I also did the Palestrina knot around the edge of the roof.  I think I'll stitch around the chimney and will think if I'll add anything else to the block later.

 I also made a one hour basket to hold my stash of 2016 Row By Row fabrics out of the border print.

 Rather than using a fusible I outline machine quilted some of the details.  I used a King Tut Blue around the shape of the houses.

 Another King Tut Green for the grass and a Red for that narrow strip of red along the top.

Kelby Sews has a great tutorial and the basket pattern is a free one on Craftsy. Here is a link to the tutorial.

House Party Revival staying focused.

I've started some of the embellishment stitching on window 1. Doing some outlining and Drizzle stitches on the trees to begin with.

 Have some stitching done on the roof lines of window 2 but need to add the chimneys that I've mislaid. Have some bullion stitches outlining the roofs.

 Window 3 is ready for stitching also. Love how the bias tree turned out.

 Just finished adding the wool pieces to Window 4 last night.  Let the fun embellishing begin.

Here is a picture of the finished piece designed by Tonye Belinda Phillips. Here is a link to her website.  I got my kit from the Stitchin' Post in Sisters Oregon. She is currently teaching it as a 3 month BOM.

Signs of Spring, Staying Focused on Quilting.

Came home this afternoon to this view of the courtyard.  It's hard to see but the weeping cherry tree buds are starting to swell, often by this time it is in bloom but due to a very cold and snowy February they haven't burst forth yet.

 Did you notice the ducks resting by the edge of the pond. here is a closer peek.  We've had nesting ducks at our pool since at least 2000.  Maybe we will see some this year.  Several years ago they cleared a lot of the undergrowth from the edge of the pool and they stopped.

I started doing some of the embellishment stitching on Wednesday at my wool group on block 1 of House Party Revival.

House 2 has the stitching along the roof edge but still needs the chimney and other touches.

Last night I started this block and today at my Friday group I got almost all the bias stitched down.  Then I'll add the rest of the wool applique and start on House 4.

How is your focus doing for the month?