Wait. What? It's May 16th! What Happened to April?

April had very few showers and a lot of flowers.  I didn't realize how many Magnolia trees are in New Westminster.

 Star Magnolias look so delicate.

 Our February Japanese Cherry Blossoms were very late this year as we had a cold spell with snow in February.

 The tulips were later and longer this year also.

 More Magnolias these ones are in my friend Rita's garden on the quay.

 So pretty.

 My favourite group of tulips outside our condo.

 Love this one.

 A couple days later the ones by my condo are opening up.

 Even the dandelions look great.

 So regal on one of our rainy days.

 My favourite brunch restaurant moved into a larger venue.  From 34 to 99 seats! Plus a larger outdoor seating area that they are prepping to open.

 They opened on Good Friday and boy were they busy.  I got a view of the kitchen

 Counting off groups of tickets to prep.  The wait was long.

 At one point the waiting line for the wait list was out the door.

 They make a fabulous Bacon Benny, I always take the fruit to go.

 The outdoor entrance, so they can be open later than the rest of the RiverMaket when they start doing dinner.  Right now they are just open for breakfast and lunch.

 Love rogue tulips amongst the many.

 These tulips remind me of Mary Englebreit flowers.

 Love the peonies that are starting to bloom.

 I decided to do two wool blocks of the month.  This is Sue Spargo's Fresh Cut.  My friend Uschi Greiner of Woolies On The Coast. She is working hard on getting her website up and running.

 She dyes her own wool and has substituted other fabrics as many from the original block of the month are out of print.

 Block 2, I'm waiting on some of the speciality threads to arrive so I'm working on multiple blocks with the colours I have.

 Love the Knotted Italian border stitch on the yellow polka dot fabric.

 This one has been fun to stitch.

 There are several birds scattered thru the quilt.

 I had lots of fun stitching on so many parts of this block. Cast on Bullion, chain stitch closed Fly stitch.

 Uschi didn't have the striped ribbon and she found just the perfect cotton striped fabric.

 The cream velvet flower was fun to add.

This was another fun one to stitch so far.

 Woven bars at the end of the chain stitch.

 Then Crested chain stitch and French knots were added.

 I've been trying to take up the challenge of stitching every day for a month.  So far I've stayed on track.  I'll probably stitch till the end of the month as I started almost a month ago.

 This is what I was working on last night.

 Lots of little bullion knots around the leaves and then as crosses on the small green circles.

 Woven backstitch.

 This is block 6 when I stopped.

 Now all the basics are done and the fun stitching is to start Spargoing it up.

 I used a periwinkle blue on that striped fabric which I think worked well in the deep V's of the leaf.

 I love the rich purple and teal paperweight print fabric on the leaves.

Next time I'll share my Something's Fishy BOM designed by Uschi which you can still join.

Spring Equinox, Sisterhood Swap, how did mid February to March 20th go by so fast?

Today is the Spring Equinox, arriving at 2:58 Pacific Standard Time today!  It is also the anniversary of my Dad's birth so always a special day for me.

 I've decided to take part in the Sisterhood Quilt Swap hosted by Berene Campbell of Happy Sew Lucky blog. I follow her on Instagram at HappySewLucky On her March 7th International Women's Day blog post she shared details of the Sisterhood Swap.  The swap is now closed but if you are interested in participating you can still do so in private swaps.  The organization that will benefit from the sale of the patterns is Beautiful World Canada.  I emailed and asked Berene if I could share this picture and she gracefully said yes. Berene has donated all the money from the sale of the patterns to them even if you choose not to participate in the swap.  I'll share pictures of my finished blocks once I've made them.

 She also shared the following statement with me.

 I chose this organization for our Sisterhood project as Beautiful World is run by women for women, I know them personally, and I love their level of professionalism and dedication. Good to know where your money goes when sending it to a charity! 

You might notice that their logo has a flower of circles. I designed it while in Toronto. It has a similar story to the quilt block does. Each orange petal represents one of the support systems that they offer the girls, who in turn are represented by the pink dot in the centre. So a circle of support resulting in a blooming flower.
Explained a bit here: https://beautifulworldcanada.org/our-work/

 Each swapper is making either a right or left half square triangle sister block and sending them off to their group.  I'm sending mine to swappers in Japan, Scotland, USA and Canada...one just down the road from me!

 I could not resist this cute Spring ornament!

 Also these bunny "paper clips."

 And this flying geese bunny.

 Pictures of the last day of Winter Spring flowers.

 These are mini daffodils in my friend Rita's garden.  She and her puppies were sitting on the patio enjoying the sun.  We broke warmest day records that were in the mid teens to twenty Celsius around the province.

 Full size daffodil.

 Even her hyacinths are blooming!

 Hellebore started blooming last month.

 I love this little square of crocuses that are overtaking the winter pansies.

 A closer picture.

 Snowdrops and ?daisy.

 Love these star blossoms.

 Here are some of the star buds.

 Grape Hyacinths and more crocuses.

 The ornamental grasses survived our winter snow.

 Seagull partying at low tide on the river.

 Our crazy rhododendrons that bloom in October and February.

 Love this large grouping of Crocuses.

 This Peony plant is sprouting like mad.

 These ones just adjacent are also bursting out.

 Back in February I got some work done on my Fresh Cut blocks. 

 I went a bit more turquoise with my bird block.

 Next block all ready for embellishments.

 I got 5 fishes added to the background but no embellishments yet except for background.  Something's Fishy is designed by Uschi Greiner of Woolies on the Coast. She is dying wool and taking pictures trying to get her website up and running.

 One of two of these.

 Another one, haven't added the eye yet.

 Another Angelfish.

 Number 2.

 Not the greatest picture of the school of fish so far.  I also have a seahorse and Orca whale to add after adding the borders.  I plan to get started on the embellishing stitches for these first.

 I also picked up my Bird Dance blocks by Sue Spargo.

 This one needs it's bird.

 As does this one.

 Apricot birds 1.

 2.

 3.

All the birds have been stitched down and some have a start on their embellishments  I've also stitched three more down.  Just one left to be done which was missing it's background so I ordered some wool of a different dye lot and then it will be time to stitch them together and get the borders done.

Been busy stitching in February and March!