Is it Spring or Summer?  Today, it's really hard to tell.  The calendar says 31 May but the thermometer says 90 degrees.  For Northern NY, this is most definitely unusual weather.  Not quite two weeks ago it was still snowing!  It's pointless to question Mother Nature, but sometimes I just have to wonder about her mood swings. 

So, today, despite the heat, I'm going to pretend it's still Springtime and share a photo of the pretty flowers my boys gave me for Mother's Day. 

                                  The great thing about these is that the boys thought to get them all on their own!  My oldest boy even arranged to have one of his school friends, whose mother makes jewelry, bring in a few of her pieces so that he could pick out a secret present.  Normally, my Eagle1 hauls the boys to the store to pick out a little something, but he isn't here this year and I think the thought that the boys put into their selections means just as much, if not more, to me than the actual gift.

On warm days, like today, it's hard for me to find the motivation to break out the big quilting projects, so I normally dig around in my bin of "take alongs" and find something small to play with.  The other day, while Eagle1 was home on a weekend pass, he picked up a stomach bug that landed him in the ER.  Knowing that our ER is slow as molasses, I made sure to pack a little take along to keep me busy while we waited.  While digging through the Ziploc bags of this and that, mostly cross stitch and embroidery, I found these two little kitchen towels that I finished a while ago.  I don't recall where or when I finished them, but there they were in the baggie, folded so neat. 

The April Bunny iron-on stayed under the iron just a bit too long, leaving a heat mark on the fabric.  I doubt it will wash out, but it's really okay.  These are just for drying the dishes in our own little home so not to worry about making a good impression.  I think I only have 4 more towels to go before all 12 months are complete.  Good thing too, because my old dish towels need to be replaced soon. 

Something that brought a big sunny smile to my face yesterday was an email from my friend Kay from Illinois. She works in the medical field and one of her nursing friends is expecting a baby girl soon.                                                            Kay was looking for a shower gift

and remembered all of the little quilts I make.  She wrote yesterday to say that the quilt she bought for the baby was a hit with all of her nursing friends and that she shared my Facebook page with them to help bring in a little business for me!  What an awesome friend I have!

One last thing to share that reminds me of Spring is the "Simply Woven" quilt I am making for another friend, Sarah in Massachusetts.  I found this pattern at the Moda Bake Shop website, here-  http://www.modabakeshop.com/2012/10/simply-woven-quilt.html#more  .  My version is done all in scrappy fashion with plenty of lime green variations (Sarah's favorite color). 

These are the first 12 blocks of 42 total.  They measure out to 12.5" each and I think I've completed 14 or 15 so far.  Still a long ways to go, not just with the piecing, but the quilting too, because this one will be done by hand with perle cotton in all the colors of the rainbow.  I'll have more photos later as progress is made. 

In the meantime, the Stone Soup Charm Quilt project is still alive, although I had to jump start it a time or two the past 6 months to keep it ticking.  I've made it to #184 of the 2" squares being sewn into 4" blocks.  A few more folks contributed to the quilt which gave me a reason to buy a few new charm packs to work with.  (Do we ever really need a reason to buy fabric? An excuse is more like it!)  I don't have any recent pics to share of this project, but maybe soon...

Until then, Happy Stitching everyone! 

P.S.-If you are taking a break between blocks, check out my FB page:  www.facebook.com/sugartreestitching  for the other tidbits that aren't posted here!

Yes, it's been more than a year since I last wrote to this lonesome little blog.  There is a draft entry from May 2012 saved under some cobwebs in the corner but it seems pointless to drag it out now.  I don't know if I can remember so far back to December 2011 or all of the things that have come and gone since then, but I'll dig up what I can and hope for the best.

Eagle1 is home safe and sound from across the pond.  Our plans to retire went "Poof!" when the Obama Admin started cutting jobs in the civilian sector with the sequester.   We're 23 years into the camoflauge life and still holding on. 

The new blog background is a photo of a quilt I finished 1 October 2012.  I replaced an old wedding ring quilt that we had on the couch with bright pretty colors that totally clash with everything else we have in the house.  Do I care?  Not a bit!  A few of my friends suggested names for this quilt because I couldn't think of anything that day.  We settled on "Countrytime".  Very fitting if I do say so myself. 

 Eagle1 did drive me all the way to Binghamton (I think that's the name) to buy a Grace quilting frame from a lady who posted on Craigslist.  She advertised it as being "new", but when we got there, well, we were a bit disappointed.  All in all, it was in very good condition and we drove too far to go back empty handed.  It took us quite a few hours to get it put together.  I put my little Brother machine on it just to get the feel of it all and realized two things immediately.  Number one was that I was going to love quilting on this monster of a frame and number two was that I needed a bigger, more powerful machine to go with the frame.  Now, at the time, I didn't realize that all of these new toys that Eagle1 was buying for me were really his sneaky way of buttering me up for when he dropped the bomb that he wanted to buy a Harley, but hindsight is 20/20.  I had a quilt top setting in a tote made of leftovers from a friends present, so when I got the new machine up and running, on the rollers it went.  If you ever liked to doodle on paper with a pencil when you were a kid, this is right up your alley.  Sure, I could have been more creative with it, but to be really honest, it was just too much fun to "scribble" all over that quilt with needle and thread.  It didn't turn out too bad for being my first one. 

I broke out the jellyroll of pretty pastels I'd been hoarding for a while and made another top to doodle on.  I'm not sure what happened during the quilting part of the deal, but the top stretched or distorted while being rolled on the frame bars, so when it came time to trim the edges, nothing lined up straight. 

Seeing as how I'm a little cockeyed myself, you can bet this one came out very not-square by almost an inch despite my best efforts. 
It was still fun to play with, but I learned a very valuable lesson.  (Don't ask me what it is right now.  I can't remember!)  My notes claim that I completed this one on 23 December 2012.  The last one of the year!




Going back in time just a bit to February 2012, I found the "Lattice Quilt" photo. This one, like most of my projects lately, is very scrappy. I don't know if it's because I love the look of scrappy quilts or that I just can't match fabric to save my soul, but scrappy is where I always find happiness so I'm going to stick with it.

The lattice quilt went to my friend Steve in Colorado.  He's always the first to give such sweet compliments on my work when I share photos with friends.  I like knowing that my work goes to people who really enjoy it.

Well, I'll save the rest for another day.  Happy Stitching to all!