Springtime and sashing

It got up to 54 today the sun is shining and it looks like early spring is in the air.  That doesn’t mean we won’t have cold days ahead but at the rate things are growing I know it won’t be far off.  I spent the last hour outside cleaning out a flower bed of all the dried up leaves and pine needles that had collected up over winter.  I found things growing!

This pink hydrangea that I planted last spring is coming back nicely, see all those leave buds!

I do believe these are hyacinths. I know I have some planted in that general area but I was disappointed in them last year as they didn't have good flowers on them. I will see what they do this year and if not many flowers again I will pull them out and re-plant

Tulip greenery - the problem with tulips is that around here you plant them in December and they are usually pretty the first year and then you get nothing but green after that and rarely flowers. If I remember right I have been told that our summers are too hot and the winters not cold enough for a long enough period - this winter was colder and longer than normal so I wonder if I will have flowers this year?

A little fern, these ferns are natural around here and grow every where it seems. I dug some up from down in the woods over the years and have stuck them in flower beds. They normally stay green all winter. This ground cover stays pretty green also and has purple flowers on it mainly in the early spring and I think again in the fall? I might be mistaken on that and only flowers once - either in the spring or the fall?

And the daffodils are all opening up now - this early variety that is. I have seen them around town and the line of them that we have scattered along the front of our property are all starting to bloom now. I will start to find others around the yard more and more as the warm weather stays with us.

Last night and this morning I worked on drawing the stencil design on the quilt top. I use a blue wash out marking pen that I did a blog post on a couple weeks or more about - "Mark-be-Gone". The top is now ready to quilt and I am just waiting on the batting to arrive. I sewed the backing together yesterday. I did not have a wide enough piece and had to sew several lenghts together. It was almost wide enough but missed by about 8 inches.

I have one more block to make for Row 10 on “Insanity Revisited” and then it will be time to sew that row on to the others.  Then I will take a break from it once again and work on the March assignment for the “Star Crazy” quilt.  I got all that printed out yesterday.  I think I have pretty much decided that the “Little Brown Bird” quilt and the “Traditional Red and Green Applique” – each of which have only one block made will stay put aside for awhile while I get these smaller quilts quilted.  Plenty of time to work on them later.  It is more important to me to get caught up on quilt tops that need quilting.  I don’t like having so many things waiting in line not finished.  This time will give me time to put more thought into the “Little Brown Bird” I have decided there are many blocks in this quilt that I would rather not make and I am looking for blocks to substitute with.  I have found several “lacy” type of blocks to reverse applique and entwine with flowers like the one block I already completed.  I will most likely come up with a new name for the quilt because at this rate I don’t even know if there will be a bird in it!! 

EDITED: at 9:17PM  Odette from Chile left me a comment.  I follow her blog although she hasn’t been an active blogger we exchange e mail now and then.  The google translator doesn’t always do a good job but for any of you who occasionally go to her blog from mine I am happy to report that she and her family came through the earthquake well.  I think she is a bit north of where the damage was and close to the border of Peru.  I had e mailed her after the quake and was happy to hear from her, I had wondered of course if she was ok.