Spring Is Really Here!

Spring has taken it's time getting to Western Washington, but I think we can safely assume now that it's really here.  Everything is blooming *ah-choo!*, the swallows and bugs are here, the frogs are croaking and the birds and ducks are courting and nest building. Oh, and the lawn needed mowing!  We won't talk about all the weeds busily growing everywhere, OK?

Here is my camellia.  I wasn't sure it would bloom this year, because of our big ice storm in January.  It didn't bloom in 2011 because of an early, hard freeze and snow storm the previous November.  But here it is!  I'm so glad to know that it survived.

And here are some sweet little violets.  They are all over the yard, and I just love them.  I keep threatening to put them in pots so that I can enjoy them up close, but I never seem to get to it.

Here are my blocks for the Block Lotto this month.  The pattern is called Hot Crossed 9-Patch.  I only got 2 made, and I'm hoping it's enough to win.  One can hope, right?  I really like this block.  If I don't win some of these, I may have to put this on my Bucket List of quilts to do.  I certainly have the plaid stash to do it, and then some!

The Kid got sick with a nasty virus about 3 weeks ago.  Then I got it a week later.  And, of course, DH got sick a week after me.  It's not the flu, according to the doctor, just a virus.  It has really kicked our butts. We even had to cancel having the family over for Easter.  :(  

 I'm finally feeling better, but I'm not totally up to speed yet.  And I'm still coughing some, although I have managed to get off the cough meds and inhalers finally.  DH is still fighting it.  The house has pretty much gone to rack and ruin in the meantime.  Ugh.  I hate having to do all that housework when I start feeling better.  Not that I ever like doing housework, you understand.  *grin* 

The only thing good about this is that I did manage to get some sewing done!  DH HATES the vaporizer.  I really needed it.  So, my solution was to basically lock myself in the quilt studio with the steam monster and sew.  And I made progress!

I started with 4 blocks and various bits and parts from the Liberated Log Cabin class I had with Gwen Marston last year.  This is what I had after 2 or 3 days of free-piecing the blocks.

BTW, this piece is really hard to get a decent picture of.  The green and turquoise fabrics are pretty bright and that hot pink is really bright!  The darkest fabric isn't really black, it's purple and it's not as dark as it looks here.  Maybe when it's all put together I can get a photo with true colors outside in better light.

And this was the next day, starting to put the blocks together and add the border pieces.  I'm working on more borders now, and will have more photos soon.  I'm happy with how this is coming together.  And it's been so fun to work on that I didn't mind being sick so much.  I've spent just about every evening for the last week in the quilt studio working on this.    

Of course, my quilting kitty, Shade, had to be in the studio with me.  You can see he's holding down those pesky fabric strips for me.  Actually, this is him NOT looking at the camera.  He doesn't like getting his photo taken too much.  I got quite a few photos just like this.

Got him!  Look at that long-suffering look on his face - hee hee!  Don't worry - he got lots of kisses and pets for being a good boy and letting me get a shot of him.  He's so happy when we're in the studio together.