Spring Gardens

Peonies in my garden

After a long winter of chipping ice and shoveling snow, it is wonderful to have Spring in full bloom.  I'm back, and I have no excuses.  Here's a little of what I've been doing.

During the winter, I had the pleasure of making lots of  soft flannel blankets, knitted caps, and tiny zippered sleepers in expectation of our new grandson.  Fox arrived a bit late, but he and his mom are doing well and his big brother is as happy as a kid can be.

One of my more recent projects was piecing the center of another Christmas Quilt for one of my mother's grandchildren.  The tradition she started with giving each grandchild a quilt block for Christmas each year has resulted in 14 finished quilts made as the grandchildren married.  Here's the center of Elise's quilt for her June wedding:

Elise Christmas quilt center

The outer borders and quilting I passed off to my mom and sisters in Idaho.  The variations in the finished quilts never cease to amaze me.   The concept is simple, just one block a year per child.  When the project was started, no one knew just how many blocks would be needed over the years.  When the per year count went over thirty, Mom decided that nine blocks was enough for a good quilt and since then she's only make blocks for the younger grandchildren.   The blocks are 16 inches square and are in mostly Christmas greens and reds with some blue and gold accents.