It's Springing Forth

The air feels softer.

It's warm, cool and moist, all at the same time.

There's a breeze. Then here's a gale. It feels like spring.

The redbuds are budding.







The hyacinths are blooming. They have returned from last year.





And a tiny, muscari grape hyacinth.




Of course, with all these blooms, come pollen and allergies. I think that the cedar and the oak pollen are the worst.

I'm trying out some herbs I bought at the health food store and they're actually working. When I take OTC allergy meds, I really dislike the side effects - drowsiness or hyperactivity. I feel like I'm constantly napping when I take the OTC meds or my heart is constantly racing. I don't care for feeling either way!

Are you enjoying spring? Or are you suffering from allergies? Do you have spring fever? Has spring sprung where you live?

I'm a Wiener!!

I recently participated in Moda's Pillow Talk blog hop and visited the blogs of various Moda designers. I'm a big Moda fan and had visted several of these blogs already, but did discover a couple of new fabric designers.




The final visit was to the famous Moda Lissa and there I discovered that I was NOT the grand prize winner. But Lissa had very graciously picked 20 additional participants and she is set to mail them.... something. I don't know what it is--but I'm excited! I'll share my "surprise" as soon as it appears.

I made chocolate mousse from scratch this week. I found the recipe on Allrecipe.com. Have you used any of their recipes before? Any favorites?

I also like to use Tasty Kitchen recipes. But I'm usually using what Google finds for me. I also use Southern Living recipes but don't like their website because of the automatic videos and pop-ups that try evade my pop-up blocker. No fun!

But here are a couple of pics of the chocolate mousse in progress. At least the pics are calorie-free!

Here is the melted chocolate and cooked egg yolks side-by-side with the whipped cream.



And then fold the two together.



I used Baker's Chocolate that I bought at Walmart. The mousse was delicious! Ina Garten has a Lemon Mousse recipe that my kids want me to try. So maybe lemon will be next!

Digging out the fabric

I do not have enough Tanya Whelan "Delilah" to make Eventide, so I'm audtioning some fabrics from the stash.



So I laid them all out on the window seat and thought I'd check them out.

Here are the darks.




And here are the some pinks.




And here's some ideas for the Ohio star backgrounds.



And of course the all important blues!




And some medium greens for interest.



One more look at the fabric:




I spy some Red Rose Farm fabric by Elizabeth Scott, some Quilt Soup, one piece of Holly Holderman, a little bit of Flower Sugar, and some bits of pieces of lines I do not know.

I'm nervous about just picking out colors and right now, I think everything is a bit matchy matchy. I need to add a bit more contrast so I'll be heading back to the fabric bins and digging for something to add a pop!

I meant to sew some this weekend but my machine had been put up and hubby is enjoying the clean living room and wasn't too keen on helping me drag the sewing machine out! I sew in the living room. It makes a huge mess (you know all about that) and I think he was enjoying the clutter-free feeling for the weekend.

But the weekend is over and I'm ready to tear things up. I need to ride this wave of energy and get something done! I usually stall and I'm not great about finishing up quilt projects. Do you have that problem? What's your least favortie part of the quilt-making process?

Binding? Bleh! Basting? Double bleh! Those are the parts I REALLY do not like.

But I worked on a donation quilt last week and those parts, while not my favorite, were really not that bad. I tried spray adhesive for the first time, and while stinky, it worked pretty easily. And binding? I watched a couple of "how-tos" on Youtube and had NO problems! I'll share those here in a post when I can post pics of the donation quilt. Those blocks were made by the students and were a bear! to put together.

Gotta dash! It's off to the Middle School library for a bit of volunteer work. The fabrics will just have to wait until later in the day.

Sign me up!

I am loving the pattern Eventide by Carrie Nelson and Thelma, of Cupcakes and Daisies is doing a quilt along. Sign me up. Well, sign me up now that I haven't been selected for Jury duty. Whew! I had a lot on my plate this week and didn't want to add too much civic duty to it.

One of my favorite design elements of this pattern is the large, blue stars. And it is so pretty in the cover picture. I love the Luna Notte line; but I'm thinking of trying something different. But I will still have the pretty, blue that I can use for the large stars.

So I'm thinking of using "Delilah" by Tanya Whelan. It's very pretty and I could find some secondary fabrics from this inspiration fabric.



Do you have any of this fabric? What are your plans for "Delilah"?

Happy Birthday Emily

I'm now the mother of three teenagers. My mother laughs and laughs. Surely I wasn't the typical teenager, was I mom? Mom?

So Happy 13th Birthday Emily Grace. You're pretty sweet...for a thirteen-year-old! (Just kidding) Maybe we'll make that trip to China before you turn 16 (I really don't remember saying I would take you to China but you swear it's true).




And of course Happy Birthday to my dear, sweet, generous husband. The same day. Two birthdays. Well, there's three birthdays in the family that day as my older brother's birthday is the same as Em's and hubby's. So Happy Birthday to all three!

Houston report!

The road trip wasn't just "all quilts":


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It's time to Vist the Big Armadillo!

It's time to head to Houston for the International Quilt Festival. Mrs. D and I are heading south and this time we're taking passengers. Our DDs are in tow and heading to the quilt show with us. Sweet!

And of course, we'll have to introduce them to the Giant Armadillo.