A couple of weeks ago I started to make a "Fig Tree Quilt" pattern, called Summer Ribbons.  I like the freshness of their fabrics.

 I've been chipping away on it a bit at a time, and hope to move on to the next step soon!

 Yesterday I met Monika and 2 of her kids at the Mendel Art Gallery here in Saskatoon, where we had a nice visit in the conservatory surrounded by spring blossoms...

 Tulips are my favorite spring blooms, and I am looking forward to the ones I planted last fall emerging from the ground.  Wishful thinking I know.

 These are the most recent Saturday Surprise blocks:

 I've been enjoying both colorways.  I hadn't used batiks for quite a while, and it reminded me of what I've been missing.  So I made this quilt below from a jelly roll and some beige fabric:

Back to the Snow!

Yesterday morning I packed up my seashells and came home.  Well, we didn't quite make it home until today.  yes, another extended flight ....(our flight into Calgary was late so that the plane to Saskatoon left without us, so we were put on the 7:50a.m. flight today)
I don't mind the snow too much.  It is an ocean of white rolling waves on the prairie.
This is one more bird picture...

 and one more coffee cup,

 On Sanibel, the honeysuckle were in full bloom!

 And these are what I worked on during the travel times on airplanes, waiting in airports, driving in the car...

 I was able to finish 4 pairs of handwarmers, at least the main parts of them.  I think that I might add some buttons to the purple ones, and maybe a felted something to the plain cream-colored ones that haven't got the ends woven in yet. 
After knitting 4 pairs of plain ones in a row, I decided to start a more complicated pattern this morning.  The ones above were all 32 stitches knit on size 4.5mm needles, as usual for me.  The new blue pair I wanted to try a cable on the back, so because they usually scrunch up the gauge a bit I decided to try 40 stitches. As I get a bit farther along I'll see whether I need to decrease any stitches...

Of course as soon as we landed in Saskatoon I went to the shop to see how everything is doing there!!
 It was great to see Deb and Patti again, and some hardy shoppers!  Whenever I come back from a trip and see the store anew I am so happy at the cheery colors and the samples all around.  It is definitely a "happy place" for me!! 

Sanibel

We've been on Sanibel Island for a couple of days now.  Hence all the beach photos. It's been pretty warm, about 85-ish, so I picked up a bit of a sun-burn yesterday.  Today I stayed more in the shade, and didn't spend too much time on the beach except before 9:30 a.m. and after 5 p.m....

 I love the way the waves tumble in. Again and again.

 The sandpipers are so much fun to watch as they dash and dart around.  Sometimes they run after each other and echo each others movements.  I like their long beaks.  There were a lot of stingrays in the water today, they come up to about 10 or 15 feet from the waters edge.

 The shoreline is covered in small shells.  People are continually looking down looking for particular shells, and picking them up to take home.

 I love the colors of the water, the wave edge, the sand, and the shifting sheen on the wet sand.

 At about 6:15 the sun starts to go down, and it's pretty fast.

Crazy

 I took a few photos of the crazy quilt that I made several years ago.  Here you can see the basic overview of the block placement.  There are 30 blocks with sashing, and a "sidewalk" border that meanders around the outside.   I really enjoyed doing the embroidery on this quilt.  Crazy quilts are a project that can just take you over.

 The sashing and background are black wool.  Because the piecing seemed to get a bit diminished next to the black, I couched strands of perle cotton along the edges of the blocks and the border.

 Of course I had a lot of fun collecting the fancy fabrics to use in the quilt:

 I took apart a lot of ties, even one made of fortrel!

 I did a pieced binding on it as well, and added some stitching to accent it.

 The other crazy thing that happened is our trip to Savannah.  We left home on Sunday morning at 5 a.m. but didn't get here until Monday night at about 8:30.  It was an awful trip. It seemed that anything that could go wrong, did go wrong, except for a plane crashing or making emergency landing.  That included getting bumped off an oversold flight, being sent to Toronto (late), waiting 1-1/2 hours for baggage to unload, getting to hotel at 2a.m.,  finding out at 5 a.m. on Monday morning at the toronto airport that the re-scheduled flight had been cancelled, (I had a mini-melt-down then), getting rescheduled for 6 hours later, and it being late taking off.  getting sent to Newark, and again being on a delayed flight, (2 more hours).  So the 10 hour travel time turned into 39 hours.  Blah. 
 So, Now we are in Savannah, and it is pleasant here.  I was traumatized, but I might get over it. 
This is Richard, down by the River.

 The Jere's Antique store you see the sign for at the top of the stairs is incredible.  The second floor was devoted to tables and chairs:

 We came across this amazing magnolia tree, trailing Spanish moss:

 I thought they bloomed later, like in June, but this one was totally covered in blossoms.

 Also, there is a nice coffee shop near our hotel!!