More Blooms, Baby Blocks and Fabric Hugs

It is pansy time!

Over the weekend I visited a nearby greenhouse that grows their own from seed and bought three flats of these pretties and filled all my window boxes with new soil and happy flowers. Here are the pretty pansies smiling at me through the window near my sewing machine. I just love to see these little pansy faces winking at me in the breeze when I sew. I also have boxes on my front and back porch rails and at my bedroom window. We add one of two window boxes per year when the annuals are ready. Next up is my kitchen windows, I think ... or may the rest off the windows on the driveway side. We have such a small yard that container growing is a good way to go in the city. My favorite pansy colors are purples and yellows and pinks. Well, I just love the all!

Here are some more pansy faces. On the plants I selected, the buds are just starting to open. It is still very early in the season. More pansy photos coming as spring progresses. These will last until the end of May or early June when it gets too hot for these cool-loving plants and I will replant them in shady areas under bushes for the rest of the season and will plant my boxes with summer annuals. I am hoping to put in a small vegetable garden plot this year ... just for tomatoes and lettuce and other salad veggies.

When I have not been planting or doing other things that must be done, I have been sewing.

Here are the blocks for other baby quilts I made over the weekend ...

This pattern is called "Hugs and Kisses" and is available free from Quiltpox here ...

Hugs and Kisses Baby Quilt Pattern

These are for a baby girl just born in the UK so we are adding pink "hugs" to the green "kisses." It makes such a nice clean crisp quilt with bright white tone of tones for the background. The Quilty Aunties made this quilt once before for a baby boy is Texas with medium TOT fabrics. Here is a photo of Xander's finished quilt ...

I did the quilting and binding on this quilt. This is just about my favorite baby quilt pattern ever.

These cute little butterfly blocks are for a baby girl who is due in June in Canada. This free pattern is from Moda's Bakeshop and it uses charm packs ...

Frolic'n Butterfly Quilt

We are just pulling stuff from our scraps and stash. These 4.5" butterfly blocks were fussy to make. If you make this pattern be sure to follow the instructions carefully about the orientation of the background squares on the corners of the butterfly wings. I thought I was paying attention, but I still had to remake a couple of wing units. There are some helpful suggestions on how to press these to make the wings "nest" nicely, too. The fuss is well worth it, though. This quilt is going to be sew cute. Can't wait to see it finished and cuddling the baby girl.

My sewing adventures have moved on to the border for the last Round Robin quilt I have from the Q&N swap. This one is for Susie and she is not in the non-peekers album so I can post pictures. This traditional top is all 19th Century reproduction fabrics. Since I do not have much of this type of fabric in my stash, a shopping expedition was in order. Late last summer I went to Keepsake Quilting to find fabrics as they have a very large selection of these repros. I was able to find three of the fabrics already in the top. Here are my fabrics next to Susie's RR ... I made quite a bit of progress yesterday before we went out in the evening to enjoy a benefit concert at the university where my daughter and her young man and many of my favorite student musicians performed. It was a very enjoyable evening. Then the four of us went out to dinner.

This RR border is going along very smoothly!

Butterfly kitty is telling me to come and enjoy the spring air, the pansies in my window box and my sewing machine ... time to sew ... ... have a happy quilty day! :) Pat