Color My World

Good morning, my friends. Take a last look at April because by this time tomorrow, it will be history. The month started out so gray and dismal but then took a turn for the better, showing us some beautiful weather before it was finished. We had our usual nice visit to the Portland Farmer's Market yesterday. We drove up just as someone was vacating a parking space. Sometimes parking can be a challenge in downtown Portland, and so we were in luck. 

Before leaving home, I had some time to work on my slow-stitching. 

I stitched enough to move my hoop. Now, it's just a few days away from being finished. I'll still need to make the mini quilt to hang on the clothesline, but it's probably time to make up my next project.

As I drove away from the house, I noticed the cherry trees were finally blooming. When I got home, I filled the bird feeders and took a little walk around. So let's just take a look at those cherry trees. The one on the left is the Black Tartarian. I expected it to bloom before the Bing (on the right), but it looks as if the Bing is in catch-up mode.

Their flowers look the same. This next one is the Black Tartarian.

This is the Bing:

Out front, the flowering plums are putting on a nice show now.

Checking the greenhouse, I was happy to see some of my lettuce seeds sprouting. I like seeing them when they still have the seed attached. This is the green leaf lettuce.

This is the red leaf lettuce. I haven't seen anything new coming from the butter lettuce yet, but I uncovered it with the rest.

After lunch, it was time to get some sewing done. Smitty was my snoopervisor yesterday.

He helped me cut the borders.

I added a yellow stop border.

And then I added one more border from the focus fabric.

And then I sandwiched it for quilting. I'm using that same crayon fabric for the back.

If there's time for sewing today, I'll get busy with the quilting. It shouldn't take too long. I'll just be doing a diagonal grid. Quilts for Kids desires a machine binding. I usually just fold the back to the front and stitch it down with a zigzag stitch. This will be my ninth donation quilt to Quilts for Kids. 

Also on today's agenda is to clean up the culinary herb garden. It actually doesn't look too bad right now, but the sage plant is mostly dead. It's going to require some serious cutting back. Clouds have moved and they'll keep it a little cooler for my gardening today.

The reveal for the "Maps" quilt is tomorrow. Nobody is any happier than I am to finally be able to talk about it. 

My post is fairly long, so be sure and brew a fresh pot of whatever you're drinking. We'll be fixing to have a long chat about it.