Sweating the Small Stuff

Good morning, my friends. It's a foggy and wet Tuesday here. We had pretty decent weather yesterday, but it started raining overnight. That's pretty typical spring weather in the Pacific Northwest. We're doing our grocery shopping this morning, and so I'm hoping the wet stuff will stay in the heavens while we're out and about. Grocery shopping is bad enough without having to do one's loading and unloading in the rain.

With yesterday's weather fairly decent, Smitty kept me company while I walked around to check on the flowers.

The lilacs are very nearly open. We have a lilac planted in another area of the yard, but it doesn't get enough sun, and so it has never thrived. We got this one on a Mother's Day many years ago when we found some teenage girls selling them in a restaurant parking lot. The lilacs were volunteers they'd dug up from their own yard. It was small at the time, but it has grown into a very large bush now. At this time of year, it's surrounded by a halo of purple.

Over its shoulder, the dogwood is in bloom.

Around the corner, the clematis is looking very pretty right now.

And the flowers on the azaleas continue to open little by little.

I had a lot to do yesterday with housekeeping chores, planning the week's menu and making up a grocery list, and fitting in a workout too. I almost gave up on the idea of sewing yesterday, but I'd been plotting in my head throughout the day how I was going to add an extra bear to the Sweet Dreams pattern. As a reminder, here's the picture from the pattern.

Since this will be the fourth baby for this young family, I wanted to add in one more bear. I really didn't want to make the quilt any wider, but I was willing if I needed to. So I thought all during the day about the best plan of attack for this. Already, I'd reduced the bear templates to 75%. Then I had to decide whether to cut the fabrics to the size suggested in the pattern, or whether to start larger and give myself room to spare. I had plenty of fabric to work with, and so I decided to start with the suggested dimensions. I cut two strips 36-1/2 inches wide, and then sewed them together.

Then, I created the bears' heads and placed them 1-1/2 inches apart. And yahoo! They fit easily!

Now I've barely fused the centers of the heads with my iron to hold them in place. Today I'll focus on finishing off the rest of the faces, the ears, and the paws. The ears are tucked under the heads, and so I don't want to completely fuse the tops of the heads until I have all the ears added. I think this is going to be very cute.

All right, so that was all the time I had for sewing. And I'm afraid this is going to be all the time I have for writing. I need to eat some breakfast, and then we need to be on our way. The rest of the day is open, and so I'll have plenty of time for sewing later this afternoon. Hopefully the bears will be finished when I check back in tomorrow.

For those of you who like it when I pull out my bullhorn, this is for you:

At the end of March, I saw an ad for a t-shirt online. At the time, I was especially worried about how we Americans would be received when we crossed the border into Canada. I have less concern about that now than I did at the time. And, hey...good on you, Canada! I don't know if y'all are happy with your new PM, but I'm happy you decided to vote in the anti-Trump guy. Honestly, I believe both our countries will be better off if you have someone who will stand up to the Big Cheetoh.

So, anyway, I ordered this t-shirt. I didn't realize at the time that it was coming from Italy(!). It took a full month to arrive with a rather comical tracking history. At no point did they give me a clue where it was in this process, except to let me know it originated in Italy. Every couple of days, I'd receive an update, letting me know it was on the move. But where is it? I kept asking.

Finally, finally, finally...it was delivered yesterday. I plan to wear it while we're traveling through Canada. It's not the nicest sentiment, but at least it's honest.

Okay, and with that, I'll be on my way. Time's a-wastin'.