I Like Thursday: April Foolin’ Around

April! It's been another full-throttle month.  Whew!  Let's see what I liked best...

It kicked off with April Fools Day.  My local librarian celebrated the holiday with a sign that said "Please excuse the mess while I reorganize the collection by color!"  Indeed, the first shelf is red, orange, green, white, blue and black.  If you flipped the paper over it said "April Fools!"  

The eclipse was pretty cool - no fooling!  We chose not to drive up to Vermont to see the total eclipse, but instead hung out on our front steps to witness the 95% coverage.  We played with the colander, marveled at the strange shadows and the drop in temperature (about 10℉). 

We wished there had been more leaves on the tree to better see the funny crescent shadows the sun produced.  The pine trees gave us a bit of little taste of it.  And I had eclipse glasses, so we could look at the sun.  It reminded me of the Cheshire Cat as the slice of the sun got bigger (a grin without a cat).

Moving Along

This week's clue for the two color mystery quilt was the block layout.  It's a cool looking block.  But boy, it was a struggle putting it together.  Even when I had the pieces put the right direction, I still felt like I was doing it wrong.  Lots of points.  Matching point to point was straightforward, but some pieces aligned a straight edge with an angle.  Those were trickier and it took me stitching (and ripping apart) a few pieces before I got the hang of it. 

I'll leave that on the wall as contemplate layouts.  I made the baby quilt size, but this is to become a headboard for my mother's full sized bed.  I may need to make two more blocks to gain the width I want, which I'm sure would also change the layout.

Sidetracked

Just as I was all set to start some serious work on my sweatshirt jacket, a few things jumped ahead in priority.

Years ago I some amazing paper-pieced greeting cards; I wanted to try making some myself.  So I bought windowed cards but never got around to piecing fabric to go in them.  Then I made a handful of postcards (most of them during this year's Project Quilting).  They're a bit bulky for the cards, but I can squeeze them in.  This lets me send the card with a personal note, then allows the recipient remove and keep the artwork, or pass it along to someone else.  I've added a sticker to the card:  Mini quilt is a postcard.  Keep it! Regift it!  Extra envelope provided.  Now I need to start sending them to people!

Rick Rack Ripples

I'm riding a wave of finishes - and this was the quilt that kicked it off.  I'm late to post about it, though, because it was only recently sent.  (The package needed some Easter candy for ballast.)

This is called Rick Rack Ripples.  My cousin asked for blue, green and yellow.  I love the color combination. 

In the Works

Busy weekend.  Glad I took Monday off to catch my breath!

I worked on my Two-Colour Mystery quilt.  Week five consisted of mitered blocks.  Following the assembly instructions produced a small stack of triangles, so I made a tiny stack of 1¾-inch squares.  Don't know what I'll do with them, but I'm sure I'll think of something.

Easter Candy!  This year I swapped out toffee (I've been struggling with the recipe lately) for caramels (some with pecans, some plain).  Last year I tested out chai spiced cookie dough truffles as well as coffee buttercreams.  Both were such a hit I kept them this year.  I overdid the amount of chai in them this year (oops) but the coffee was perfect. 

Bye Bye Babies

One last post of the Rice Crispy boys:  the trio of guinea pig baby fosters from Dakin Humane.

The morning that Crackle and Laylla went to back to Dakin I found the three boys stuffed into the tunnel.  I was sorry to break them up, but I was thrilled that the two singletons (Laylla and Crackle) were going to a new home to live with another guinea pig.  

Laylla was very curious when she went in the carrier.  Crackle was hiding behind her.  So at least they got the drive back to Dakin together.

I Like Thursday: Marching On

Wow - I've blown through March.  I suspect I'll be spending part of April just catching up!  Lots of likes to share with LeeAnna's I Like Thursday. 

Ducks!  There's a farm near the bottom of our street, and a sanctuary appropriately named Duck World.  So often I need to stop and wait for assorted fowl to cross the road, but this time I managed to get evidence.  The chickens usually hustle across but the ducks take their sweet time and there are always stragglers.  The turkey and the geese are the worst, though.  They'll stay put and stare you down, daring you to get by them.  Always a chuckle!

Floor Time and Zoomies

We returned the last of our foster guinea pigs to Dakin on Saturday.  It was sad.  I keep hearing wheeking whenever I walk into the kitchen.  They had me trained well.

But fear not!  I have two more posts of photos and videos of my adventures with Laylla, Snap, Crackle and Pop.

The babies were still two weeks old when these were shot.  It's amazing how tiny they are, yet how much they had grown in such a short time.

I loved watching how Snap, Crackle and Pop would swarm together, sometimes following mama, and sometimes going out on their own.  And SO much talking!  Burble-burble.