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My birthday in the city! It's so good to be back home after all these years. So many warm memories, and favorite places revisited.

 

Chicken skirts

I've been doing so much sewing lately, and these skirts have to be my favorite project so far. Perfect for the warm days of summer, and with pockets big enough to collect eggs.

Handcarved dala horses

Painting outdoors

Hand quilting

One stitch at a time, in between and around all of the seed planting, meal making, chicken care,rabbit grooming,tidying up, walks to the park,schooling, and just the general busy-ness of this time of year. This quilt top is slowly becoming a real quilt.
I rescued this vintage hexigon quilt top from eBay at Christmas time and after moving and settling in, I'm so glad to finally get on with the stitching. When I'm not stitching, the wall in our front hall has become a temporary home for this colorful beauty. And I must admit, I do love the look of it just leaning there and hanging out til I have a spare moment to continue on with the quilting. This is my third quilt top I have quilted entirely by hand. I've come to love and even embrace the longevity of a project like this. It nice to have a simple handwork project that I can just pick up and work on when my energy just might not be there at the end (or beginning!) of the day for some of my more involved projects.
Just simply needle..thread..fabric..

Natural dye experimenting

Today in the yard

Every little stitch counts

This is my very first stranded color work project. I have been dreaming and planning this sweater for a few months now and I'm so excited to finally get on with the knitting! The pattern can be found here it's  Georgia by Jane Richmond. I've knit a long sleeve version already and I really love everything about this pattern.

 For this sweater I'm hoping I have enough recycled sweater yarn for 3/4 sleeves. I'm about half way through the pattern on the collar and I have learned early on with this one just how much every stitch counts. After ripping back several rows(a few times now) ..I realized this is special attention knitting. Usually I knit ..and..

answer children's  questions.

watch a movie.

 listen to children's tales and stories.

read bedtime stories.

..but not this with this one. With all the color changes and increases in the collar (and maybe the cuffs?) this is my quiet moment knitting. And, when it all gets to be a bit too fussy, I can just switch over to my sock knitting projects, or my hand quilting. But I'll share more on those fun projects soon.

It's sunny out now and the children are enjoying  our chickens in their new backyard. So, that means I might be able to sneak in a few rows!