Happy Easter

We've had a busy week around here.  The boys were on spring break (and fortunately I was between work projects), so lots of time to have fun.  My in-laws arrived on Wednesday, so more fun and spoilage for the boys.

Our pool is open and the boys have been swimming 20-30 minutes or so on warm days.  (The water's only about 68 degrees, so they're only in for a short while.)

We all went strawberry picking on Friday morning - got some gorgeous sweet berries.  Most have been frozen and put away, but we've been snacking on some, and I made a strawberry pie for our dinner tonight.  We've learned to have the kids wear red shirts when picking to minimize staining.  Jeremy was so proud of himself "because I finally broke my bad habit of eating ALL of the berries and I'm putting some in the bucket."

Of course, last night we dyed eggs.  All the standard colors, plus the traditional "ugly" eggs made when you mix a bunch of dye together for a lovely shade of yuck.

I tried to add rub-ons to the eggs.  It turned out that only one brand (Maya Road) of the half-dozen brands I tried would adhere.  But the ones that worked sure came out cute!

I hope you all have a happy Easter.

Raspberry Lime (a baby quilt)

 One of my neighbors recently had a baby girl, and I've (finally) finished a little quilt for her.  The pattern is "Giselle" and was published in Quilters Newsletter Best Weekend Quilts, a magazine that was published in the late fall of 2010.  I only made 9 of the blocks (instead of the 30 in the pattern).

I fell in love with a bubbly dot print in lime, pink, and raspberry, and paired it with some coordinating fabrics.  I haven't been fabric shopping in ages, and discovered the patterned Kona cloth, so picked up a bit of that in pale pink as one of the coordinating fabrics.  The rest was from my stash.

I used a green dot minkee on the back.  I just cannot make a baby quilt without using minkee on it.  It is a "summer weight" quilt, with no batting.  But the minkee gives it a lovely weight and drape, and the quilting lines just sink into it and give the back a lovely, almost sculptural, quality.

This is it on my porch, under the mound of pansies.

And 4 of the blocks so the fabrics can be seen: