Is Spring Around the Corner? and other stuff

I saw my first robin of the year when I was on my way home from work Friday afternoon, and have seen them several times since then. And really healthy round ones too! So despite the continued chill and a few very, very light snowflakes this afternoon, maybe things are going to turn around sooner than we thought.

I finally finished sewing the black wool skirt yesterday, and also stitched up another infinity scarf. I've been working on the needlepoint here and there in the evenings when I'm watching the tube, which was how it all began. For sewing now I am switching to the medium blue linen/cotton blouse for spring.

Nancy & Larry

The last time I talked to Nancy on the
phone I was telling her about the needlepoint project and other things that I had completed in the past, including a crib quilt for my nephew Ian 17 years ago. Nancy did the Cat's Meow cross-stitch featured near my blog bio picture. She and her husband Larry live in my hometown of Portage, a suburb of Kalamazoo, Michigan.

I'm not going to go into a long story about my dysfunctional family, but my nephew basically doesn't know me from a hole in the ground since my sister cut me out of her life 15 years ago when he was still a toddler. When she was pregnant with Ian I made a crib quilt as a baby shower gift from my own design. It was a lot of work, but I was really into it and thought it turned out nice.
















Melissa and I have had a difficult relationship our entire lives, and when I was about 3/4 of the way done with it, it dawned on me that she would not like or appreciate it. So I was pleasantly surprised when she called to thank me for it, and she sounded sincere. But in all the baby pictures she sent, that quilt was nowhere to be seen in any of them. To this day I wonder if she gave it away - which come to think of it probably would have been a good thing so that someone else could actually use it.

I pieced both the front and the back, and then hand quilted along the seam lines. That was a bit slow going because I wanted it to be on the seam both front and back. It took some time, but I think it was worth it.

It didn't capture very well in my picture, but I embroidered my "signature" on the back; Aunt P Productions. I got the nickname "P" from my brother Matt when I was young, and when his son Jake was born, I became Aunt P.