April in review ....

A third of the year gone already - how can that be?  I remember as a child a year was forever, in fact from Monday to Friday was a long time but my daughters were talking with friends the other day about how the year has gone so quickly.  Is this the speeded up world we live in?  Or is it just Home Ed children that think this?   Does time still go slowly for children in school?  I've no idea just rambling now!

 

So at the beginning of the month I signed up for Quarter 2 of the Finish-Along.  Sadly I have nothing yet completed of that long list!

 

Onto Bee news - I continued to receive some more blocks from my hive in the Bee Hive.  I laid them all out last night and love the way this quilt is going to come together.

 

 

For April's queen bee in the same Bee there were Wanta Fanta blocks - just slipped in under the month deadline and these will be posted on Tuesday, as we have a Bank Holiday here in the UK tomorrow.

 

The queen in the Stash Bee hive I am in requested a block in a combination of mustard, grey, navy and chartreuse.  I have no navy in my stash but she was happy with the other colours.

I liked how this made up so made an extra one for me.  I decided at the start of the year to make an extra block each time I made a bee block and by the end of the year I will have some lovely blocks to play with.  I still have a couple to play catch up with but that's OK!

For the Siblings Together mini bee I was queen and asked for 16 patch single colour blocks, which I will sash with white to make up a lovely colourful quilt.  The two I made below as an example were quick and easy to make.  I haven't received any yet because most of the members had holidays booked this month.

I learnt some new things like removing a square from a complete quilt top and replacing it so that no-one would ever know ....

 

 

and foundation paper piecing tiny little scraps of fabric into stars ....

 

 

The majority of the month was spent without my husband who returned to New Zealand to oversee the winding up of our life over there.  That has bought up so many emotions that I'm not sure I have fully dealt with yet ......  We tracked his flight over there ....

 

 

and we'll be welcoming him home in two more sleeps!

 

I spent a lot of time interlocking seams ....

 

 

making up these ....

 

 

and writing a pattern for them.  Watch this space for a release in the very near future!

 

On the Home Ed front there have been the regular activities, an end to ice skating lessons for now, the start of athletics and netball, a visit to nearby Coughton Court where the lambs and bluebells were doing their best to tell us it was spring, although the snow, sleet, hail and freezing rain told us a different story!

 

 

And, of course, there has been reading, although not as much as usual I see now ....

 

 

 

And welcome May!!  The hawthorn is in full bloom, although I didn't wash my face in its dew this morning, we may get to make elderflower cordial early this year and with luck the weather will soon get warmer and sunnier.  Can't wait for some lovely days spent outside and exploring!