A busy, sunny, wonderful spring day -

Ahh!  Spring has arrived in my neck of the woods.  The snow is slowing going away.  I see more leaves, grass? and other things that have been long hidden in the snow.  It was so warm today.  I did get out and do some things in the garage.  I swept out the sand so I won't continue to track it in the house.  The sand came from the sanded driveway and dragged in by the car.   It felt good to be out in the sunshine and doing anything was a blessing.

I spent most of the day 'in my room'.  I moved things, reorganized and generally tried to make more room.  Then I settled down to do some work on the first applique quilt block.  I had tried before but I made  a mess of it.  So I had to remove all the other stitches and put in new ones.  I saw a demo yesterday with some wonderful tips on how to do it.  So here it is:

 He still needs an eye which will be a button.  And I want to finish outlining the design with straight stitch.  It is far from perfect.  I learned a lot with this one.   I will finish it up and display it to remind myself that learning is fun?

 I have also been taking some time to work on the cross stitch.  (Do I even remember cross stitch lately?)  The Lizzie Kate Holly and Hearts is moving right along.  The colors are neat!  Not exactly what one might think for Christmas but I like the paler colors.
  

This is the complete top and left side of the whole (larger) sampler.  It has gone better since I moved on from those trees.  Thank Goodness.