1 Million Pillowcases Challenge

Two weeks ago we went on vacation and traveled all the way around Lake Michigan, spending a few days in Wisconsin, a couple days near Mackinaw, Michigan and then visiting my family.  When we visit my family, we almost always work on a project of some sort.  This time, my mom said that she wanted to use some of her fabric so I suggested pillowcases.  We made 22 pillow cases while we were there and they were donated to the 1 Million Pillowcases Challenge.  Nearly 500,000 pillowcases have been donated so far this year and then given to local charities.

Here is a link to the website:

http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/millionpillowcases/index.html

Weeds and Plants

We returned to our garden after being out of town for a few weekends and found it full of weeds again!  We cleared about a third of it and planted some vegetables this weekend.  

These are blue potatoes that our garden neighbor gave to us so we planted a row of them.  

We also planted tomatoes and green and red peppers.  

Naomi's Art Smock

Naomi likes art projects so I made her this little art smock.  It is from the book One Yard Wonders.  I hope that she will get a lot of use out of it.

Garden Update, April 28

We've been working on our garden and here is the latest:

This is last weekend after two weeks of rain here in Chicago.

This is after pulling weeds today and yesterday.

Me, hauling weeds to the waste pile.

A little flower at the back of our garden (probably a weed).

Our first real plant, chives.  One of our garden neighbors gave it to us and we planted it in the back corner.

A view from the back of the garden.  We estimate that we have about six more hours of pulling weeds before we start planting.  One of our garden neighbors told us today that this spot had been overgrown for years and we can tell by how many weeds/roots we are pulling.

Stained Glass Hat

I bought this hat kit at Vouge Knitting Live and finished it just in time to try it out while Winter was ending. I really like how the yarn changes colors and shows through the solid color.

Our Garden

We signed up for a community garden last year and were put on the waiting list.  This year, we got a garden spot.  It's 10 ft by 20 ft and it's in a park in about 15 minutes from where we live.  Here is our spot:  

We did some work there over the weekend and here it is now:

There are so many weeds that it will take us a while to turn the dirt and pull as many weeds as we can.  Then, we'll be ready to plant when it warms up.  We're new to gardening, but we met some of the other gardeners there yesterday and I think we'll be able to get tips from the others who've been doing this for years.  One person we met has been working in this community garden for over 20 years.

Honey Cowl

I finished this Honey Cowl this weekend.  I needed a new scarf and this is a popular pattern so I thought I would try it.  I really like how it turned out.  It's long so it can be wrapped twice for warmth.  Hopefully Spring is on the way and I won't need to wear it much more this year.