Hello all, Mary Ellen here.

It’s getting more spring like every morning. Daffodils are up in the garden about 4″. Still no sign of life in the hellebores though, and they’re usually the first ones. Crazy winter this year.

Bonnie Hunter (our seminar teacher this fall) is on the road again. Here’s a link to her post with a slide show of a Boxy Stars class she taught over the weekend. She’ll be teaching that class for us too. It’s always fun to see the same project in all the different color choices in a class. Maybe you’ll get an idea for that fabric bundle that’s been sitting in your stash for so long.  click here.

Do you enjoy sewing bags and purses? Are you a fan of Nancy Zieman? If you answered yes to both, then you may want to take part in her upcoming live webcast. Info here.

We’re heading to Earth Day-used to pay much more attention to the various holidays while I was still teaching, but still they’re fun now and then as an old #$%^# too. Quilters have been recycling for years, since way before it was fashionable.  Making something out of little bits of fabric left from all sorts of projects. Originally only the wealthiest quilters could buy fabric specifically for a quilt. We still do recycle fabrics, but for the most part we now buy fabric specifically for our quilting projects. Those of us who love selvage projects can be a bit self-righteous about keeping fabric out of land fills. How about those of us who have lots of leftovers from our garment sewing days? What are we to do to use up some of our “stuff”? Lots of button projects all over the place–easy to find at crafty sites and on Pinterest.  Here’s a source for ideas using leftover bits of trims.  I have a stash of short bits of hem tape, twill tape and commercial bias tape. It seemed that one package was never quite enough, and two packages were way too much–hence the leftovers. Cute ideas to be found in this list. Click here.

Heading down to the Southern Tier today. If the hillsides have begun to green up, it will be a pretty ride. Maybe I’ll find a batch of pussy willows to buy at a farm stand along the way. The ones around here aren’t out yet. A vase of pussy willows with daffodils is a spring treat for me.

TTFN.