Shoots and leaves...

The sun is shining, the grass has been cut for the first time this year (I love that smell), we have a couple of flowering daffodils, a roast lunch in the oven and my cold isn't so bad after all.  A good Sunday so far.

Loaded with Strepsils, I managed a little sewing last night; a trial run for my Mother's Day pressie, one of Leila's awesome scrappy leaves...

I had issues trying to paper-piece and fussy-fit(?) some of my scraps, but I reckon that maybe I won't need to paper-piece the next one(s) if I am trying to be so specific in my prints, otherwise, paper-piece I will.  It turned out great; thanks Leila, hope you are feeling better too!

I added an extra mini leaf, as my plain linen backing, although the look I wanted, seemed just a little too plain.

I foresee many more of these being made over the coming months; they are so quick and easy; well they would be, if I could actually narrow down which fabrics to use in less than an hour!

Then, at about 10pm I had the urge to try to crochet again, NOW!  Not sure why I wasn't prepared to wait; but a little YouTube searching and having dug out my tried and failed crochet gubbins from a year or so ago, and I was off!

OK, I didn't exactly make amazing progress before I went to bed, but 3 more rows than I ever achieved before, and still able to get the hook through!  Previous attempts ended up with such a tight cluster of knots that I thought I was doomed to fail forever.  Apparently not so.  I will do a bit more of this practice nothing then maybe try a little something later today!

You realise if I start on this, I will need storage pouches and a whole other world of implements; I already reckon my hook is too small!