So when the occasional spring shower drops in to dampen the day and nurture your May flowers, just remember that this is a great time to sew up some hot fashions and delightful decorating items for your upcoming summer festivities!

Start with lace! The designs this week feature new and refreshing fruit patterns in freestanding lace to sew for trivets, centerpieces, and coasters. Make a matching gift set or mix the fruit coasters so everyone can identify their own.

Summertime...when the livin' (and cookin') is easy. Keep the kitchen cool by taking the cooking to the patio grill on hot days. And outfit the cook with apron designs suitable for many a personality -- from the "Grill Sergeant" and "Grill Mistress" to the cartoon humor of "Plays with Fire" and "All Fired Up." Many more will delight and entertain.

Fresh garden vegetables -- peppers, mushrooms, cucumbers, corn -- colorfully framed in checkers and stars are ready to sew on baskets and totes for those trips to the garden or farmers' market. Perfect, too, for Fourth of July and mid-summer picnics.

 Get ready for a sizzling summer of backyard barbecues, and enjoy sewing the designs!