Roll Roll Cotton Boll, Gulf Shores Style!

Meet Susan!

And meet Susan’s inner 8 year old!

Susan brought along this fabulous picture of herself as a young child, picking cotton while on a trip from the south to the north.

Watching fields of fluffy white cotton bolls pass outside of her car window as they drove, she begged and begged for the car to stop pleading

“Please, please!  I just need to pick some cotton. I just HAVE to pick some cotton!  Please, let me!  Please!”

Of course she was relating this story to us putting on her sweetest southern-drawl-filled 8 year old voice, to peals of laughter from all of us rapt with her story.

Little did her parents know that cotton was indeed going to play an important roll in Susan’s life as a quilter!

Cotton-pickin’ Susan!

Keep your eye on the child within!

I’ve been thinking a lot about my own inner child over the past week ever since we had 10 year old Aubrey with us at the Bunkhouse in Quitman.

Have you said hello to your inner child lately?  She is still in there, full of all of the wonder and joy of a full life ahead.  Look in the mirror today and tell her that she did a great job, and look how things turned out! And there is still so much ahead to this journey.

And how important to see the inner child within each other.  What if we were ALL 8 year olds, no matter how old we are on the outside.  How differently would we treat each other?

And don’t forget to be silly!

And let there be KING CAKE!

It's Mardi Gras time here down in the deep south.  And did you know that although New Orleans is thought of as the home of Mardi Gras, it actually started not-too-far-away from here in MOBILE, ALABAMA?  That’s right.  It did!

Mardi Gras is the oldest annual Carnival celebration in the United States, started by Frenchman Nicholas Langlois in Mobile in 1703. This was fifteen years before New Orleans was even founded.

Just a little known fact I thought you might find interesting.  And if you can’t EAT the infamous King Cake (look for the plastic baby between the beads!)  you can QUILT IT!

Pretty!

The one thing I love about Mardi Gras are the colors – they let me know that spring is around the corner!

Our quilters did such a great job yesterday.  Many of them had never used specialty rulers for working with triangles before, and it can be a bit scary at first.  We started them off with the large ones for the center Churn Dash of the block, and when they felt confident, they could move onto the smaller triangles with narrower strips.

Don’t fear the small triangles!  The seam allowance is the same – and it’s a SHORT seam which can actually make them easier to sew. All 600 of them.

Chain chain chain, baby!

Sew Many Centers!

29 Happy Students!

Click the image below if you are unable to view the slide show on your mobile device.  You’ll be taken to the photo album for viewing.

Roll Roll Cotton Boll, Gulf Shores AL 2016

It was a fabulous day to play.  You can find the pattern for Roll Roll Cotton Boll in my book String Fling. 

And we get to play again today with a Jared Takes a Wife Workshop as found under the Free Patterns tab at the top of the blog in case you want to play along too!

Quiltville Quote of the Day!

Confidence isn't automatic. It isn't something we are born with, but it comes when we are ready to face scary or uncomfortable opportunities! It's important to have confidence in the knowledge that we can even learn from our mistakes and that they don't define us.

Vintage string quilt from my collection.

Happy Thursday, everyone!

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