April Fools Day, 2016!

We are starting out with our Quiltville Quote, because --

IT’S APRIL!

Did you know that the first clear and widespread mentions of April Fool's Day occurred in the 18th century? For 300 years April 1st has been full of pranks and pranksters! Watch your back, but have fun while doing it!

And today on the mountain is full of April Showers, but I don’t mind.

Thinking back on April Fools days past, I am reminded of one time when I was about 10 or so that my brother put rice crispies in my bed as a joke.  It wasn’t funny at the time, but evidently HE thought it was.

Was your growing up punctuated by pranks on April Fool’s Day?

I am always searching for the right words to go with any quilt for whatever day it is, but holidays are really fun to pull into play.  I loved Mark Twain books when I was growing up, and this quote of his made me chuckle.

While I know you can’t see much of the quilt in this photo, I want to send you a photo of the full quilt so you can see it:

Can you SEE how tiny these stars are??

And this was as close as my fiend Irene could get to the quilt as it was hanging behind furniture.  GAH!  I am so in love.  If I ever finish the on-going hexagon project, this might be my next love.  1930s & 40s fabrics, found in Kentucky.

I have had my April Fools prank a bit early this year.  Last evening I got a notice that my google account had been compromised and I had to go through the whole "choose a new password" thing.

They make it SO difficult!  How are we supposed to remember all of this password stuff at this age?

Yes, I have a hard copy notebook I write things in.  I'm old school that way.  But it isn't always with me. I'm not taking that notebook everywhere I go.

I have the app on my phone for saving passwords.  Oops.  I forgot the password to that app too.  AUUGH!

I emailed myself a short list and hid it under a certain key subject line, so if I search by that word I can find my list.  Watch me forget my secret word for that too!

It took a while this morning even to get everything synced up so I could post this blog from my writer into blogger.  Good grief.

Before I go any further I have a SPECIAL request!  If any of you are attending the Cocoon in Naperville, IL next week, Pepper Cory and I are in deep need!  First off, I would love your show & share quilts for during my lunch lecture, so please bring them!

Second...Both Pepper and I are crunching on some deadlines.  Machines are provided for the venue, but we each need to be working behind the scenes and would LOVE IT if you could loan us each a featherweight (or a 301) for our use during the Cocoon.

If you are driving, and can bring a machine, please email me at quiltville@gmail.com.  I will update the status here as soon as I hear that someone can accommodate our request, but if this is not updated, please know we are still in need!  Looking forward to seeing you!  I arrive in Chicago on Sunday afternoon!

***UPDATE!!***  Marilyn has kindly offered to let me use her featherweight, we are still looking for one for Pepper.  If you are driving to the cocoon and don't mind packing it along, please email me!

This happened before Quilt-Cam on Wednesday!

I pieced a backing!  This goes with the green strings and the green triangles and all that other green secret stuff you’ve been seeing over the past several months.  I finished the top over the weekend and had just the perfect fabric for the back – but not nearly enough to make it wide enough.  I didn’t have time to do a lot of orphan block pieces and parts assembly, but I COULD go into my stash, pull a favorite “Quilt Diva” novelty fabric and insert it with racing stripes between the pieces of yardage and call it good!  I’ve been hanging on to this Quilt Diva fabric for quite a while and I only had 1/2 yard.  It was perfect here, leaving me a couple of leftover pieces that went right into the scraps.

Sneaky Peeky!

It doesn’t show you much, but I wanted to point out that little neutral square with the green ruffle on it.  See it?

I get the biggest charge out of sewing with fabric that no one else wants, that others deem old, ugly, outdated, unusable.  That little neutral square with the green ruffle was actually a pre-printed country panel piece from the mid to late 1980s.  I remember these.  They were printed with country scenes like a butter churn with a goose, a loaf of bread with a saying, a heart with a floral bouquet in the middle, surrounded by a drawn lace ruffle – that was this piece.

I just took those panel parts and sliced them down and have been treating them as simply “neutrals” And I love this little bit of quilting history that will show up in my quilts, even if you can’t find it on a bolt anywhere.  This kind of fabric usage speaks to me.  This is what patchwork is all about.  making good use of the scraps you already have on hand.

 

Now think back to that diamond star quilt photo above. Where do you think her variety of scraps came from?  Household sewing!  Clothing made for herself and for her family.  The scraps tell the story of a life of living.

Rain on the mountain!

Sadie and I headed up yesterday afternoon, running errands along our way.  I did stop back at the antique mall, and someone had already bought the Simplex machine!  It’s okay.  I really didn’t need it.  It was more of a “I need to rescue this!” than anything, but the saying is true:  If you find something in an Antique Mall you like, you better buy it then because it likely won’t be there when you return!

I hope it has a happy life wherever it went!

Laying out and Playing!

I’ve got a plan with these now, and I’m liking how it is coming together.  I’ve had emails from folks telling me that they have searched my website for  the pattern, and they can’t find it, could I please send it?  Honey, it’s a work in progress.  There isn’t a pattern until the quilt is made! LOL!  I'm still making decisions as I work on how this will all come together.  It's in the design process, and I could change my mind at any minute on how it will go.

And how boring it would be if nothing was ever shown EVER until the quilt was complete and released in pattern form.

Isn't it fun to see the process?

By bed time!

These are not laid out in any particular order.  I was just making sure I had enough going this way, and going that way ---I’ll mix them up more later.  I need to do 6 more blocks.  I want this one rectangular not square.

This one is for you, Lynn!

My friend Lynn loves flamingos!  Speaking of Flamingos, check this out:

If anyone needs me today, you’ll find me in the sewing nook stitching more H blocks!

Happy April, Everyone!

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