Happy Day!

Knowing that my Dad reads my blog, I'm saying, "Happy 91st birthday today, Dad!" 

Isn't it nice of him to take time to read all the stuff and fluff I write about in my blog posts? He's often said that for not being a quilter, he knows a whole lot about making quilts! Isn't he the sweetest?

Last week I made and mailed this birthday postcard to him. I was skeptical about sending it through the mail without an envelope. But at the post office the fella made sure it fit through his "slot" template, and then measured and remeasured it before sticking a 36-cent stamp on it. I hope it arrived okay. 

I've continued to work on my Scrap Challenge quilt, and finally reached a point in adding big stitch quilted circles to it that I thought "enough." The quilting isn't very visible in this picture, but trust me, it's all over the quilt.

I couldn't begin to count the number of full and partial circles I hand-stitched across it, but if I were to guess, I'd say 70-80. 

Initially I'd thought to bind it with a black and white striped fabric, but black and white polka-dot seemed more suited to all those circles. I'm hand-sewing down the binding now. 

Happy news has been rolling in for the past several days, the first being that I was notified on Instagram that I won this Benartex giveaway. 

The company let me know I would receive the book A Quilter's Guild to Solids, written by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr; and 100 fat quarters of Benartex solids! Wow, huh? These are right up my solids-loving alley! Being a die-hard fan of Painter's Palette solids by Paintbrush Studios - I buy PP from The Quilt Place for only $5.96 a yard - it will be interesting to compare Benartex solids with PP. 

I was also asked for permission to share my Scrap Snap quilt in an upcoming issue of Make Modern, an Australian digital quilting magazine.

Since Scrap Snap blocks were designed by Kari Vojtechovsky @quiltsforthemaking, I asked Kari for permission before submitting photos and a blurb about the quilt. My quilt will appear in the gallery section of issue 40 that comes out in May. The issue is about color wash quilts. 

Zappy Dots, an apparel, accessories, and notions company invited me to choose any of their leggings and t-shirts to have sent to me in exchange for wearing them and posting selfies on social media. I declined that one, as I'm not comfortable having my face everywhere. Does anyone besides me worry about security?

Easter Sunday worship was again online with Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines, Iowa. Pastor Mike delivered a beautiful, meaningful message. 

Since it was just the two of us celebrating the day, Dan made what we wanted. He wanted traditional deviled eggs, and made them for himself. But of course, we both ate his delicious homemade pizza. It's an interesting Easter meal, isn't it?

Book Recommendation

This book, Something Beautiful Happened, by Yvette Manessis Corporon took me by surprise. First of all because it's a true story that occurred on the beautiful Greek islands of Corfu (Did you watch The Durrell's of Corfu on public television?) and Erikousa. Second, because the author ties into the story a personal family experience that happened on Palm Sunday, seven years ago, in Overland Park, Kansas. A shooting. When it happened, our daughter called to tell us about it happening at the Jewish Community Center. The family, who lost a father/grandfather and son to the shooter, belongs to Methodist Church of the Resurrection where we worship whenever we visit our Kansas City family.  (Here's my blog post about the church and its "world's largest stained glass window.") So, not only is the story interesting - about the author's grandmother who helped hide a Jewish man and three young girls during WWII - but it's factual, about a tragedy that hit a Midwest community. This isn't an uplifting story, but it's about lessons-learned, and hope. 

Linda's score: 4.0/5.0

Though Central Florida MQG is no longer meeting on Zoom, I'm still Zoom-meeting with South Florida MQG. In fact we have Sip 'n Sew Thursday evening, a time I always look forward to. SFMQGers are chatty, entertaining and just plain fun! And, I've heard similar remarks coming from them. 

😂 Ahh. Good times and, someday, good memories of pandemic times. Linda