All over town the daffodils are blooming, it is February 19. There are many days and nights when the temperature is barely above freezing. The calendar says it is still winter and there is a chance of snow. There have been years when the daffodils were blooming and there was snow on their blooms. March 20, one month from now, is the first official day for spring.
Winter is full of browns and grays, but Spring dips into her magic box of 120 Crayola crayons and paints the earth with dazzling yellow daffodils and forsythia, bright red tulips, chartreuse green of tender new grass, red velvet leaves on Japanese maples and sweet pinks of flowering crabtree trees, magnolia and redbuds.
In celebration of spring, I decided it was time to add a spring quilt to my little quilt/tabletopper collection. My quilt fabric stash has many Civil War reproduction prints and I just received 26 fat quarters from Jo Morton for the LWC 16 for 2017. There are a few 30's prints which would work but the fabric winner for my spring bling quilt is from Joanna Figueroa and her fig tree fabric. One day while I was shopping in my LQS, her fabric caught my eye (no small feat when there are hundreds of bolts of fabric). The fabric seemed to embody the colors of spring. A bundle of fat quarters founds its way into my shopping cart.
Martingdale released a new book called I Love Churn Dashes. Jo Morton has a really sweet church dash set on point quilt in this book. One of the patterns in the LWC 16 for 2017 is a church dash. Ahh, the elements are coming together--fabric, pattern. I have been reading, studying and watching You Tube demonstrations to improve my quilting skills and have added a new ruler to help with accuracy. The church dash blocks are 3 1/2"
I will enjoy the daffodils while they are blooming and the colors in the spring bling quilt when the cold winds return.
