Gratitude #51

I know we say it each month, but it seems only two weeks ago that it was the beginning of April, the start of my annual QAL, and my birthday, and here we are with one day left in the month! April is one of my favourite months of the year. Although the up and down weather can be frustrating, in general, it is such a month of hope and promise.

Top row: First week of April beginning with April Fool's on the 1st - no fools, snow! March had been beautiful and all kinds of spring flowers (many posted on Instagram) were thriving, like the squill and daffodils and the white magnolias, with the pale pink ones beginning to open. I was even in the pool on April 7, enjoying the summer-like temperatures.

Bottom row: April 18, my azalea was glorious, as was our pale pink magnolia, at its peak, when, on the 21!!! we got even more snow. We've lived here a total of 14 years, and other than a few whirling flakes through the air that melted as soon as they hit the ground, we've not seen snow like this. I was able to cover and protect the azalea but not the magnolia. It melted within the day, so it was good for the grass and roots of plants! Not so good for Sandra's spirits however.

Follow Your Own Path - Second Set of Four Blocks

I've been seeing some beautiful fabric pulls for this quilt along, and I cannot wait to see more, as well as the first blocks being born. A linkup for showing your progress is at the end of this post. This week we will make four arrow blocks that point to the left.

As John Ross says, always think about where the light is coming from. In my mind the shadows are beneath the arrows.

Cushions for H2H

When I read guest blogger Carole's post on Sarah's blog, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, I immediately thought that's what I'll do for my neighbour to go with her quilt, make her a pretty cushion. I had made her a family couch time quilt which you can read about here. She works at one of our two grocery stores in town; we share part of our back fence. A single mum, she has two young boys, who are often babysat by her mum, who has a dog, Shadow. It was through Shadow and our dog, Rocco, that we first met.

Here is her very own cushion, which is meant as just for S.

TGIFF - Friendly Fences, an H2H Quilt

Welcome to TGIFF! This is a linkup to show our finished quilt projects. And oh yes, pass on some inspiration.

I have finished the quilt for my neighbour who is an essential worker at one of our local grocery stores. You can read the story behind the quilt in this post. That will help you see why I named the quilt Friendly Fences, which may seem to be an oxymoron. It isn't, because our dogs becoming good friends through the chainlink fence between our yards led to us getting to know each other more.

I was really pleased to read that Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict added this category to the Hands2Help comfort quilt drive. Unless you know someone who works in a grocery store or a pharmacy, I don't think we tend to think of them as people like ourselves, with families and homes and lives, you know what I mean? And I don't know about your governments, media, and rich fat cats who own these grocery and pharmacy chains, but mine here in Canada started out regularly highlighting their contributions. One even gave them an hourly raise at first...and then took it back. Now we don't hear so much about their continued efforts, though CBC TV runs a very poignant ad about nurses.

Follow Your Own Path - First Four Blocks

And just like that, it's time to sew! I hope you have all managed to find your way here. I now am mmmquilts.ca. My renewal came up and I decided to go with .ca since I live in Canada. Don't worry, the .com URL will point you here but it might take a day still. I am hoping that Feedburner will still bring those of you who get my posts via email here regardless; we all have heard of the big changes coming there. I do have my email subscription list and have downloaded it. I have some time to figure out just what to do with it (LOL) before July. Right now this QAL is my #1 priority. So let's get started!

This week we are going to make the first four arrow blocks.

Follow Your Own Path QAL - Cutting Directions

This is when things start to really happen. I know a few of you have re-thought your fabric choices when I threw out the idea that all the arrow shadows could be one colour.

If you've decided to go that route, then for the baby quilt you'll need 1/2 yard and for the throw 3/4 yard. I will amend last week's instructions to include those amounts. I'd said it would be about four fat eighths or four fat quarters, so it was a close guess-timate! Okay, ready? Let's cut up some pretty fabric.

Hands2Help Check-in

This is the first check-in for H2H at Confessions of a Fabric Addict this year, and I have a flimsy finish!

I was dodging the rain showers and bright sunshine, but I managed to run out and get this photo in high cloud. Wind is often a factor here, and it was playing a bit with the flimsy today too, so it looks a little wonky.

Outstanding Blogger Award

I am honoured to write this post, which is, ahem, three weeks overdue, but a certain quilt along has been a priority of late! Roseanne, of Home Sewn by Us, whose blog I thoroughly enjoy, and whose personality just brims over with good will, first nominated me for this award. I was honoured, and touched that she chose me as one of her favourite bloggers. And then a week later, Helen, of Word Weaver Art, nominated me as well. My heart just swelled up a little more! So it is high time, well, it's past high time, that I write this post.

The Outstanding Blogger Award is given one blogger to another. It's a way of supporting and acknowledging one another. (I'm all about community: supporting, sharing, caring for, and cheering one another on are big reasons why I continue to blog when the tendency is to move to Instagram.)

As an award recipient, I get to answer some questions from Roseanne and Helen.

I'll start with Roseanne's.

1. Have you had any major quilting/sewing successes that you'd like to share with us? Please toot your own horn!

Well, yes, a few! I've had several quilt designs published; if you click the Publications tab you'll see them all and where to find the patterns. Most recently my quilt 'Heading North' was published in Make Modern. It nearly made the cover: they asked their readers to vote, and it lost by a squeak. (Lara's terminology!) Just prior to this quilt getting published was Follow Your Own Path, which did make the cover of Modern by the Yard, and is this year's QAL that I'm hosting. I guess even more recently, I was totally shocked when Tish showed me that this quilt was used in a full-page ad by Benartex for their line 'Color Theory', and that the ad was the first page inside Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting!

Follow Your Own Path QAL - Fabric Requirements

As Cindy said on a previous post, "Let the fun begin." One of, if not the, most fun parts for me of starting a new project, is combing through my stash to pick fabrics. This one is great for scraps or bundles of fat eighths or fat quarters.

Beautiful Benartex fabrics: 'Believe in Unicorns' by Ann Lauer; the black is Cotton Shot by Amanda Murphy

The two versions I've sewn have both used shades of the same colour. However, when I designed the quilt, I originally planned to have all of the shadows of the arrows in grey or black. So you could do that if you like, especially if you don't have two shades that work well together.

One thing I want to emphasize is that the small quilt size has borders, while the throw size does not. Look at the graphic above. Note that the borders, of which there are two, are four different colours. There is nothing saying you have to repeat colours from the arrows in your borders, but it does tie the quilt together. However, we know, as quilters, that we can tie colours and fabrics together in a myriad of ways!

Follow Your Own Path QAL: Schedule and Sponsors

Welcome to the official kickoff of my fifth annual quilt along. I am so pleased you are here. As usual, the QAL begins today, April 3, and ends June 15 with the parade of finished quilts.

Please grab the QAL button above using the HTML code below. Pasting it on your sidebar will help to spread the word: readers of your blog who click it will be brought to the main page of the QAL. If you want it the button smaller, simply change the height from 200 to 150.

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.mmmquilts.com/2021/03/follow-your-own-path-fifth-annual-qal.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCwoCWLPCOQ3j2yxOFNbyorOyj_slvikdcVNE2WNJ9uU6JJv9xx8FzAoDOkL1E0LOR9GV8Td03NkbgKDynB1mkQhkTJNVoVMIeRLvFJ40odk8FI4zu7-IuoNoL8r9qUTaUVegfp67T7jk_/s200/Follow+Your+Own+Path.png" / /></a></div>

I would also love it if you would pin the graphic on Pinterest, and for any posts you make on Instagram, I've started a hashtag: #followyourownpathqal

Follow Your Own Path: Fifth Annual QAL Announcement

Welcome to my fifth annual Quilt Along! I am so glad to have you here. You are on the Main Page for the QAL. We will be making my quilt, Follow Your Own Path, a fun arrows with shadows quilt.

Here is the HTML code so that you can paste the button on your sidebar. Anyone who clicks on it will be taken to this main page.

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.mmmquilts.com/2021/03/follow-your-own-path-fifth-annual-qal.html" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCwoCWLPCOQ3j2yxOFNbyorOyj_slvikdcVNE2WNJ9uU6JJv9xx8FzAoDOkL1E0LOR9GV8Td03NkbgKDynB1mkQhkTJNVoVMIeRLvFJ40odk8FI4zu7-IuoNoL8r9qUTaUVegfp67T7jk_/s200/Follow+Your+Own+Path.png" / /></a></div>

*Note as per Marly's comment below, I've resized the HTML code to make the button smaller, something I forgot to do when I added in the URL for the button to direct people to this post! If you want the button even smaller, then change where it has height="200" to 150 instead of 200.

As in previous years, the QAL will begin on April 3, with the final parade of quilts on June 15. The pace once again is slow, which hopefully allows you to fit this in with your regular programmed quilt schedule. Those of you who have quilted along with me in previous years know that these two dates are rather auspicious for me: June 15 is the birthdate of a 'famous Canadian' aka my dad, who, every year, would write the birthday of a famous Canadian on that date on our wall calendar, all the while with a twinkle in his eye and a mischievous little grin! April 3 is the birthdate of the daughter of that famous Canadian.😉