Short on Time And/Or Money?

If you are like me and short on time and money, then this Mini quilt along is just right for you!

Quilt Addicts Anonymous is sponsoring this summer sew along and it's FREE!

Just hop over to her website to sign up to receive each month's patterns.

She also has other interesting tidbits she shares on occasion.

Weave a Plaid? Knit a Plaid?

Franklin Plaid Collar--knitted!

Read the article and then tell me

would it be easier to knit a plaid

or weave a plaid?  

of course, if you are a knitter--you'll save knit

but if you are a weaver--you say weave

Color My World!

3900-pages-of-paul-klees-personal-notebooks

I am loving this website--Open Culture--free movies, free audio books, free books of all kinds and then this wonderful personal notebook on color by Paul Klees!


Ultimate Color Combination Cheat Sheet

Combinations of individual colours

• White: combines with everything, especially blue, red and black.
• Beige: combines with blue, brown, emerald, black, red, white.
• Gray: combines with fuchsia, red, violet, pink, blue.
• Pink: combines with brown, white, mint green, olive, gray, turquoise, light blue.
• Fuchsia (dark pink): combines with gray, yellow-brown, lime, mint green, brown.
• Red: combines with yellow, white, fulvous, green, blue, black.
• Tomato-red: combines with cyan, mint green, sand, creamy-white, gray.
• Cherry-red: combines with azure, gray, light-orange, sandy, pale-yellow, beige.
• Raspberry-red: combines with white, black, damask rose.
• Brown: combines with bright-cyan, cream, pink, fawn, green, beige.
• Light-brown: combines with pale-yellow, cream-white, blue, green, purple, red.
• Dark-brown: combines with lime-yellow, cyan, mint green, purple-pink, lime.
• Reddish-brown: combines with pink, dark-brown, blue, green, purple.
• Orange: combines with cyan, blue, lilac, violet, white, black.
• Light-orange: combines with gray, brown, olive.
• Dark-orange: combines with pale-yellow, olive, brown, cherry.
• Yellow: combines with blue, lilac, light-cyan, violet, gray, black.
• Lemon-yellow: combines with cherry-red, brown, blue, gray.
• Pale-yellow: combines with fuchsia, gray, brown, shades of red, yellowish brown, blue, purple.
• Golden yellow: combines with gray, brown, azure, red, black.
• Olive: combines with orange, light-brown, brown.
• Green: combines with golden-brown, orange, salad green, yellow, brown, gray, cream, black, creamy-white.
• Salad green: combines with brown, yellowish-brown, fawn, gray, dark-blue, red, gray.
• Turquoise: combines with fuchsia, cherry-red, yellow, brown, cream, dark-violet.
• Electric colors: combines with golden-yellow, brown, light brown, gray, or silver.
• Cyan: combines with red, gray, brown, orange, pink, white, yellow.
• Dark-blue: combines with light-lilac, cyan, yellowish-green, brown, gray, pale-yellow, orange, green, red, white.
• Lilac: combines with orange, pink, dark-violet, olive, gray, yellow, white.
• Dark-violet: combines with golden-brown, pale-yellow, gray, turquoise, mint green, light-orange.
• Black is a universal colour — it looks elegant in any combination, especially with orange, pink, salad green, white, red, mauvish, or yellow.

A Quilt for Josh

When this pattern, designed by Pat Sloan, came out in 2015,  I was ready to sew for Josh,

our cowboy grandson.  I'd collected western and cowboy theme fabric for some time--even friends 

would give me fabric

so it was definitely time to do it for Josh!!

Patterns came out each month and I made two of each--well,

not the first month, I only made one

and now, 2015 has come to a close and 2016 has a new design 

I decided it was time to put this thing together--I'd hoped it would be ready for 

Josh's birthday in May--but time is running away from me.

I've laid it out on the studio floor (I really should get some magnet clips to use

on my design board)

Here is the complete layout from Pat.

My problem--I have four more blocks--what to do?  extend the length? or the width?

place the four extra blocks on the backing?

oh, well..................at least, I started to finish.............

St. Paddy's Day

St Patrick's Day, on March 17, remembers one of Ireland’s patron saints, St Patrick. It largely celebrates Irish-American culture in the United States.

Stories like the Leprechaun's pot of gold are shared on St Patrick's Day.

©iStockphoto.com/SharapaAndriy

Celebrate St Patrick's Day

Celebrations concentrate on Irish themed parties, drinks and food. Many people get into the spirit by dressing in green clothing and eating green colored food. Irish clubs and pubs often hold parties or have special deals. Large street parades mark St Patrick's Day.

Water is dyed green in public places in some towns. The most notable body of water that was dyed green was the Chicago River in 2005.

What's Open or Closed?

St Patrick's Day is not a federal holiday in the United States. Schools, businesses and organizations are open as usual. Public transport systems run on their regular schedules. There may be some local disruption to traffic due to St Patrick's Day parades. This is particularly true in cities with a large Irish-American population, including New York, New Orleans and Seattle. The parades may be on or around March 17, so it is a good idea to check local sources for the exact location, date and time.

About St Patrick's Day

St Patrick is one of Ireland's patron saints and many Americans with Irish ancestry remember him on March 17. Patrick's Day is fixed on March 17, but may occasionally be moved by Catholic Church authorities. This happened in 1940, so that the celebrations would not fall on Palm Sunday, and in 2008 to avoid Holy Monday, the last Monday before Easter Sunday.

Symbols

The most common St Patrick's Day symbol is the shamrock. The shamrock is the leaf of the clover plant and a symbol of the Holy Trinity. Other symbols include:

• Almost anything green.
• The green, orange and white flag of the Republic of Ireland.
• Brands of beer associated with Irish culture.

Religious symbols include snakes and serpents. Other symbols seen on St Patrick’s Day include the harp, which was used in Ireland for centuries, as well as the leprechaun and a pot of gold that it hides.

Memories

Today we are visiting my mother in her assisted living facility.  I have brought along some recipes and photos to jog her memory.  She has dementia but overall she does pretty good for a 95 year old gal--she can dress herself, feed herself and of course, give you her opinion on everything you say and do!

I found the handwritten recipes from my Granny and wanted mother to see them

and make comments, if she remembers any of these recipes.  I remember one she always made at 

holiday time--

"candy date roll"--I hated this candy!  And now to find the recipes and see my Granny's notes

certainly brings back memories--She notes that this recipe came from Iona Scott (35 years ago)

and Granny wrote it out October, 1974--I must ask mother who Iona Scott was--a friend, a relative? 

and then there is the recipe for

Green Tomato Pie from Chloe Egger (note says--mom's sister)

I really need to pull out my ancestry log and look at it again

I'm glad we reproduced these recipes and others in a family booklet that was a gift to all members.

we did this for both sides of the family

Have you done this for your family?  A collection of old favorites is the way to go--

and each member loves to tell you what they liked best in their cookbook.

Beware The Ides of March!

The Ides of March

Just one of a dozen Ides that occur every month of the year

by Borgna Brunner

The soothsayer's warning to Julius Caesar, "Beware the Ides of March," has forever imbued that date with a sense of foreboding. But in Roman times the expression "Ides of March" did not necessarily evoke a dark mood—it was simply the standard way of saying "March 15." Surely such a fanciful expression must signify something more than merely another day of the year? Not so. Even in Shakespeare's time, sixteen centuries later, audiences attending his play Julius Caesar wouldn't have blinked twice upon hearing the date called the Ides.

The term Ides comes from the earliest Roman calendar, which is said to have been devised by Romulus, the mythical founder of Rome. Whether it was Romulus or not, the inventor of this calendar had a penchant for complexity. The Roman calendar organized its months around three days, each of which served as a reference point for counting the other days:

• Kalends (1st day of the month)
• Nones (the 7th day in March, May, July, and October; the 5th in the other months)
• Ides (the 15th day in March, May, July, and October; the 13th in the other months)

The remaining, unnamed days of the month were identified by counting backwards from the Kalends, Nones, or the Ides. For example, March 3 would be V Nones—5 days before the Nones (the Roman method of counting days was inclusive; in other words, the Nones would be counted as one of the 5 days).

Days in March

March 1: Kalends;
March 2: VI Nones;
March 3: V Nones;
March 4: IV Nones;
March 5: III Nones;
March 6: Pridie Nones (Latin for "on the day before");
March 7: Nones;
March 15: Ides

Used in the first Roman calendar as well as in the Julian calendar (established by Julius Caesar in 45 B.C.E.) the confusing system of Kalends, Nones, and Ides continued to be used to varying degrees throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance.

So, the Ides of March is just one of a dozen Ides that occur every month of the year. Kalends, the word from which calendar is derived, is another exotic-sounding term with a mundane meaning. Kalendrium means account book in Latin: Kalend, the first of the month, was in Roman times as it is now, the date on which bills are due.