Welcome to April: Rabbits and fish, stash report, dilemma resolved, and OMG

"Rabbit, rabbit!"  I first read about this good-luck invocation in a Trixie Belden book.  Now I remember (pretty much!) to say it on the first of each month. Here is the explanation.

On April 1 in France children slap paper fishes onto adults' backs and holler, "Poisson d'avril!" ("April fish!")  It's done in other countries , too.




I always think of the joke, "Why are soldiers tired on April 1?"
("Because they've just had a March of 31 days.")

On to the quilt report.

Fabric acquired in March:  19-5/8, $124, average $6.30/yd
Fabric used in March: 52-1/4
YTD acquired:  40-1/4, $143, average $3.55/yd
YTD used: 132-3/8
Net: 92-1/8 used!

I've made 158 Ohio Stars for Quilts of Valor.
The goal is 365.  An online friend sent 3 yards  of white-on-white (duly accounted for in the stash report) to help me out.










The daisy dilemma:

Butterflies are too small

Sashing detracts

I finished the twelve daisy blocks.  How to set them? How to border them?  Using a Kaffe Fassett millefiori print seemed the best way to highlight the bright, scrappy design.  That entailed a trip to Quilt Play .  I made sure to buy enough "just in case." I also stopped at Hobby Lobby and found a wonderful print of bright butterflies on white to use for the back.  I auditioned the fabric.  Sashing / no sashing?  Periwinkle outer / pink inner? What about a butterfly border?  I slept on it.  Friday evening I decided:  pink outer / periwinkle inner.  I sewed the borders on.

Borders too dominant

I didn't like it and figured out that it was because neither Kaffe print has any white.  Then I spied a little bundle on the shelf of bright prints -- the remains of a thrift-shop bedsheet that I'd used to back a quilt.  I measured and cut carefully.  There was *just* enough!  And here's the result.

The daisies began as my Rainbow Scrap Challenge design for the year. Either I've finished RSC or I'll need to select another block!

Just right!

I now have 6" strips of that pink millefiori and yardage of that periwinkle to use in another project.



Last but not least:  the One Monthly Goal for April.  Another tote bag!  This is for the  Gender Equity Fund , a project of AAUW-Illinois.  I'm on the GEF steering committee. The tote will be filled with advance reader copies of books (which I have in abundance from the ALA Midwinter Meeting in January) and raffled at the AAUW-IL convention in early May.

I'm perusing tote bag patterns. I've pulled some fabric, too.

I'm linking up with
Elm Street Quilts OMG
Rainbow Scrap Challenge