I'm sure you've heard the great news....

At Gobbler's Knob his morning, the "seer of seers" and "sage of sages," Punxsutawney Phil,  proclaimed an early spring with winter lasting only six more weeks.  I don't think it was a coincidence that I also heard some kind of song bird outside by bedroom window teasing me with a sweet melody.

Make some banners, let the festivities begin!

It is no secret to my husband in the joy I feel every February 2nd.  Think of it as hump day, or Wednesday, where one half of the work week is done and smooth sailing the rest of the week.  Winters grey days of sharp winds, bitter temperatures and relentless snow will soon pass way to warmer, more colorful skies. Ahhhh...

My banner for celebrating is made from a vintage tablecloth I needed to repurpose.  While the embroidery was beautiful, there were some areas of the tablecloth suffering from previous spills damaging the linen.

The back was as beautiful as the front.

Something was spilled and never removed effectively before putting away in storage.  The result was deterioration of the fibers.  No problem, we'll just cut those areas away!

The hand crocheted trim from the tablecloth edge was also salvaged.  So much time and effort by the this needle worker was not going to be lost!  Good bye snow, you'll soon be a distant memory.

But, back to the top I finished quilting, the Kansas Dust Storm.

This is what the quilt looked like from the listing when I purchased it on Etsy.  Notice the colors.  Notice the top row, 2nd from right.  The star shape looks like it is a light print with white background.  Look below to the top right corner.  It is actually a light green.  You can compare the rest of the blocks using the green block as your guide.

I quilted circles in the center, outlined the star shapes and did swirls in the "apricot" background.

At first I was thinking of backing in purple.  Purple and orange look great together - something I discovered studying 30's feedsack prints.  But on my shelf was this "soleil" print by Annette Tatum for Free Spirit.  The colors matched perfectly.  I couldn't believe the little "suns" emulated the quilt design as well.  That did it - I had to use it!  The solid cotton for the binding is listed as apricot.  Perfect!

 The Etsy seller said this was a chrome orange print.  It wasn't.  I could see there were 30's period prints used in piecing the top so I already knew the possibilities of it being "chrome" orange were slim. Either the photo was taken in direct sunlight or tweaking the photo for a listing caused the color modification.  That was too bad though, because the actual color of the quilt is what makes it "sing."

Go back to the original seller's photo and take a look at the make-do attitude of assembling the blocks together.  Bless that quilter's spirit because those blocks were going to fit together dust bowl or no dust bowl!  It is amazing how patience and lots of quilting can straighten out even the most impossible of seams.


A successful quilting adventure!

So if you couldn't tell, I am washed in a euphoric glee; thank you needle workers who I will never have the pleasure of knowing, and thank you  Phil.  Tonight I will watch the movie, Ground Hog Day, and continue my merriment.

**For those of you in the southern hemisphere....enjoy those summer days and close your eyes and let the sun kiss your face!!!**