April May Be Marching On

The odd thing about having a late Easter is that the end of April begins to rush at you.

Highlight of the Easter weekend was the visit home by my daughter and son-in-law.  We missed our northern son but had a good time together. A few family members were attacked by bacteria and/or viruses ... we tried to include them as much as they were able.  And more of my spring flowers came out.

Someone please remind me next fall that my yard needs something besides yellow tulips and yellow daffodils.

Because I love colours!!
I finished the quilt top that I was doing in the bright rainbows last month.

Finishing quilt tops and finishing quilts are two different things, of course.

Sew ... what else is new?

 Found some cute little animal squares that my aunt had begun appliqueing onto white fabric.  Not all the white fabric was the same weight, so I decided to add scrap fabric around the animal ABC squares.

 Above is the general idea of how the thing began to shape up. And below is the work in progress with the appropriate size side triangles and corner triangles to work with the "on point" squares.  Oh yes, more random children's fabric between the rainbow pastel squares (apparently, my rainbow is now pink, peach, yellow, green, blue, purple and tan ... and I just now realized that I have switched the letters G and F in the alphabet!).

Next assignment, teach myself the alphabet, rearrange any squares out of alphabetical order, and sew this together.  Stay tuned for the next vintage quilt.

However, just to prove that I do occasionally finish a project, this is the cowboy baby quilt which I finished (pinwheels, mitred corners, and all) for sale in the O'Keefe Ranch gift shop. Side one is bordered with some red "barn" wood fabric ...

 ... and side two has white, brown, and black horses ... with a little brown at the top and bottom because it was shorter than it was wide. Flannelette on the back makes it cozy, and it's tied with brown wool.

April Fools

One could debate the whole philosophy of April Fools Day.  One could explore the history of the day of pranks.  Or one could skip this whole third person introduction and get on to the fun stuff.

Sometimes it's fun ... sometimes it's not.  Sometimes it's deliberate ... and sometimes -- keep reading.

I remember this used to be quite an event in elementary school ... and tricks were only allowed until noon. (The same rule held for pinches on St. Patrick's Day for not wearing green).  The worst one I remember was one cold and snowy April 1st in Prince George, BC, back in the late 1960s when girls had to wear dresses at school, but could wear snow-pants or pants on the playground and to and from school.  I had arrived at school and wanted to change out of my snow-pants, but the custodian had decided to trick us by exchanging the signs on the Boys and Girls washrooms.  The girls washroom was full of boys, the boys washroom had girls in it, and boys popping in and out.  I was almost late because I couldn't figure out where to take off my outdoor pants.  And being late was some kind of cardinal sin in those days.

Now a person can go on the Internet and get thousands of ideas to prank family and friends on April 1st ... you barely have to have a devious imagination anymore.  Of course, my daughter changed her husband's birthday this year on Facebook to April 1st and posted a "selfie" pretending to be pregnant.  I had intended to put goggle eyes on all the containers in the refrigerator, but forgot.  However, the best prank was totally unintentional.

I had been warming up alfredo sauce in the microwave the other day, and it overflowed.  I wiped up what I could, then put a mug of water in the microwave to heat up, condense, and loosen the baked on sauce.  Naturally, I forgot to go back to the microwave after supper, so the mug of water stayed inside.

Hours later, my son had forgotten to drink his tea while it was hot, so he popped it in the microwave to warm for about 20 seconds.  When he re-opened the microwave, his blue mug of tea had miraculously changed to a clear mug of water.  The rotating base had gone around once or twice and a half turn more, and his mug was actually at the back.  But at first glance, he was very puzzled and I could hear the "what the --?" expressions clearly.

The best April Fools jokes are definitely the ones that you didn't even plan.  And especially when they happen a few days after April 1st!