Whoop! Whoop! Friday

Hurrah for Friday! Hurrah for only 40 teaching days left in the school year!

I've been gone from BlogLand for a couple of weeks. It's the Spring Cleaning of the Mind. Yes, I have been occupied in the .... P word.... It's true, my friends, I have been Prioritizing things in my life. Has anyone noticed that everyone has too little time? I heard of a famous astrophysicist who has spent the last 40 years of his life trying to adjust the space-time consortium so that there will be eight days a week, resulting in a three day weekend. Not only that, but he is within a few years of getting a 28 hour day. I know it's true because I read it on the internet! That makes it true, doesn't it?


I've only been blogging for a few months but I love it. I have loved writing since I was in second grade where my career ambitions were to be a mail carrier and an author. What started out as writing about quilting amazingly turned into an unexpected joy. With Spring Cleaning of the Mind I knew I needed to keep writing both my blogs. I still haven't figured all the nuts and bolts, time being the biggie, but I don't want my love of writing to die out.

That alone could be the whoop, whoop, but it isn't. Or there's another.

Okay doke. The main event.

Every March in schools around here, the children celebrate Read Across America. Dr. Seuss' birthday is the annual event day. Kids bring Dr. Seuss books, teachers read them, kids write about their favorite Seuss books. One of my favorite activities is the guided drawing that second graders do. The teacher shows the kids how to draw the Cat in the Hat on the board, and the kids draw. The results are delightful. I've taken pictures over the years and they are a hoot!

I've keep the pictures in their own folder with the ambition of making a quilt with blocks of 2nd grader's drawings of the Cat in the Hat.

Feast your eyes on just a few examples!

While pondering the design of the quilt, I've been trying to figure out what to use as a background. I'm planning on doing a quilt painting or old-fashioned machine embroidery to make each cat. I learned how to do it in 1979, before computerized anything!

To do that, you drop the feed dogs  and set the zigzag for whatever size you need. With the fabric in a hoop, you guide the hoop under the needle and make the picture. It's like a variation of machine quilting.

A month ago, my sisty ugler came down for a visit. She brought me her quilting stash. (Read post here) A few days later, as I gleefully went through the bins I came upon this:

 A tote bag from Read Across America. And what color is the background?? Turquoise! Perfection! Now I know what the background of the blocks will be. I'm especially pleased because turquoise is my new favorite color.

This will be fun! when I get around to it.

I'm hooking up with Sarah over at Confessions of a Quilt Addict. You can click on the badge in the right column to get there. Drop in and see what others are whooping about.