It's April, No Fooling

Happy April, everyone!  My little buddy is helping model my April goal for the OMG.  He actually asked to have his picture taken, which is rare with him.

The quilt is called Marmalade Cake, and comes from this book:  Dessert Roll Quilts, by Pam and Nicky Lintott.  Their version is the quilt on the cover.

All but 4 of the blocks are just like this one.  Now that all the blocks are done, my goal for April is to sew them into a top.   It will be 80 in. square, but the blocks are big, so probably doable.  Right?  Well, we'll see what kind of time I have this month.  It's been a fun quilt to piece so far.

In other news, the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is aqua.  So far, all I've done is pull some fabrics.

There is quite a wide range of colors here.  I'm not sure if all of them will end up in the zigzag rows I'm making.  It will be fun picking and choosing.

Speaking of fun, I spent a weekend recently with these characters, more of my fabulous grandchildren.  We went to the Natural History Museum in Chicago on the Saturday, and I stayed with them for two nights while their parents were away.

Look, my granddaughter painted my fingernails!  Pretty good for a second grader.  The purple was fantastic.  I haven't had painted nails in at least 20 years.

Even more fun!  On my little trip away from home, I stopped at Serenity Quilt Shop in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  It was a little hard to find--not visible from the street, back in an office complex, but worth the search.  Above is the loot I got there.

The shop had lots of these Moda Scrap Bags.  Have you seen these?  I haven't noticed them in other quilt shops near me, so I took a chance and bought one.

Here's what was inside--a roll of gorgeous colorful strips, all of them over 2.5 in. wide.  I could not roll them up tight enough to get them back in the little bag! 

I laid them out on the floor at my daughter's house.  They are not full strips (scraps, remember).  I absolutely love the colors and patterns.

I can definitely use more light scraps too.

I also got a dinosaur panel...

and a yard of dino fabric to go with it.  Check out these pins--they have alphabet letters!  I'm planning to use them to mark the rows when sewing tops together (like the Marmalade Cake top for my April OMG.)  I'm not sure if I'll ever need 26 rows of blocks, but you never know.  And they're just so darn cute.

While I did the wash on Monday, my little buddy was busy with his buttons.  I've pulled out a few unusual ones from my button jars, and he loves lining them up and naming the colors.  He's never been one to put things in his mouth, but you can bet I keep a sharp eye on him just in case.
We have several sets of "real" things around for him to play with--rocks, and shells, and a bag of yarn and fabric scraps.  He also collects pine cones and sticks outside.

Today we were able to be out on the porch without our coats!  I'm beginning to believe in Spring.

I'm wishing sunshine and quilting time for you this week.
Cheers for reading,
Sylvia@Treadlestitches

Linking up with
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict (Can I Get A Whoop Whoop)
Patty at One Monthly Goal April Goal Setting (Elm Street Quilts)
Myra at Busy Hands Quilts
Angela at So Scrappy (Home of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge)
Cynthia at Oh Scrap