I’m the Queen of March!

Not sure how I feel about that. March here is often cold, windy, rainy, muddy, and sometimes there are even tornadoes.

As the Queen of March, I suppose I should feel bad that the weather for my month isn’t that great. Somehow though I don’t seem to care because besides a variety of weather, March includes the Spring Equinox, the Oscars, Palm Sunday and most of Easter weekend, and among other things Peanut Butter Lover’s Day, If Pets Had Thumbs Day, Popcorn Lover’s Day, Ear Muffs Day, National Proofreaders Day, Open an Umbrella Indoors Day, Girl Scouts Day, Something on a Stick Day, International Day of Happiness and World Water Day.

Isn’t that a great month to be Queen? Well, that’s not all!

Here in the U.S. quilting is celebrated on National Quilting Day, which is March 17th. Not to be outdone, Worldwide Quilting Day is also March 17th, and of course so is St. Patrick’s Day! I’m Irish, so this year I’ll be streaming my Irish music, indulging in corn beef, drinking green beer, and of course quilting my heart out on March 17th! <grin>

All in all, I’m glad to be the Queen of March!

Here in Bee Inspired, being Queen means I get to choose a block for my bee mates to make for me. Last year, my bee mates made me an Irish Eyes block (my design).

After making a few more blocks, I sewed them together  with a plan of adding borders like this.

Recently though, I got the notion to do something else in the borders. Something more Irish. Something like this.

So. Back to being Queen. It seems fitting (especially since it’s March) that I ask my bee mates to help me finish the quilt we started together by making me Shamrock blocks for my border. The blocks finish at 4″ (4-1/2″ unfinished) so I’m hopeful that some of you will make more than one block. Of course that’s optional, but it sure would be appreciated as I need to make 34 of them!

To make 1 block, you’ll need:

• (3) green 2-1/2″ squares
• (1) green 3/4″ x 4″ rectangle
• (1) white 2-3/4″ square, cut once diagonally
• (9) white 1-1/4″ squares

Start by drawing a diagonal line on the back of all those white 1-1/4″ squares. Place one square, right sides together (RST), in the corner of one green 2-1/2″ square. Sew on the line, press it back towards the corner, then trim the seam allowance to 1/4″.

Repeat this on two other corners as shown.

Next, center one white 2-3/4″ triangle on the green 3/4″ x 4″ rectangle, RST. Sew and press. I pressed towards the triangle.

Lay the other white triangle on top as shown, RST. Be sure to center the triangle as shown. Sew and press again, then trim the unit to 2-1/2″.

Sew the block together in rows then sew the rows together.

Here’s how I pressed the back. You can press it however you think best. I trimmed the block to 4-1/2″.

You can use any green for the shamrock, but please use the same green throughout the block. I’d like to use white on white fabric for the background. Here’s my sample block.

And here’s the quilt top as it looks right now, so you can see the variety of greens and whites used in it.

Thanks everyone for letting me be Queen! I can’t wait to see your blocks.