March 17

This date used to be one of those days when I dreaded going to school. We all know that this is the day for the wearin' o' the green. I was absolutely forbidden to wear green that day "because we aren't Irish - it's not right" . So, I would head off to school with very low spirits which was unusual for me as I always loved school.

The fun started as soon as I arrived and took my coat off. No green. This was a punishable offence and the green-wearers went around pinching everyone who wasn't similarly decked out. Most of those so-called Irish kids were just escaping the pinches by putting on a bit of green. How I wished I could do this, too.

When I got older (much), I began to research my family history. To my great surprise, the grandmother that I had assumed to be German like my grandfather turned out to be Irish. Really. No one had ever mentioned this fact before. I know that there was some shame in being Irish at various places and times in history but I didn't think there was any in Nova Scotia. Certainly there could be no more undesirable heritage in the 20th century than to be German. But, steadfastly German we were. Maybe it had to do with my mother having Scottish heritage. I'll never know now.

So, St Patrick's Day is celebrated by me with as many green garments as I can wear that day. Green is my favorite color and Ireland (as you all know) is the next stop on the travel list. I think Guiness is better than wine any day. Oh, and, my naughty voice says it would be fun to go back in time and pinch all those kids, too!

For real!

Hey! The groundhog thing worked! Snow drops were spotted in Kitsilano this afternoon.

I wanted to get a shovel out and scrape away the foot of glacier on top of our patch. There were a bare spots around a tree and something green had made its way out of the ground. I could tell because the squirrels had chewed on it. Oh, well, I guess it's hard to find salad when the ground is covered in icy snow.

Clam shells

For those who were wondering what a curvaceous square would be...here it is. The clam shell is one of my favorite quilt patterns. I've used it in small mats and tea cosies several times. I could explain my liking by saying it connects me to both coasts of Canada. But I think it's really because it is curvy. And I can put almost any color combination in and it looks good. Sometimes, I outline the shells but this time I wanted the greens to blend like a spring wood.

I started the color search with a beautiful piece of green wool. Nothing I had on the shelves matched, of course, and so I overdyed some tweeds to get a similar green. I just made up the dye formula and it worked pretty well, I think. I used a very small herringbone in gray/white, a tiny houndstooth check in black/white and a cream/grey/gold tweed. I decided that I needed five fabrics and chose a grey/green sweater wool which balanced not only color but also texture.

This is number 3 for the swap - just in case anyone's counting.