Get Your Green On!

March 17th--St. Patrick's Day. I checked into St. Patrick's Day traditions and came up with this for those of us living in the US:

"There are many Irish traditions people follow to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and other Irish occasions, although not all of them are historically accurate. Some of the Irish customs people are more familiar with include wearing green, eating Irish food and drinking beer. Actually wearing green is strictly a U.S. custom, as the color green is considered unlucky in Ireland. Green is connected to the old green flag and a time when Ireland was not free. Americans have embraced their own St. Patrick's Day tradition of drinking large amounts of Irish beer or green beer, which has no real historical Irish references at all. Another new St. Patrick's Day tradition started by school children is pinching classmates who don't wear green on St. Patrick's Day. This tradition has grown with the times, and even if you aren't a school child, beware on St. Patrick's Day if you aren't wearing green!"

See, we here in the US just make stuff up if it seems like it might be fun. It would make much more sense if we all went out and hunted down and killed a snake, wouldn't it? At least there'd be some historical justification, not to mention the fact that there'd be fewer snakes slithering around.

Hubby's of Irish descent, so we'll be eating corned beef and cabbage, and I'll bake up a loaf of Irish soda bread. It's actually a pretty simple meal to make anyway--other than the bread, you basically just keep tossing the rest of the stuff in a pot of water and keep cooking it until it's done. That means more time in the Sweat Shop. Plus there will be enough leftovers for another meal or two--and even more time in the Sweat Shop. Can't beat that!

And speaking of spending time in the Sweat Shop, I was in there today, looking at the two Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt Along blocks, and it felt like the second one I made was missing something--that big, white center just wasn't exciting me very much. And I dunno--maybe it was Gran's influence and having been at her embroidery class the night before, but it occurred to me that what that block really NEEDED was some embroidery. So I went on a Flickr and blog search and came across Andrea Zuill and Bad Bird Designs. Cool stuff. Check out her free embroidery patterns and her Etsy shops.

Anyway, at the risk of causing some confusion as to whether it's St. Patrick's Day or Halloween, I'll show you what I ended up with:

Pumkin Girl. Better, don't you think? Bad Bird has a design for another little Halloween guy called Bat Boy, and I'm hoping to use him in another block at some point.

Time for me to go check my closet for green clothing. I sure don't want to get pinched! Happy St. Patrick's Day!