April Showers Brings May Flowers

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April Showers EQ8 Tutorial

Growing up, I remember Mom singing a song called April Showers.  It included these lyrics:

"When April Showers come your way.
They bring the flowers that bloom in May.
So if it is raining, have no regret.
It isn't raining rain you know.
It's raining violets."

She must have sung it a lot -- as I was able to recall and write out the words without a Google search.

In Minnesota we started the month with some snow.  After an entire winter with very little precipitation. 

Today was our first day that felt like spring.

In anticipation of spring and with memories of the song my mother loved, I've designed a quilt that will be presented over the next few weeks.

We will start the quilt by creating some umbrella blocks.

April Showers Umbrella Block 1

April Showers Umbrella Block 2

April Showers Umbrella Block 3

To color the blocks and quilt, I used the Market Street fabric collection. 

This collection was created by Heather Peterson for Riley Blake. 

It was the free fabric collection from Do You EQ in October 2023. 

You can download the EQ fabric collection here.

In the video, I share a fourth block -- which is really a combination of the previous blocks.  This block won't be in the final April Showers project.  But I wanted to provide an alternate quilt that focuses just on the umbrella block.

Umbrella 8" Block

In the video, check out how to draft each of the blocks along with two quilt options.

Here is the first quilt presented in the video.

In future blog posts, I will be added to this quilt with additional blocks and borders.

Start of April Showers Quilt (Week 1)

Here are umbrella blocks that were made by Tina Dillard of Quilting Affection Designs.  Note that there are a few "holes".  These will be filled with added blocks in the next couple of weeks.

Umbrella Blocks Pieced by Tina Dillard

During the video, I also created an alternate quilt design that featured two of the umbrella blocks.

Umbrella Quilt Designed using EQ8

I look forward to seeing what you do with the umbrella blocks.  Please feel free to share your designs on the Learning EQ Facebook group.

Learning EQ Facebook Group Post for April Shower Umbrella Blocks

Happy quilting.

​Kari

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