There was only one thing that Elsie loved more than the Red Sox and that was her family. Elsie lived just down the street from the house that I grew up in in Veazie, from the house that she grew up in, with her husband Tex and her daughter Holly. Elsie was the type that could always be counted on to help a person out. She never minced words or was afraid to speak her mind. You always knew where you stood with Elsie. Elsie’s husband, Arthur, was in the Cavalry in WWII (what soon became rebranded Armored Divisions) and somehow that translated into him being known as “Tex”, in fact it took me a while to remember what his actual name was. Tex was a man of few words and a hard worker. In later years they were joined by Holly’s family.

I did some printmaking this week. I made a number of prints using Hylla Evan’s wonderful color Joanne Loves This Red! It seemed to the closest match that I had to Turkey Red. I did a bit of research on Turkey Red prints and found that they often included yellows and browns so I used some R&F Brown Pink for contrast on one of the prints. So here is what will go into the quilt for Elsie:

The pattern I’ve chosen is the Irish Chain. I’ve wanted to use this pattern for one of the quilts to honor the family’s Irish heritage. It’s simple graphic pattern will work well with the red and white (this is in fact one of the patterns that was frequently done in red and white or indigo and white quilts).

I’m going to do this using the two reds for the “chain” part and the newspaper article for the inner diamond and outer triangles. I think I’ll use the lighter swirl print for the border but I’ll wait to see how it looks when the nine squares are together.