March CQJP 2012 Block

Yes, March brings the spring equinox and this year it was really spring when it came.
In Iowa, where I grew up the daughter of a tenant farmer, March 1 was moving day. Farm leases began on March 1 so moving in could be finished in time to prepare the fields and plant the crops. Of course the old saying about March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb or vice versa was based on a little bit of truth about the iffy weather. In my fifth grade year, my sisters and I were snowed in with my Aunt Sarah's family for three days when a blizzard came during our move. My parents were snowed in at the new farmhouse without everything hooked up. I wish now I could ask details about how they managed, but alas they are gone now.

My March Crazy Quilt Journal Project  block remembers moving day, this time without the blizzard. The daffodils are blooming in crocheted glory and forsithia adds it's bright yellow to the day. The family dog makes the move, too, representing the livestock that goes. The year of the blizzard, our old dog Bud, made the trip, but didn't stay. He made his way back to farm where he had spent his life until now. He had actually been my Grandparents' dog and we had lived on the home farm after they retired to town. My Dad made arrangements for him to stay there with the people who moved in behind us.