May 15 - L. Frank Baum's Birthday

May 15 is the birthday of L. Frank Baum, the author of the Wizard of Oz series.  The quilt block is Emerald Block, BlockBase 1243, a Nancy Cabot block from 1936.

Lyman Frank Baum (1856 - 1919) was a prolific writer of novels, children's books, short stories and plays.  Baum was a keen fancy poultry breeder, especially Hamburgs.  He established a monthly trade journal, The Poultry Record and published his first book when he was 30 - The Book of the Hamburgs: A Brief Treatise upon the Mating, Rearing and Management of the Different Varieties of Hamburgs.

Now L. Frank Baum is remembered for his book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It was published in 1900 and Baum wrote a further thirteen books about Oz. When I was young our family would visit my grandparents in Philadelphia and I was able to spend hours reading the books that my mother had read when she was young.  I read about half a dozen Oz books; I found the illustrations a little frightening, especially the automatic cars that didn't need a driver, they just drove themselves.

Google "Land of Oz book illustrations" for the wonderful Art Nouveau book covers.
 For more on L. Frank Baum start with Wikipedia.

Mother's Day - Second Sunday in May

Happy Mother's Day to you all;

to those visiting a mother, 

to those being a mother, 

to those missing a mother.

Mother's Favorite, BlockBase 2474.  From Comfort magazine, published between 1888 and 1942.

May 4th - Star Wars Day

Star Wars Day? Yes, May the fourth be with you.

The first film of the trilogy Star Wars was relased in 1977, 38 years ago. The Empire Strikes Back was released in 1980 and The Return of the Jedi in 1983.

The second trilogy began in 1999 and the third trilogy is due at the end of this year.

Today's quilt block is Empire Star, Blockbase 3222. It was published by Hearth and Home, a company that offered mail order patterns from 1895 to the 1930s.