long story long

when i was searching eBay for linen calendar tea towels for the years my children were born (1976, 1978, 1982 and 1986) i found the towel that i used for the aspen quilt listed ... i didn't know who Vera Neumann was, but i knew what i wanted to do with the trees in silhouette... 
well ... except for getting from the the little leaves to the big leaves  - ha ha ha !!! 
i bid on it, won the bid, paid via PayPal and waited for it to arrive... 

i ordered a few other things from other vendors at the same time... 

the other things which shall remain anonymous for now arrived... 

but the Vera towel didn't ...

i wrote to the seller and she told me to give it a few more days and let her know...

i did...

and it didn't...

so i wrote to the seller again and she told me to choose something else from her store that was up to twice the value of the Vera towel and she would send my alternate choice with free shipping ... so i shopped and shopped her store and settled for a Vera towel with tulips that i thought would work ... ordered it...

and waited...

and waited... 

and waited... 

and finally gave up on EVER seeing either of the Vera towels land in my mailbox...

so i shopped eBay again for a towel from 1978 and ordered this...

 different clan ... same vintage
with absolutely NO idea Whatever in the World i could possibly do with it ... i was working on Michael Myson's tavern towel quilt when it arrived ... i put this towel away because i was at even more of a loss of what to do when i saw it In Real Life...

and then the Vera towel mysteriously appeared after a six week delay ... i went with the Original Plan and forgot about the Back Up... 

but then the aspen leaves were done... 

and the border between them was done... 

and they were playing together nicely for the next border... 

and i  remembered that there was another baby girl born to another mother in 1978 ...

so i took out the towel and pondered...

and pondered...

and came up with this...

gingham checks ... a LOT more complicated than i thought ... how am i so incredibly capable of messing up squares of color?!?
and decided that the NEXT round needs to be 6 inch paper-pieced blocks from Sylvia's Bridal Sampler because the fun just keeps on coming...

yeah...

i know... 

but i SAID this was a long story long... 

and you should KNOW BY NOW that i paint a BIG PICTURE to tell a little story...