News Roundup: Hypothetical Royal Baby Quilts, Touch Quilts, Science Quilts, Film Quilts, Bargain Quilts, and Orange You Glad I Said Macaroni?

Congratulations British monarchs! Burning question: When royalty reproduce, do their subjects make  them a zillion baby quilts (or one giant one?)  If so, when will they/it be delivered? I don't want to be judgemental, but so far the royal couple has wrapped the baby....

...in something white and knitted, which is nice, but staid, and not nearly as exciting as a pieced quilt, IMHO. (Also, is Duchess Catherine an alien? Who else on earth looks that good 10 hours after giving birth?)

Unlike UK aristrocrats, I am still recovering from childbirth (in the 90s), and have nothing new to show off. But I have read some fascinating quilt-related articles in the past couple of weeks. Articles about:

• Touch quilts for people with dementia: Wonderfully inspiring examples at  http://www.quirkyquilt.com/. Also, a longer article about how the Ottawa Quilters Guild makes touch quilts, here. 
• Quilt illustrates 19th century science!  This quilt was made by an Iowa woman named Ellen Harding Baker, born in 1847, who used it to illustrate her astronomy lectures! 

Apparently astronomy was an acceptable science for women! Read the whole story here.

• A bargain at twice the price. When someone gasps at the price of your quilts, send them this excellent explanation. 

• Why use fabric when you can use 16 mm film strips that were formerly documentaries about textile crafts? That's what Brooklyn, NY artist Sabrina Gschwandtner did, and they are awesome! Read more here, and another terrific article here, 

• Is orange the new avocado green? It made headlines (though not quite as many as the royal baby): Kraft Mac and Cheese is cutting back on the synthetic colorants that create their iconic fluorescent color. Read the ominous news here. Does that mean orange quilts may go away? Not when there are vintage beauties like these (from ebay's past:) 

 Actually, there are some orange quilts on ebay that are atrocious. This one (machine made) is so awful that I'm not even going to give you a link to it.

 However! Here's one of my past projects that makes even appalling orange fabric (this was an orange-and-brown-batik halter top set that my mother wore in the 70s) look good. 

Here are the directions. There's plenty of time before Halloween!