The Slacker Returns....

I’ve been slack.  I mean REALLY slack.  Though I moved into our new house way back in August and most of the boxes have been unpacked and homes found for things in cupboards, I haven’t been very diligent in updating this blog.  It isn’t that I haven’t thought about it, I have.  Every time I finish another Civil War block of the week I think about it.  But thinking about it just doesn’t put words on the page.  I tell you when some genius comes up with the device that transfers thoughts to text without having to type it – I’m sooo buying it!  Anyway, mia copa – I’ll try and do better.

Getting back to the subject of this blog, my quilting life has been reasonably productive of late.  I’ve finished the top to my red, white and blue patriotic quilt and I’m now machine quilting it.  I’ve made this quilt specifically as a piece of textile art.  It’s not going on my bed which has been the case of all the other quilts I’ve made.  This one is either going to hang on the wall in my dining room or hang on the wall in my entrance way.  I don’t know how my grandmother would feel about this being the very practical woman she was.  She would never have dreamed of making a quilt that couldn’t be used as a quilt.  Sorry Gram.  I hope you would appreciate that I’m branching out into new territory with the skills you taught me and know that I’ll ALWAYS still make bed quilts to be used and loved – just like you taught me.

It seems like just yesterday I started the Civil War block of the week quilt and already there’s only 11 (give or take) weeks left until it’s finished.  Geez a year whizzes by quickly.  I’m pretty pleased with how all of them have come out so far.  No doubt these 52 blocks will turn into a few quilts instead of one.  As I mentioned before I have downsized my bed from a king to a queen and I’m trying to get away from making those massive sized quilts I used to make.  Even though the finished blocks are only 8 inches square, 52 of them in one quilt still makes a pretty big blanket.  It will definitely accommodate more than one quilt from this.

As the CW project is quickly coming an end I’ve already started looking for my next block of the month/block of the week for 2012.  I think I’ve decided to do the Farmers Wife project.  I purchased the book a few months ago but haven’t done anything except look through it.  I know there are a few on-line quilt groups working on them so perhaps I can tag along with them.  I’m questioning my ability however to  diligently DO the blocks on a regular basis.  The Civil War project has been posted each week so that gave me one week to complete the block and then look forward to the next post.  I marked time by that posting each Saturday.  Now if I have to rely on myself to ‘post’ a block a week or blocks per month to myself, I don’t know if I’ll be able to do that.  Sadly I have the attention span of a nat at times.  I wonder if Barbara Brackman plans to start a new project for 2012?????