The Civil War Diary Quilts

I think I've blogged about The Civil War Diary Quilt book and the block exchange I am participating in with several friends. Years ago I made a Dear Jane quilt: my interpertation of a quilt made by Jane A. Stickle during the Civil War. I love quilts....pastel baby quilts, striking two color quilts, art quilts, worn-out-soft-as-can-be-I've-had-it-since-I-was-small quilts, scrap quilts, brightly colored quilts, applique quilts, pieced quilts and even art quilts. But my favorite quilts are ones that evoke days long past, earlier times, Civil War era quilts.
Yesterday I sent out the notice reminding my group that blocks are due on Thursday. We haven't gotten together since early September and it's all my fault. I've been gone way too much. But Thursday is the day.....so guess what a lot of us have been doing this past weekend? Right, we've been sewing our blocks! I was no different than the rest of the Greatful Threads, I sewed way into the night--well, early morning to finish them up. There are 9 of us and so that means we make one block 9 times. The blocks don't have to be of identical fabrics, the only rules are Civil War (read---19th Century reproductions) fabrics and a particular muslin sold at Scottie Dog Quilts. Each block uses muslin somewhere.

I was going for a Brown & Pink combination often referred to in the 19th Century as Peppermint & Sassafras. I also used several fabrics in some to mimic the "she did the best she could with what she had" look to older quilts. OK, I'll admit it, I ran out of fabrics. Just like my quilting sister from the Civil War era.
So here is a look at some of my blocks so far. I've got a ton of them. They are all 6" finished. I can't wait to put them together. I hand quilted my queen sized Dear Jane, but that isn't going to happen with this quilt. My poor hands won't let me. But I'll turn it over to my daughter Liz and her HQ16 and she'll work her magic.

Block Exchange

It all started with a book. The Civil War Diary Quilt. I've already made a Dear Jane Quilt. Lots & lots and lots of 4 1/2" squares. Each one different. I made it in Civil War fabrics. Took me 2 years and I finished it in 2001. Been there, done that. Or so I thought. I kept coming back to the Civil War Diary Quilt book. Twelve voices from twelve actual women's diaries written during the War Between the States. 6" quilt blocks representing diary entries. Names like Hungry Soldiers, Bad Box, Mud Hole and more. I shared the book with the Grateful Threads, my quilting buds. They were entrigued, just like me. So began the now-infamous "Civil War Diary Quilt Block Swap." There were 9 of us and we'd each make 9 alike blocks every two months and swap them out with each other. The best laid plans and all. Tonight we swapped out round #3. That's the third round in 2 years!!!!! What we've found is that one gal (one of our members who lives in Maine all across the country) will make her blocks in about 2 days. The rest of us wait until the absolute last minute to make our blocks. So we set the next meeting and trading date tonight at dinner. The first week in November. Guess I really have to make my next round of blocks soon.

Here are some of the blocks I received tonight. Aren't they beautiful! I wonder if we'll finish in 2009 or 2010 or 2015? It's ok....we'll still be friends.

Thursday Night at the Movies

Every Thursday night I meet with a small bunch of ladies....quilting friends. We call ourselves The Grateful Threads, GT's, ThreadHeads, friends. During the school year we meet at Scottie Dog Quilts because a Hand Piecing class meets there. We do our thing (chat, eat, chat some more, laugh, solve the world's problems, chat, eat some more and sometimes we even quilt!) while the hand piecers meet in the classroom. Summers we move around some. Last night we went to see Mamma Mia. We had extended the invitation to lots of other quilting women and filled up a couple of rows.
I'm no movie critic, I like what I like and don't like what I don't like. But here's my review:

The cast is wonderful, Pierce Brosnan can't sing, but after the first line or two it doesn't matter. Meryl Streep CAN sing...surprisingly so. The photography is beautiful....so very.....blue. Greek Island....lots and lots of water and sky equal...blue. The story is based around a bunch of ABBA songs. Not much takes place that's not a song and/or a dance. Of course it's a romantic farce. I suppose it's not REALLY a great movie. But I had so much fun. Not only were my toes tapping, but I can't seem to get the music, the energy out of my head. Meryl Streep throughout most of the movie looks to have minimal make-up on. Quite refreshing that she wasn't made up to look as if she were 35!

BrendaLou gives Mamma Mia a thumbs-up!

The Grateful Threads

Do you belong to a small quilting group? I've been part of a wonderful group of friends for years now. We call ourselves The Grateful Threads. Thread Heads, GT's. We meet Thursday nights. We used to rotate between our homes. I liked that...every several weeks I KNEW I'd get my house cleaned up. For the past seven years, since I opened Scottie Dog Quilts we've met at the store on Thursday nights. There is a class that meets on Thursday nights so I "babysit" the store and we get to do our thing.

What do we do? We used to sew every time. We all brought hand work and were quite productive. Now it's rare that we sew. Oh, I've done a few bindings this year. Bev was crocheting tonight. Lynn has done some buttonholing. But generally we eat dessert (as every quilter knows this is a VERY important part of getting together!), and we chit chat. We've solved the world's problems many time over, we talk about kids, pets and husbands. We laugh together. We worry over parents, siblings, friends and the state of affairs. We share our grief--we've lost parents, friends and children. We share vacation photos (and sometimes we go on vacations together!), birthday dinners--sometimes up to 4 months late....but that's ok, because we're Grateful Threads......Grateful we know each other, Grateful we meet together, Grateful to celebrate together. Who cares how late we celebrate birthdays...we know how to celebrate!

Members have moved out of the area and others have moved into their places. Some, like Bev, moved away 7 years ago, but she now returns every couple of months as she travels through our area on business. Some friends come and go...GT's are my BFF's.