Beautiful photos.

ANYhow, the apartment didn’t have a kitchen, so my dad’s cousin Bob came and put one in for me. His sister (omg family history here) Bev lived across the street from Mitch Graves, just a few houses down the road. Turns out that house used to belong to a Civil War colonel, and the attic was chock-full of Civil-War-Era relics and treasures.

Sadly, it all got stolen by some low-life boyfriend of someone, at one point or another, and it’s all gone now. I’m so saddened it was all lost – can you imagine not only just the objects themselves, but having some kind of connection between all of them, perhaps a storyline or a better sense of the history? Almost being able to touch the whole of it, having been brought back to Mason and stowed up there by the man himself?

Sometimes, the people, they do suck.

I need to start feeling guiltier about the Quilts for Kids project. I really don’t much like the fabrics they sent, but that shouldn’t matter. I need to get it done.

You know how “whatever” captures you… the whole Civil War quilting time period got me. And then I found a whole vast group out there involved in making their own underground railroad quilts from this book:

http://www.quiltinaday.com/shoponline/books_display.asp?i=1497

So I got the book and decided to start with the wall hanging size with all of the blocks. They’re pretty small pieces to work with, but I love it. I was going to give it to my mother in law as a gift because she still lives in Charleston, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to stay right here with me. Especially if I hand quilt it.

Elle – I bet you’re way better at this than I am!

Lisa – I highly recommend it. It’s a different thing; calm, relaxing, not OMG-MUST-FINISH-NOW!! After I finished about 8 3-hour blocks, I think I started to get the hang of that aspect of it… settling down and relaxing is just hard for me. This works, though, and Barbara is fond of telling me they’ve done studies showing hand-quilting changes brain waves. I believe it, much like any meditative activity does.