A work in progress

Last night I got home from work, ate spinach and goat cheese pizza and then went upstairs to the sewing room to work on a new project while drinking diet Coke and watching The West Wing on Netflix.  Pretty much a perfect evening in my book!

A month or so ago The Quilt Show made all of their shows from all seasons available to their subscribers.  I've only been a subscriber for this last season, so I had a lot of catching up to do.  The timing was great, since I was on a self-imposed deadline to finish my latest restoration project.

I think I've watched almost all of them now.  One of my favorites is the show with Brian Haggard, who has written a couple of books about memory quilts - using old photos in quilts with lots of crazy quilt embellishment, all (mostly) in sepia tones.  Since I've also been doing a lot of family history research lately (my gosh I sound like every elderly person I've ever known in this post!  Next thing you know I'm going to be walking around in a cardigan sweater with a Kleenex in my pocket tripping over 20 or 30 cats and eating tea and toast for dinner.  Not that all elderly women do this.  But I'm pretty sure I will.), I knew I had to try to make a quilt like his. 

I need to order his book - but here's my start.  I used pictures from my recent trip to visit dead relatives in Mason.  I love old cemeteries.  I love the ornate headstones and trying to find the oldest burial.  I like family plots with iron fences around them.  I like the statues and the epitaphs.  The inscription on my great great grandfather's headstone says "He died as he lived - a Christian."  I love that.

The buttons aren't sewn on yet, I was just auditioning them.  I have to redo the crazy quilt blocks - something's not quite right there.  The quote is from the poem "Cemetery Trees" by J. S. MacDonald:  "The mighty oaks a vigil keep o'er those beneath them sound asleep."  I plan to add some embroidery.  I might extend the tree branches with embroidery into the borders.

I like it so far.  If it turns out as I hope it will, I may enter it in the New Braunfels quilt show this summer.