i’m still kickin’

yes, it has been awhile.  no excuses other than just incredibly busy with school, studying and life in general.  last night i had a huge final and my clinical assessments.  this morning, i am feeling a much, much lighter load on my shoulders.   i finished up the first level of my nursing classes with straight a’s, and i now have 12 days to catch my breath before starting into level 2 on october 26th.  my thoughts?  who needs to breathe….i have quilting to do!

be back soon…with pics.

lives lived beyond recollection

there was a pause during august in the making of my cold mountain blocks so that i could get the sugar top together.  it’s been a nice change to work with them again.

to me, the character that has the most depth in this novel is inman.  not that the other characters aren’t important or enjoyed thoroughly, but a lot of our journey is with inman while he tries to find his way home to cold mountain.   the obstacles he has to overcome and the delays that keep him from continuing;  it’s heart-wrenching at times.  this next block is based on one of those delays…when the home guard find him, take him prisoner and start marching him, along with dozens of other prisoners, in the opposite direction.  back to the war that is slowly killing him.

” like the vast bulk of people, the captives would pass from the earth without hardly making any mark more lasting than plowing a furrow.  you could bury them and knife their names onto an oak plank and stand it up in the dirt, and not one thing-not their acts of meanness or kindness or cowardice or courage, not their fears or hopes, not the features of their faces-would be remembered even as long as it would take the gouged characters in the plank to weather away.  they walked therefore bent, as if bearing the burden of lives lived beyond recollection.”

all into 1

since starting nursing school back in march, i’ve really struggled to try and find time to get some stitching in.  even though i am loving school, i’ve been laden down with loads of school work.  let me tell ya, nursing school ain’t for sissies.   the need to stitch hasn’t disappeared, it’s just that time is so very limited.

i started hand-piecing this quilt about 3 weeks into classes last march, knowing that the only way i was going to get some stitching is was in those few, “lost moments” that randomly appear.  i carried my little hand-piecing bag with me almost everywhere.  even if i was only able to sneak in a dozen stitches here and there, it helped that creative side of my brain to calm itself down a bit.  and those dozen or so stitches taken at random all added up over the months to form units, and then blocks and full rows.  finally….finally, we have ourselves a top.

and a wrinkled one at that (*note to self:  gotta schedule in ironing time*).  i’m really happy with how it has turned out.  five rows wide and 7 rows long.  once the borders are done and added, it should measure out to be big enough to fit a double bed (not that we have one of those here…obviously it grew a bit from my original plans!). 

at this point, it is folded up and rests upon my sewing chair.  i don’t have enough spare moments that is needed to sew up the borders at this time, so it waits.   hopefully come mid-october, when i have my end-of-level break, i’ll get a chance to break out the machine and have at it.  it’s been a patient quilt.

thankful thursday-the photo version

today, i’m thankful for…

1.

 

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3.

 

4.

 

how about you?

24 hours-road trip

  after kathie had given me the heads-up last week about a museum that had an abundance of antique quilts on display, i decided to take a well-deserved (and long overdue) break from the books and head eastward. 

 

(photo courtesy of packwood house quilt blog)

i could spend days looking at/studying antique quilts.  they are my greatest source of inspiration.  this specific exhibit, however, i could have spent months looking at.  the quilts located in the gallery (carriage house) were all focused on the pennsylvania german style/colors.  just as the heavily detailed album quilts are attributed to baltimore, the bubble gum pink, poison green, sky blue and chrome yellow colors of these gorgeous quilts are a dead giveaway that the maker was from pa.  they were stunning and beautifully displayed.  since there were no photographs allowed, i planted myself in front of each and every quilt and studied them thoroughly…made a few notes, a couple of drawings, and then drooled.  once i made my way through all of those, there was a 27 room house to make my way through, with many more antique quilts scattered tastefully throughout.  the creative side of my brain was ecstatic!

finally, after many hours of note taking and admiring, i pulled myself away (was. so. hard.) .  we decided that since it was such a beautiful day, we’d walk down the lovely town of lewisburg a bit and take in the sites.

i was highly impressed with lewisburg itself.  it’s such a clean and lovely preserved historical town. 

before long, it was time to climb back in the car and head back to the hills though. 

i left with enough inspiration to last me a really long time.  i have no doubt that there will be a quilt come out of the whole experience, and i’m already wanting to go back to admire more.  really, if you love antique quilts and are within reasonable driving distance (or even if you’re not!) to see the exhibit, go!  it ends october 24.  take your notebook and sketch pencils with you.