Recently I picked up a DVD at the grocery store. It was $9.99! What a deal! I knew I had seen it before.Turns out I saw it in 1982! It was a TV miniseries called The Blue and the Gray. Yes, a Civil War drama with the very young and handsome Stacy Keach as an aid to Abraham Lincoln, played to perfection by Gregory Peck. It has an all star cast, including Lloyd Bridges, Paul Winfield, Robert Vaughn, etc. Right in the middle of the Battle of Bull Run they focus in on a woman in bed while the battle rages around her home. Of course I focus in on the quilt on the bed!
I loved it! It stayed in my mind and I tried to remember what it looked like as I sewed strips of fabric together from Cocheco Mills, a line from Marcus Fabrics. It didn't occur to me until much later to try for a picture of the quilt. I paused the movie and took a couple photos off the computer. This photo, above, turned out pretty well.
This one is my rendition, and except for the hour-glass in the center of the block, it isn't even close! Shows where my memory has gone these days. I like them both, but now I want to go back and make something closer to the original. Meanwhile I will enjoy this version with all those luscious Cocheco Mills fabrics in it! These fabrics are reproductions of fabric from 1882, so a few years after the Civil War.
Yesterday I had a lovely day of sewing with two friends, Joan and Sue. We met at Joan's house and she fed us lunch. I brought fabric and pattern for making a quilt and the three of us went to town on it. Let me tell you, this is the way to make a quilt! The quilt consists of two alternating blocks and we got all 32 of one of the blocks done!
As you can see, one block has a four-patch in the center and the second block...well, it is a mystery. It is only partially done, so until we get those blocks completed I will leave you guessing. Haha! I vote for another session with my friends. Those girls know how to sew like the wind!
