My Love Affair

My love affair with Civil War Reproductions started with this book in 1997! In my small town we had a variety-type store, with clothing upstairs and gifts, bedding, games, toys and quilting stuff downstairs. We are not talking Ben Franklin fabrics but top quality fabrics. The owner was a quilter and it was a joy to go there. (Unlike the quilt shop we have in town now) I saw this book and was just completely blown away. I had been drawn to old quilts, but here was one that I might actually be able to make?! I think the price was $25- I left it. A few days, maybe a week or two I went back and bought it. What the heck was I getting into- line drawings for the blocks?! Yikes! I was part of an online quilt group and someone told me about a woman who was starting a little DJ list so we could help each other. This was before Yahoo groups and we might have even just cc'ed each other. This was before the DJ CD or DJ templates. Boy did I have a blast putting that together. I think it took about a year. This was also a great time to be a quilter that loved Civil War fabrics as it seems there was quite an explosion of them at the time. I've been hooked ever since.

Most of the blocks have little notes by them saying where it was appliqued, or whose fabric I had swapped and used. See my little old fashioned paper layout with my fabrics glued? Now a lot of you have these cool things on your blog with the blocks filled in that you've finished. It is an amazing quilt.
So, you ask- where is yours Lori? Approximately one year to piece and 11 years to quilt it!!! And it's not finished!!! I laid it out last night to take a photo and I have 30 blocks to quilt plus all the triangles. What do you think? Another 10 years? Or maybe just 5.
I've said before that the piecing or applique is what I really love, not the quilting. But I will persevere.
Photo tomorrow!